Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Looking In Scripture
In one of those wonderful juxtapositions, there were some interesting thoughts yesterday from different blogs on the same topic. In this case it was about how, and how not, to read scripture.
Transforming Sermons looked at a post from Jesus Creed
The Reformation contained a lot of "new" theology, no doubt. I use "new" in quotes because it was always there, even in Roman thought -- at it's heart the Reformation was not theological, but institutional. The instituions had gotten in the way of the theology and piled so much on top of it that it was no longer recognizable. From a theological perspective, the Reformation was more about rooting out the heart of theology than it was "new" theology.
Jesus Creed put it best in their concluding paragraph:
In a sense theology is about us, it's not really about God. We can never really know God, we are finite and He is infinite. The Christian life is about letting go of self and giving in to God. That doesn't mean we don't want to study and learn, it just means we need to keep it all in perspective and priority.
Transforming Sermons looked at a post from Jesus Creed
Why do we read the Bible? I?ll venture to guess here.While over at Boar's Head Tavern They looked at a - 3 - parter (at least so far) by Ysmarko looking into the American church in general and how we do theology. In part 3 Mark says
Our tendency is to go to the Bible for something new, to read it in the hope and expectation of a fresh discovery of something we did not know or had not heard or had completely forgotten.
my untrained theological assumption: we develop theology based on what we want the theology to do for us.We are all, to some extent reformationists -- even our Catholic brethren as their church has undergone huge change in the last centuries. Almost all of that change is based on new eyes looking at scripture in new ways. And, because we Protestants believe we should be constantly reforming, we want to continue that process -- but I wonder if that is what is really meant by "always reforming."
what i mean is this: no theology is done in a complete vaccuum. it?s impossible not to bring our own cultural lenses to scripture and theological reflection.
The Reformation contained a lot of "new" theology, no doubt. I use "new" in quotes because it was always there, even in Roman thought -- at it's heart the Reformation was not theological, but institutional. The instituions had gotten in the way of the theology and piled so much on top of it that it was no longer recognizable. From a theological perspective, the Reformation was more about rooting out the heart of theology than it was "new" theology.
Jesus Creed put it best in their concluding paragraph:
We read the Bible, in part I am suggesting, to hear something old so we'll learn how to live anew today.We are enticed by the new and the "relevant" -- when we should be concentrating on the "how." I think we fail to realize how little theology would matter if we all lived like God's people. It's just less important that we understand the Trinity than it is that we live like God is our Father, Christ is our Savior, and the Holy Spirit is in us helping us.
In a sense theology is about us, it's not really about God. We can never really know God, we are finite and He is infinite. The Christian life is about letting go of self and giving in to God. That doesn't mean we don't want to study and learn, it just means we need to keep it all in perspective and priority.
