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So, in reality, the purpose/goal of Theology TODAY should be recognized as...?

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said the purpose of good philosophy was to drive out bad philosophy.

one problem not generally considered, is that Christianity is no longer accepted as more-or-less the default paradigm, defining some of the givens or the axioms whom all hold in common.

As a result of that, people not only go one committing basic mistakes about God -- but some errors go "upstream" as it were, committing category errors or making quite elemental mistakes about things which philosophers and/or theologians had agreed upon.

E.g. most of the Marxist debating techniques, center not on finding the truth^TM but in anything from swashbuckling to dirty pool, so long as their opponent is neutralized and they can gain power.

I suppose you could argue such a thing has happened in the natural sciences too, where at least the remnants of "Nature's God" conditioned people to expect an universe that was, if you were disciplined enough to weed out side influences, rational; even though the 1800s scientists bullied some Christians into "God of the Gaps" and such was not a consequence of the scientific discoveries, but poor metaphysics bolted on after the fact, it was still based on discoverable truth.

Nowadays, between relativity and non-Euclidian space, and quantum mechanics and non-determinism, consistency and reason themselves are under attack: again, not that they intrinsically follow, but are bolted on as metaphysics superficially supported by a shallow look.

As Hilaire Belloc wrote in 1938 in The Great Heresies :

"it is characteristic of the advancing wave that it repudiates the human reason. Such an attitude would seem again to be a contradiction in terms; for if you deny the value of human reason, if you say that we cannot through our reason arrive at any truth, then not even the affirmation so made can be true. Nothing can be true, and nothing is worth saying. But that great Modern Attack (which is more than a heresy) is indifferent to self-contradiction. It merely affirms. It advances like an animal, counting on strength alone. Indeed, it may be remarked in passing that this may well be the cause of its final defeat; for hitherto reason has always overcome its opponents; and man is the master of the beast through reason."

and a few pages further on :

"But the Faith and the use of the intelligence are inextricably bound up. The use of reason is a main part — or rather the foundation — of all inquiry into the highest things. It was precisely because reason was given this divine authority that the Church proclaimed mystery-that is, admitted reason to have its limits. It had to be so, lest the absolute powers ascribed to reason should lead to the exclusion of truths which the reason might accept but could not demonstrate. Reason was limited by mystery only more to enhance the sovereignty of reason in its own sphere. When reason is dethroned, not only is Faith dethroned (the two subversions go together) but every moral and legitimate activity of the human soul is dethroned at the same time. There is no God. So the words "God is Truth" which the mind of Christian Europe used as a postulate in all it did, cease to have meaning. None can analyse the rightful authority of government nor set bounds to it. In the absence of reason, political authority reposing on mere force is boundless. And reason is thus made a victim because Humanity itself is what the Modern Attack is destroying in its false religion of humanity. Reason being the crown of man and at the same time his distinguishing mark, the Anarchs march against reason as their principle enemy."

Eliminating suffering may be done through works of charity, of giving food to the poor; but it may also be done by teaching -- and setting up a healthy and just society which allows --self-sufficiency ("give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for life"). In light of that *alone*, one might consider that Theology which concentrates on accurate descriptions of God, and of God's interactions with the material universe, and with man, are merely esoteric disputations (cf the term pilpul in Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen which chronicles a non-Orthodox Jew going to high school with and among some Orthodox Jews; and the anecdote in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman(*) in which he talks about getting out-maneuvered by Orthodox Jews talking about mechanism for turning on/off room lights, and how they can be set up to not run afoul of the proscription against work on the Sabbath.

But there is you know, one other way right theology can improve our lives and those of others...as mentioned earlier, the modern attack on the faith is used to justify totalitarian states, such as the Fascists, Nazis, and Communists. Right theology enabling us to refute their siren songs, and giving us the will to fight back ("be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" --> "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall") eliminates and prevents ALL SORTS of suffering.

(*) I *think* it was that and not What Do You Care What Other People Think?...