The first foundation stone of our preaching is that we should be able to talk and write about God. Getting to know about God and about what God expects of us is called doing Theology. The Bible is the first theological book, as it relates to us the gradual discovery (over a period of twelve hundred years) of how the People of Israel got to know more and more about God. This culminated in the life and teaching of Jesus, the Word of God.

The Order has produced many great theologians. Examples are Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Albert the Great, and Saint Catherine of Siena, but all Dominicans are theologians to some extent or other. Some Dominicans have been famous mystics, including Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso and Johannes Tauler.

Many Dominicans have specialised in one or other branch of theology, and have opened the way to new theological ideas. This has been called preaching on the frontiers of theology. What God expects in the field of economics for example can be studied by reading the works of Saint Antoninus, or the preaching of Louis-Joseph Lebret. In Race Relations we have had Bartholomew de las Casas; in International Relations we have had Francisco Vittoria.

Dominican theologians played a major role in preparing the way for the Second Vatican Council:- we can think of Yves Congar, Edward Schillebeeckx and Marie-Dominique Chenu; while in the field of scripture, opening the way to the modern interpretation of the bible we had Roland de Vaux. There are many others that could be mentioned.

In South Africa our best known theologian has been Albert Nolan, in the field of Contextual Theology. His books include JESUS BEFORE CHRISTIANITY; GOD IN SOUTH AFRICA and JESUS TODAY.