Saturday, September 10, 2005
What Place Theology?
I enjoy theology -- that should be obvious to regular readers. But sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Jollyblogger took a look at one such place on Wednesday.
In that post, I was truly wondering about the phenomenon of how much energy we spend making sure people understand Mormons are not Christians, when many who bear the name Christian have acted in ways that are as egregious, if not more so than the Mormons. Honestly, while the theology is quite different, practically, the difference between Mormon ministry and the ministry of say, Jim Bakker, is not all that different. Shouldn't we at least spend as much time and energy denouncing Bakker as we do the Mormons, even if his theology is in large part acceptable to us? Oh sure, few Christians are walking around pointing to Bakker as an example of a great Christian, but few are willing to denounce him as out of the family. I also wonder if we might not be better served inviting them into the fold as opposed to telling them they are so different.
On a side note, the utter fluidity and and transitory nature of Mormonism is where they go so wrong and there should be a lesson in that for those that think the church has to "stay relevant and up with the times."
The essential question is, "Are we defined by our theology?" My answer is no -- we are defined by our Lord! Things get real tricky now, because, of course, what we believe about that Lord (theology) makes a huge difference, but He is not what we believe Him to be -- He is who He is.
Jollyblogger's post that I linked to earlier is looking at the question of what theological points are worth "going to war" over, and what are not. I have got to answer -- darn few. I am not going to try an compile a list here, maybe you want to leave your ideas in the comments, enough and I might work up a post out of them, but I can't imagine the list is much larger than five or ten. The deity of Christ, the Trinity, come immediately to mind -- but many more that are not worth war spring to mind - paedobaptism, transubstantiation, virtually anything related to eschatology, confession as sacrament, or not....
One essential fact sticks in my mind endlessly -- theology is the systematic study of what we believe about God -- but definitionally, we can never know all there is to know about God. Wars of theology are, in large part, idolatrous, they put what we believe about God ahead of God Himself. They demand a confidence in our knowledge of God that places us in front of Him.
Class 1, day 1 in college science, I was taught that a theory never is actually proven, confidence in it rises and rises, but it never reaches completeness. Newton's Mechanics were thought for a couple of centuries to be be the theories that controlled the universe, then we discovered parts of the universe Newton never knew existed - Oops. We now try to breed scientists with sufficient humility to never allow their current understanding to block new insight. It is also interesting to note that Newton's Mechanics are still the physics of everyday life -- it's replacements work in realms that most of us never encounter or even think about.
Despite the fact that as politics invade science that humility is getting harder and harder to find, we are worse at such breeding in our theologians than we are in our scientists -- and yet the thing that theologians study demands that humility far more than the mere physical universe. Or maybe it is not the professional theologians, maybe it is that every believer has to be a theologian to some extent that creates this hubris.
Who you believe in matters far more than what you believe about Him. Remember that the next time you are deciding that someone just isn't really a Christian.
I'm not sure where to draw the line. I've been combative and polemical on this blog and I think a large part of the apostles' ministry was of a polemical nature. I also think there is plenty of false doctrine and false practice out there today that deserves to be contended with. But I also think that some of us look for fights where there should be none.Yesterday, I asked if there might someday be a place for Mormons in the Christian family, and some of the comments I received had a tone that seemed to accuse me of being some sort of evil, faith-based libertine, simply because I dared ask.
In that post, I was truly wondering about the phenomenon of how much energy we spend making sure people understand Mormons are not Christians, when many who bear the name Christian have acted in ways that are as egregious, if not more so than the Mormons. Honestly, while the theology is quite different, practically, the difference between Mormon ministry and the ministry of say, Jim Bakker, is not all that different. Shouldn't we at least spend as much time and energy denouncing Bakker as we do the Mormons, even if his theology is in large part acceptable to us? Oh sure, few Christians are walking around pointing to Bakker as an example of a great Christian, but few are willing to denounce him as out of the family. I also wonder if we might not be better served inviting them into the fold as opposed to telling them they are so different.
On a side note, the utter fluidity and and transitory nature of Mormonism is where they go so wrong and there should be a lesson in that for those that think the church has to "stay relevant and up with the times."
The essential question is, "Are we defined by our theology?" My answer is no -- we are defined by our Lord! Things get real tricky now, because, of course, what we believe about that Lord (theology) makes a huge difference, but He is not what we believe Him to be -- He is who He is.
Jollyblogger's post that I linked to earlier is looking at the question of what theological points are worth "going to war" over, and what are not. I have got to answer -- darn few. I am not going to try an compile a list here, maybe you want to leave your ideas in the comments, enough and I might work up a post out of them, but I can't imagine the list is much larger than five or ten. The deity of Christ, the Trinity, come immediately to mind -- but many more that are not worth war spring to mind - paedobaptism, transubstantiation, virtually anything related to eschatology, confession as sacrament, or not....
One essential fact sticks in my mind endlessly -- theology is the systematic study of what we believe about God -- but definitionally, we can never know all there is to know about God. Wars of theology are, in large part, idolatrous, they put what we believe about God ahead of God Himself. They demand a confidence in our knowledge of God that places us in front of Him.
Class 1, day 1 in college science, I was taught that a theory never is actually proven, confidence in it rises and rises, but it never reaches completeness. Newton's Mechanics were thought for a couple of centuries to be be the theories that controlled the universe, then we discovered parts of the universe Newton never knew existed - Oops. We now try to breed scientists with sufficient humility to never allow their current understanding to block new insight. It is also interesting to note that Newton's Mechanics are still the physics of everyday life -- it's replacements work in realms that most of us never encounter or even think about.
Despite the fact that as politics invade science that humility is getting harder and harder to find, we are worse at such breeding in our theologians than we are in our scientists -- and yet the thing that theologians study demands that humility far more than the mere physical universe. Or maybe it is not the professional theologians, maybe it is that every believer has to be a theologian to some extent that creates this hubris.
Who you believe in matters far more than what you believe about Him. Remember that the next time you are deciding that someone just isn't really a Christian.
