The Philosophical Theology; Nature, desirability and Essentiality

The philosophical theology is an approach in the knowledge of Islamic theology that is more widespread in the present era than in the past. This article has reported and analyzed the existing perceptions of the philosophical theology and analyzed its relationship with related terms and fields of knowledge and validated the positive and negative judgments regarding the philosophical theology. The most important results of this research are as follows: the origin of this term is the methodological issues of the theology, and philosophical theology is a branch of rational theology, which is particular to theology -in the general sense- in terms of issues and methods; But it is different from "theological philosophy" and compared to the philosophy of religion and the new theology - based on different perceptions of these two - sometimes it conceptually reaches the border of  be the same and sometimes it is clearly different; In terms of instance, sometimes the product of intellectual reflections of thinkers in the field of philosophical theology with other fields - namely philosophical theology, natural theology, philosophy of religion, new theology and philosophy - are similar works with common results. The value and necessity of the philosophical theology is also subject to the understanding that comes from this theological approach, and according to chosen definition, in terms of value and necessity, it is equal to non-philosophical rational theology and narrative theology.