Neverthelessing

Lessing was a big time philosopher. He helped discern between rationalism and empiricism. Effectively, Lessing struggles with what is knowable -- he can't know that Jesus performed miracles, and thus can't believe in them. His logic was rooted in the fact that he didn't see miracles today. The problem here is that not seeing miracles doesn't mean that Jesus performed them. I don't see A

The Reformation

Luther was at one point a staunch Catholic. During Luther's time, he witnessed some of the most corrupt dealings in Catholicism. They were essentially extorting their believers into a false sense of "salvation" through tithes for purgatory and other acts. Luther reformed their theology by harkening back to scripture -- making scripture the root of faith -- not tradition. This is huge for the modern believer still today.

Medieval Church

From a logician's standpoint, the Medieval Church was huge. Aquinas and Agustine helped shape the case for Christianity as legitimate. They went about preaching Christianity from a thorough, apologetic lens that rationalized it to a milieu who otherwise didn't understand it.

Early Ecumenical Councils

The Ecumenical Councils were extremely important. Beginning with the Council of Nicea (325AD) they played a huge role in forming the foundations of Christian beliefs. They also organized much of the Christian Church -- playing a big role in Charlemangne's election as the first Holy Roman Emperor.

How the "early" church dealt with faith

Early Church: Heavily relied upon fresh eyewitness accounts of things that transpired. Used logic to combat the antagonizing counterparts to firmly establish their faith-based new religion. The Council of Nicea helped affirm normative, fundamental aspects of the Christian faith.

Medieval Church: Agustine and Aquinas run a muck on their intellectual contemporaries. Augstine helped explain the merits of ecclesiology, manergism, and reacted toward Pelagius. He did all of these things to help establish what faith meant for the medieval Christian. Aquinas made the five proofs for Christianity which helped, again, establish faith for his contemporaries.

Reformation: Luther really brought the house down in this era -- making sure that the faith of his fellow Christians was not succumbing to the works-based theology of the Catholic Church. He reminded Christians that personal salvation relied upon faith, not works.

Church Fathers

Who are the church fathers? Good question. The church fathers are the predominant men who helped nurture Christianity in its early years.

A couple of key players:

Irenaues: Intensely persecuted man who sought to explain atonement and salvation to the masses who had an obscured concept of them.

Ignatius of Antioch: Explained the Eucharist and role of the bishop as God's representatives.

Theology is very important. Theology is essentially the study of God. God created everything. Thus, theology is important.

More eloquently put, theology delves into the essence of the universe and the cosmos and attempts to know better the One who created it all. This is a lofty thing to achieve - to know the creator of the universe more intimately. The One who created everything is infinitely smarter, more capable, and wiser than myself - so why would I attempt such an endeavor? Because I am a Christian. I believe that all Christians have a responsibility to get to know their God. We have the ability to pray to God. I don't know about anyone reading this, but I like to know who I'm talking to some extent. I also like to know who wrote The Bible that I tried to read more often than I do. These are important things to me, and thus theology is important to me.