Things of this world are overdone
Things like theology and philosophy – oh yeah
- FFH, "Good to Be Free"
Tonight, I listened as an otherwise excellent speaker made a distinction between spirituality ("falling in love with the wonder of God") and theology ("Theology attempts to analyze God. If you are comfortable analyzing God, please stop writing about Him.") as though never the two shall meet.
And this frustrates me. I'll concede that I probably tend to be on the dryer side of most arguments when it comes to this stuff. I don't cry often, I don't get excited often... etc. But good theology is not exclusive of a love of God. People who have good theology (I'm looking at you Jonathan Edwards) tremble at the thought of being in the hands of angry God. They understand the incomprehensability of the great bounds of His love.
I will concede that I may be part of this problem, because sometimes my theology is not lived-out as it ought to be.
But the problem there isn't theology... it's me! So, I'll leave you with a paraphrase of Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy: the most important thing about any group of people is what they think about God. Because what we think about God impacts our spirituality, our actions, our mindset. Don't hold it against good theology when people prove through their actions that they don't actually believe what they claim to believe.
5 comments:
Was that Steven James? I see he was the speaker for Thursday night. Of course your post is dated Friday, but as you've said, you use magic.
You are much more gracious in your commentary on his theory than I would be. In a word: Hogwash! It reveals his own theology, doesn't it? Thanks for the Tozer quote; he got it right, I'd say!
Aunt Deb,
I guess maybe you're right... but on the other hand, I think the english language is far too open to equivocation. In this case, the speaker was in fact Steven James, and the way he spoke revealed that his own doctrine of God includes a very big, awesome, powerful God. But, then, he was somewhat anti-theology. Isn't that contradictory?
I think that perhaps instead we're experiencing a shift to where theology is being used by parts of Christian culture to approximate those things equal to dead-religion. It is an incorrect use of the word, but one that I see cropping up increasingly.
Nice try, superfly, but Aunt Deb did not write that comment. Guess again!
I think he means that God can't be known. Isn't that part of the emergent line, that we can't be firm in any of our beliefs because God is a big mystery? Check out his book "Story: Recapture the Mystery" on Amazon.com (sounds kinda like another Message), his other books, esp. "Becoming Real: Christ's Call to Authenic Living," and his posts.For example: "I’ve had many chances to reflect on the message and meaning of the paradoxes of Christianity. It's humbling and stunning and exhilarating to live in the middle of a riddle. This book is my attempt to celebrate those mysteries of faith, to revel in the things that I do not understand...when Jesus came he didn’t bring answers. He brought mystery wrapped in love."
Hey, I saw that you are listed as faculty on the Glorieta Web site. Cool!
Sorry mom. Gee whiz, if you'd just get a blogger account, we wouldn't have all this confusion. But you know, whatever you think is best :-)
I think its great that you speak of Jonathan Edwards as if is a regular reader of your blog. Truth + Contextualization = awesome. peace bro
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