Having examined theology's essential nature and purpose, let us pass on now to look at the way it goes about its job. And the first thing we need to examine is theology's sources. Theology studies God and creatures in their relationship to God in the light of revelation. Where do we gain the information we require for this study? This is the question of theology's sources.

The Bible

As we saw, what is distinctive about Christian theology is that its study of God and creation is based on God's revelation. The most important question that can be asked about theology's sources therefore is the question: Where do we find God's revelation? Where do we find God's Word?

All Christians will agree that the most authoritative source of that revelation is the Bible. All Christian theologians – perhaps I should say ‘most’ since I suppose there may be some who would disagree, though I don't know of any! – would therefore regard the Bible as their primary and most authoritative source.

The relationship between the Bible and revelation is a complex one. To appreciate this, let us glance for a moment at the concept ‘revelation’. This word can be taken both actively and passively. Actively, it refers to the act of revealing something, such as the process whereby it was revealed to the apostolic Church that Jesus was truly God's Son. Passively, it refers to what is revealed, for example Jesus’ being God's Son.

Now, the Bible is first and foremost a record of, a testimony to, both the process and the content of revelation. For example, it is a record of the way in which Jesus was revealed as God's Son and that he was revealed to be such. In such matters, then, the Bible is not itself God's revelation but a record of revelation. It would be more accurate therefore to describe it as containing God's revelation. In that sense it could be and always has been called God's Word.

However, this testimony is – according to traditional Christian belief (though many modern Christians will deny it) – a divinely inspired testimony. Hence it has come to be regarded as God's Word in a deeper sense, in the sense that God ‘spoke’ it by inspiring it.