Body of Divinity - What is it?

[phydaux]

I have heard the phrase Body of Divinity used. Sometimes I see it as Body of Practical Divinity, as opposed to Body of Doctrinal Divinity. I am wondering exactly what it refers to. I assume from context that it's more then just systematic theology?

 

[MoreCoffee]

I have heard the phrase Body of Divinity used. Sometimes I see it as Body of Practical Divinity, as opposed to Body of Doctrinal Divinity. I am wondering exactly what it refers to. I assume from context that it's more then just systematic theology?

Body of divinity is the same as systematic theology while body of practical divinity is moral theology.

 

[phydaux]

I found this on the web. It's a table of contents for John Gill's Body of Divinity.

A Body of Doctrinal Divinity
BOOK I: Of God, His Words, Names, Nature, Perfections, and Persons.
BOOK II: Of the Acts and Works of God.
BOOK III: Of the Eternal Works of God.
BOOK IV: Of the Acts of the Grace of God, Towards, and Upon His Elect in Time.
BOOK V: Of the Grace of Christ in His States of Humiliation and Exaltation, and in the Offices Exercised by Him in Them.
BOOK VI: Of the Blessings of Grace, and the Doctrines of It.
BOOK VII: Of the Final State of Man.

A Body of Practical Divinity
BOOK I: On the Worship of God.
BOOK II: On External Worship, as Public.
BOOK III: Of the Public Ordinances of Divine Worship.
BOOK IV: Of Private Worship, or Various Duties, Domestic. Civil, and Moral.
BOOK V: A Dissertation Concerning the Baptism of Jewish Proselytes.

So it seems that you could view Doctrinal Divinity and Practical Divinity as "faith and practice."