Introduction
Theology is derived from two Greek words, theos, meaning God, and logos, referring to study. It literally means the “study of God.” The purpose of this essay is to defend the study of theology as being the most crucial factor in a Christian’s growth and spiritual maturity. I also intend to rebuke the antagonism many professing Christians hold when it comes to studying theology as an academic discipline. This is the first in a four-part series where I shall specifically critique some attitudes which have mushroomed up due to the anti-theological mindset. The present essay would just introduce the depth of the problem in Christendom today.
Contemporary attitudes in Christendom
Today theology is frowned upon. It is considered to be meaningless, irrelevant and not of much use for “practical” living. Now, if secularists or atheists say such things, it should not come as a surprise to us, for the wisdom of God is foolishness to unregenerate men. But what is scary (yes, scary) is that many professing Christians are no different when it comes to this, and have a disdain, if not altogether hatred for theology.
I have heard many preachers come to the pulpit and say “I am not going to preach a sermon. I am just going to share my experience.” Of course, irrational people and spiritual infants will find that so-called “preaching” to be very “meaningful.” The preacher will begin by complementing the congregation, tell them how glad he is to be with them, crack a couple of jokes, comment about the weather, and then wax about his life. In the end, the congregation will know more about the preacher than about Christ. Why, what is wrong with preaching a sermon? Why should somebody’s experience have to carry more weightage than an exegetically rich exposition? What is wrong with preaching doctrine? The answer is that there is nothing wrong with preaching doctrine. The problem is precisely with these people who resent doctrine. When Paul was awaiting trial he penned two epistles to Timothy. What was the most pressing issue Paul was concerned about? The word “doctrine” appears five times (1 Timothy 1:3; 1:10; 4:16, 6:3, 2 Timothy 4:3), each in the context of the necessity to preach sound doctrine. Moreover, what was his admonition? “Preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2). He did not tell Timothy to preach his experience, or preach what he dreamt about last night. No! In those times where there was doctrinal laxity, Paul reminds his “son in the faith” of the centrality of the Scripture. The exposition of doctrine is meant to be the foundation of Christian thinking and living. This stands in stark contrast with what I have heard from many pulpits.
Time again I also hear about those who come and chant “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” This is used as a tactic to avoid studying theology. But the song does not say “Jesus loves me this I know, and this is all I need to know.” If that was so, why are there 66 books in the Bible containing 1189 chapters and 31,174 verses? God could have just sent the “Jesus loves me” song on a 3″ x 4″ papyrus straight from heaven rather than inspiring Scripture in redemptive history over a period of more than 1500 years. Plus, that would have saved the early Church Fathers from the discernment and us from the contemporary confusion associated with canonisation. “Jesus loves me this I know! And this all I need to know and no more!” Theology is too complicated. Why do you want to complicate your faith? Just believe!” Hallelujah! Those who repeatedly rant such phrases want us to believe that Christianity is a matter of “simple faith” and easy believism. Now, I do agree that the truth of the Scripture is easy to understand, provided it is taught with clarity by competent elders and teachers. Those who hate theology, avoid it because, according to them it is too complex. Now, who said theology is not complex? Studying theology is not like reading a Tintin comic strip or listening to stories from our grandmothers. Just read through the complex arguments developed in the book of Romans, Galatians or Hebrews. In 2 Peter 3:16 the Apostle Peter writes that some of Paul’s writings are “hard to understand.” If that was so for an apostle itself, can we expect anything less? Also why does Paul command Timothy to “study to show thyself approved unto God” (2 Timothy 2:15)? Why is there such an emphasis placed upon teaching ministry of the church? Too often, intellectual laziness is masked in the garb of spiritual piety and manifested by pious-sounding but nonsensical statements such as those mentioned above. We should sharply rebuke this attitude and return to the Scripture.
Today “personal testimonies” and “experiences” carry more weight in evangelical circles as opposed to theological discussions and bible studies. I have been to many camps and fellowships where I had to sit through something called “sharing time” at the end of it. I shall spare you the details, but mention the highlights common to each of them. Each person had to narrate their testimony with such force and emotion, as though some prize was to be given to the most thrilling one. Some cried in between to add to the effect, and I sat there bored to death. Even in their narration, it was all about what they were doing then and what they are doing now. God had to be mentioned in the passing just to give a Christian fling to it. Very little was mentioned about the atoning work of Christ, God’s role and salvation, the power of God’s Word and so on. It was all about how bad they were then and how good they are now. It was polished moral science. That’s all. This attitude has greatly affected evangelism as well. We are told that the best way to witness is through our life. The New Testament model of verbal, rational proclamation is hardly given any importance to (Acts 9:22; 17:2-3; 17:17; 18:4; 18:19; 18:28; 19:8; 28:23). Just read through all the preaching instances in the book of Acts. Did they try any such “lifestyle witnessing”? No! Rational argumentation is not simple and easy, especially if one is dealing with cocky unbelievers. To avoid this, they come up with this romantic-sounding, silly “witness through your life” idea, which is nowhere commanded in the Scripture. I shall critique this in detail a separate essay.
Tracing the Decline
This dislike for theology did not happen overnight. It is the practical outworking of anti-intellectual ideals espoused by some in the earlier generation which was not counteracted with biblical rebuke. Os Guinness has written exhaustively about this in his book Fit Bodies, Fat Minds. He traces the historical underpinnings which made this attitude into a movement today. I shall briefly mention some of them here which would be necessary for the forthcoming essays. The trend in theology is closely associated with the ongoing secular attitude, which I shall deal with shortly.
First, there is the polarization between the heart and the mind. This distinction and dichotomy is not the result of a detailed study of biblical anthropology, but the fusion of pagan Greek mythology, secular psychology, and Romantic poetry. More about this later.
Next, there is the idea of populism. Those who emphasize theological studies are presented as elitists who reside inside ivory towers, in contrast with those “servants of the Lord” who are sweating it out in the heat and rain. Without any theological training, they are doing so much work! Their “living ministry” is appreciated in contrast with the “learned ministry” of those who teach in seminary. This attitude is modeled by most of the Charismatic preachers today. They scorn ivory towers, little realizing that ivory towers are the control centers of civilization.
Next, there is pragmatism. “Of what use is theology, anyway?” “No creed but Christ.” “What matters is whether you have experienced the love of God in your heart.” “Theology is not that practical.” I hear truckloads of such gibberish every now and then. (May God grant me endurance and long-suffering in ever increasing measure.) Some Christians seemed to be so obsessed with being “practical” that there is hardly anything left to practice. Somebody’s “life experience” seems to be more practical to them than a concrete Bible study on the book of Romans or something similar. Why? Because Scripture is not relevant? Oh no! They find it too “theoretical” and not relevant to daily living. It makes me wonder whether such people are Christians in the first place, since a believer’s life is characterized by constant zeal and conscious devotion for God’s Word. Psalms 1 says that “his delight is in the Law of the Lord”, meditating “day and night” on it. Permit me to ask you, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the trinity, or on the incarnation? And, when was the last time you heard a sermon, or rather, pep-talk about being an “effective” witness, positive thinking, being successful and God’s abundant blessings? The answers will show you the pitiable state in we evangelicals have brought us to.
Contemporary secular culture & its influence on Theology
We live in times where there is a lack of mental discipline. Guinness calls it the time of “mental hedonism.” John Robbins has rightly christened this as the “Age of Irrationality.” Any junk is accepted as truth and any practice is justified in the name of “tolerance.” Today’s intellectual climate called “postmodernism,” is marked by agnosticism and relativism, where any claim to knowledge and truth is viewed with suspicion. Skepticism is considered to be synonymous with sophistication. How did this shift happen? That would necessitate a detailed discussion of the history of western philosophy, which is beyond the scope of the current essay. But, I shall very briefly mention the cultural shifts which led to the current philosophical scenario. (For detailed reading, I would suggest Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live, where he traces the history of western philosophy in detail.)
The Reformation was the light which shattered the darkness from the Medieval Ages. There was a revival of the Bible as the sole authority for mankind. This was when even the common man was given access to the Bible. With the invention of the printing press, many copies were made of the Bible and circulated. There was boom in theological knowledge. Theology was considered to be the “Queen of Sciences.” Revival spread as preachers such as Luther, Calvin, Farel, Zwingli, Edwards, Whitefield, and Knox preached heavy duty theology. The Bible was applied to all spheres of life. This is when the scientific movement was born. Men realized that a rational God had made a rational universe and thus, we can manipulate nature for our comfort. This is when many new inventions where made and hospitals were established.
This was soon followed by the Renaissance. In fact, there was a slight overlap of these two movements, since the Reformation was happening in the south of Europe and the Renaissance was happening in the north. Here it was just the opposite of the Reformation. Man was the ultimate measure of all things. This was reflected in philosophy, art, sculpture, music, politics and ethics. This eventually led to modernism.
Modernism is also referred to as the Enlightenment and the era of Industrial Revolution. Historians consider this to the the time when there was rapid development in industries and technological sophistication. The Enlightenment (18th century) followed the Age of Reason (17th century), though historians consider it to be one large era. This was the historical intellectual movement where reason alone was considered to be the basis for establishing an authoritative system of philosophy, politics, government, public policy, art, aesthetics, ethics and so on. Since this was the period of the scientific revolution, and people were excited by Newtonian kinematics and physics, they applied this natural law to all areas of life. Proponents of the modernist philosophy included Rene’ Descartes, George Berkeley, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and David Hume. They launched a full fledged and well planned attack on the church, religion and towards anything metaphysical in general. This was the beginning of skepticism towards theology.
There was a violent reaction to this in the late 18th century which led to the period of Romanticism. They protested against the rationalization of nature, and stressed strong emotion as the source of human experience. Historians consider this to be the era of “Revolt against Reason,” or “Counter Enlightenment.” They emphasized the importance of intuition, subjectivity and emotion. There was skepticism towards anything rational or logical. The prominent men of this time were Keats, Coleridge, Yeats, Blake, Byron, Schelly and Wordsworth. This greatly influenced theology as well. Soren Kierkegaard stepped on the scene and said that truth is subjectivity. One needed to take the “leap of faith” to experience God. This was the beginning of irrationalism in theology.
In 1930, Karl Barth introduced fideism in theology and stressed the importance of experience as opposed to formal study. There was shift from the objective to the subjective, from the rational to the emotional, from the revelational to the mystical, from the propositional to the personal. He was the proponent of what is called “neo-orthodoxy” which has received severe criticism by present day theologians. Meanwhile, in contemporary philosophy Ludwing Witggenstein brought up his theory of language, which was in line with the irrational mindset. Logical Positivism followed soon afterward, where only empirically verifiable statements were considered to carry meaning. Jacques Derrida came up with deconstruction where he tried to undermine metaphysical terminology in language. This eventually led to conclusion that theology is a worthless subject.
The cumulative effect of all these intellectual attitudes affected everything, including theology. This was when the “Hippie movement” was born. People began to shake away the fetters of religious and parental authority began to rebel, and live in outright defiance to accepted cultural norms. This was when sexual perversion was glorified; weird hairstyles, body piercing and tattoos were popularized. Teens began to do drugs and other intoxicants. Right at this time when the West was getting disillusioned with materialism, the East made inroads into it. Many “Gurus” became popular and had huge crowds following them. They packaged Hindu philosophy with Western technology and we now have what is called the New Age. Today postmodernism refers to the general attitude where there is incredulity towards metanarratives. It is a combination of nihilism, narcissm and skepticism. There is an aversion towards linear and analytical thinking.
This briefly sums up the history of Western thought and its influence in theology. Popular theology has closely followed mainstream secular philosophical attitudes. The result had let to doctrinal absurdity and practical disaster. However, there have been a few theologians in every age who have not compromised on God’s truth and it is because of their efforts, there is still a remnant in theological circles that are faithful to Scripture.
The Queen of Sciences
As mentioned earlier, theology was considered to be the “Queen of Sciences.” All the prominent universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Dartmouth and Princeton were established by Christians who were passionate about preserving knowledge for their posterity. Theology was the ruling intellectual discipline of the day during the times of the Reformation and the First Great Awakening. But now, this is sadly not the scenario.
How can theology be the “Queen of Sciences”? Now, that can lend itself to misinterpretation. In what sense is theology a “science”? The meaning of a word if often limited by its usage in the historical context. Today, “science” refers to the academic discipline where information is gained by the process of observing, experimenting, framing hypotheses, repeating the experiment again, and arriving at a conclusion. What I want to stress is that, in science information is gained by the process of induction. That is, universal claims are arrived at based on observations made in particular instances. Induction cannot make a universal statement which is logically valid. This is no place for me to write a critique on the philosophy of science and the problems associated with it. But I need to mention this, because this stands in stark contrast with the way knowledge is gained in theology.
In theology, one doesn’t observe, experiment or experience with nature. God’s revelation in Scripture is the foundation on which the Christian theological enterprise is built. Theology is possible only because God has revealed Himself in Scripture and Scripture alone, and not in any other religion’s sacred texts. God has given us propositions about himself in the Bible and it is our task to seriously and responsibly study them and progress in sanctification. Thus, in theology knowledge is gained by the process of valid deduction from the revealed propositions in Scripture. This in turn, guarantees the validity and certainty of theological knowledge as opposed to science, where theories are being revised everyday. Knowledge is based on the immutable. Thus, science cannot be reckoned as knowledge in the strictest sense of the term because it is always in a state of flux.
In contemporary usage, “science” is used almost exclusively to the discipline concerned with observation and experimentation. But that is not the sense in which the word was used a few centuries ago. The word “science” is derived from the Latin word scientia which means knowledge. Science, way back then, referred to an organized body of knowledge. Thus, when it is said that “Theology was the Queen of Sciences” it meant that this the most important body of knowledge that could be studied by man.
Now, I am not a professional theologian who is trying to justify my profession and make it appear attractive to others who have not been to seminary. I am student of medicine. I also know where medicine and the rest of the subjects stand in comparison with theology. Scripture says that God has made foolishness the wisdom of the world. Without any hesitation I heartily say “Amen!” Theology should be the sole, all consuming subject of study for every Christian. Sadly, this is not the case. If many theologians do not consider their discipline as the most important study that could ever be done by man, what then can you expect from the average lay person?
Spurgeon says,
There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all out thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a sense of self-content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold, I am wise’. But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, ‘I am but of yesterday and know nothing.’ No subject of contemplation will tend to humble the mind, than the thoughts of God…..
While the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. ….The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect; nothing will magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.
Just think about that! What can be more ultimate than God in this universe? And what study can be more ultimate than the study of God? Theology deals with revelation from God. Theology has the first and last say when it comes to everything, which means everything about everything. Theology alone has the right to define and make any authoritative statement concerning every nook and corner of reality. Theology is the ultimate intellectual discipline. So be it. Let no ignorant kid assume otherwise.
Posted by Nishanth 
Posted by Nishanth 