Talk:Overview of Theology/An Introduction to Theology

Types of religion

Religions generally demand respect for parents, elders and certain wise or brave leaders. Hierarchical power structures culminate in monotheism, where a supreme, all-wise, ever-present but undetectable God monitors a believers' every thought and action. The contrary view is of polytheism, where many gods deny supremacy to any person or deity. Universal democracy is a form of this, since every elector is an individual, but the average of their collective will (eventually) reign supreme. Rather than respecting the personal wishes of a king or president, democrats require their leaders to conform to their collective will, and punish those who abuse their delegated power. Neither absolute personal princely power nor absolute democracy is very efficient, and most societies strike a balance - The United States of America and the Republic of France have powerful presidents, but their term of office is very short. Conversely the monarchs of the Kingdoms of Spain and Britain rule 'for life' but they have very little power or freedom although their experience may lend them a certain moral authority.

Needs to be reworded in line with a new heading types of religious belief. Needs to define only what each type is. I would also suggest that the hierarchical structure of a religion has nothing to do with the belief system of the religion (e.g. islamic religion does not have a hierarchical structure but is a monotheistic religion, Christianity on the other hand can (depending on the denomination) have ecclesial structures that are hierarchical and is also monotheistic.    I would remove the non-religious examples as they are not sound foundations for a basis of theology.

The article is actually a brief introduction to religion and not at all to theology. While there's not much wrong with doing them both, there are many problems in confusing them.