As the name imports, Systematic Theology has for its object the gathering all that the Scriptures teach as to what we are to believe and do, and the presenting all the elements of this teaching in a symmetrical system. The human mind must seek unity in all its knowledge...The method of construction is inductive. It rests upon the results of Exegesis for its foundation. Passages of Scripture ascertained and interpreted are its data. These when rightly interpreted reveal their own relations and place in the system of which the Person and work of Christ is the centre.

A. A. Hodge, quoted in Credenda Agenda, Volume 4/Number 5, p. 1