The object of theology is God as the savior of men, not deity considered apart from that respect

As for the object of theology, it is to be noted that sometimes the object of a science is said to be whatever the science considers in any way. So the object of theology is not one. For it considers many and very diverse things: God, the church, angels, the sacraments. Yet all these agree in one common appellation, insofar as they fall under the theologian's consideration. For whatever the theologian treats can be called divine things. For they are either God himself, or other things ordered in some way to God. Nor is anything properly considered by the theologian except with some respect to God. So if anyone asks about the object of theology, it can not ineptly be answered that that object is divine things.

But for the most part the object of any science is said to be that of which the science principally intends to give us knowledge, and on account of which it considers all the rest — because, namely, they lead to a fuller and more perfect acquaintance with it. Of this kind the object of theology is God, which almost all confess, and which the very word theology teaches, which, as was noted above, means speech about God. But it is not agreed whether that object is God simply, as God is, or rather under some certain respect. The former is defended by the more celebrated scholastics following Thomas Aquinas, and they state that the object of theology is God as God is, and, as they speak, under the reason of deity. But this seems to us too loose and general. Nor is the scope of theology to lead us simply into the knowledge of God as God is; rather it treats of God with some respect to men.

Therefore the object of theology can more conveniently be said to be God, as God is, and the savior of men. For the whole of Scripture proposes God to us under this respect. And it principally intends to teach us what benefits of God are toward men, and what worship and obedience he in turn requires of them. But if it touches any other things, it does so in order to declare and confirm these more. For example, when it teaches that there are three Persons in God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — its scope is not simply to teach us this truth; but by it it wills to inform us more clearly and richly concerning the manner of our redemption and salvation, which was procured for us through Christ, and is applied and sealed to us through the Spirit. And likewise the attributes of God, such as justice and mercy, are narrated in the Scriptures in relation to men, so that they may know how far the justice of God is to be feared by them, and what refuge they ought to seek in his mercy.