Why study theology?

Origen : oft-reviled but "the greatest teacher after the apostles"

Athanasius : the black monk who saved the faith

Augustine : the most influential theologian ever

Thomas Aquinas : the teacher of the Catholic Church

Martin Luther : the monk who rose up against heaven and earth

John Calvin : greatest theologian of the reformed tradition

Jonathan Edwards : America's theologian

Friedrich Schleiermacher : father of liberal theology

John Henry Newman : Anglican theologian who swam the Tiber

Karl Barth : most influential twentieth-century theologian

Hans Urs von Balthasar : stellar Catholic theologian of the twentieth century

What these theologians teach us about theology.