Christianity, and Theology, and Philosophy, oh my!

Okay, here's the second post.  You can have it.  I didn't even want it anymore.  So there.

Reading On Christian Teaching has gotten me a lot more interested in the idea of theology over a core idea.  It's interesting how all religions have gained a theology, when there really is no need for it.  And what Augustine creates is a theology, for, as far as I know, a theology is a Religion (Christianity) plus a Philosophy (Platonism).  In the immortal words of John Dreher, "Augustine baptized Plato".  

I think it's safe to assume that Plato didn't take his ideas from Egypt, but that Augustine had probably read The Republic in the time after his conversation (or before it, but he didn't seem like that kind of guy).  And it's really not too hard to see how well Platonism and Christianity work together.  But my question is this:  Why does a religion need a theology like this?  Why does religion need to have a say in every aspect of life, as opposed to just the personal, spiritual part that it used to.  Don't get me wrong, and think I'm anti-religion.  I'm not.  What I'm against is the need for a theology.  It is the specific doctrines that a theology makes that breeds all of the hatred and fighting.  No where in the Koran does it say to hate Israel, no where in the Bible does it say to persecute non-believers, because neither of those are the important ideas of those books.  But when you create a theology, and use it to define your entire life, those unimportant ideas can be brought to the forefront.  And that's never really any fun.

That's all.  See you all on Wednesday.