Learning Church

Doing Theology

Jeff Astley

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780334044147
• eBook ISBN: 9780334052241
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The Learning Church series offers a range of short introductions to some of the key themes of Christian theology, life and discipleship.

1. Beginning Where We Are? You and Your Theology

‘We must begin where people are’ has become something of a cliché, especially in some church circles. But when we are faced with the challenge of speaking to, teaching or caring for someone – anyone – there is nowhere else to begin. All education and all pastoral care must place the other person, the one who is being taught or cared for, at the centre. In such situations it really is true that ‘this is not about me, it’s about you’.

You are the focus of this book and of this whole Learning Church Series. This is not so much a boast or even an aim, as an inevitable fact. For the reader or viewer is always the most significant person in the room when he or she reads a book or watches TV on their own; and the students or audience members are the key people in the classroom, arena, concert hall, cinema or theatre, even when they are listening to a speaker, musician, singer or actor ‘live’. This is because if the readers, listeners and viewers do not ‘get it’, it is not got: the communication and relationship fails for them. And the same goes for caring; unless you are helped, ‘my caring’ has come to nothing.

So who are you, ‘where have you come from’ and (most importantly) where do you think you are going, as you read this text? Unfortunately, I cannot tailor my words specifically to you because I know nothing about you – not even your age or sex, let alone your concerns, hopes, abilities, relationships, personality or faith. But I do know this: you are already a theologian.

TO DO Without discussing the question with anyone else, or looking up any other sources for help, please jot down what you understand by the word ‘theologian’. What do you imagine his/her main activities to be?

Listening out for theology

Inevitably, ‘the act of defining theology is part of the process of doing theology’ (Franke, 2005, p. 44) – as we shall see!

The word ‘theology’, which is from the Greek words for ‘God’ and ‘discourse’ (or ‘study’), was originally applied very widely in the Church. It described anyone who reflected on and spoke about their faith. It was many centuries before this word became restricted to the sophisticated God-talk of scholars. Today, however, it is most often used to describe university courses and departments that promote the academic study of Christianity through a variety of subject areas and using a variety of intellectual skills (see Chapter 6) and that usually cater for Christians and non-Christians alike (see Chapter 3). Part of that academic study includes studying the theology of great Christian thinkers of the past, as well as evaluating and developing current theological ideas and arguments. This is the realm of academic theology.

You may be such a person yourself; but it is far more likely that you have done little or no academic study of Christianity and its beliefs. Yet if you ever think about God seriously, if you ever reflect on what the Bible, hymns and other people say about God, then you are a theologian in the original sense of that word. I would call you an ordinary theologian: not intending by this adjective any slight, but recognizing that this is the ‘normal’, ‘common’, ‘everyday’ form of Christian theology. It is ‘not unusual’ or out of the way; as academic theology often is. As one (academic) theologian puts it: ‘To be a good theologian is to be a Christian who thinks.’ ‘All Christians already are theologians’ if they take responsibility for their beliefs and if those beliefs affect their Christian lives; if they truly are ‘reflective believers’ (Cobb, 1993, pp. 7, 17–18, 136). This is the broader idea of a theologian, as a ‘thinking Christian’ (cf. Inbody, 2005, pp. 10–11).

This ordinary theology tends to use anecdotes and insights from our ordinary experience and reflections about God, mixed with wise sayings and aphorisms that we have heard from others. It is inclined to speak of God largely in metaphor and parable, in the same way that much of the theology does that we hear in Scripture and hymns. Academic theology, in particular in the area of ‘doctrine’ (that is, Christian teachings), develops these personal, experiential stories and other figures of speech into impersonal concepts, pruning away at the riotous natural language of the religious woodland until it is transformed into the smoother contours of shrubs in a formal theological garden. It also seeks, by using reasoned arguments, to connect these elements together ‘systematically’ into one pattern, so that people can more easily move from one part to another (from beliefs about Jesus to beliefs about God, for instance), instead of getting tangled up in the rather wild and disorderly, ordinary theological thicket, unable to find a route through.

All this makes academic theology seem rather superior. But I would argue that, while such systematic, careful and critical thinking about God can be very helpful, it must always relate back to the ordinary theology that lies in the heart of everyday believers and thus at the heart of the Christian Church.

In fact, ordinary theology has a religious or, better, a spiritual priority. It is our first theology, which arises directly from our faith, our experience and our relationship with God in worship and prayer: which themselves chiefly originate in our responses both to the gospel story and its challenges and to the reactions to these things of other Christians. Academic theology can help ordinary theology out by clarifying and critiquing it; but it can never wholly replace it. And the same may be said about much of the ecclesiastical theology that comes from the reflections and decisions of the Church’s synods, councils and teachers down the ages – the theology of confessions, creeds and dogmas (that is, officially defined doctrines). This, like academic theology, often uses carefully honed concepts, arguments and explanations; although it may keep closer to the familiar analogies, metaphors and insights that ultimately derive from biblical texts and religious devotion and thus to the reflections of the ordinary theologian.

So, theology may be heard in different voices and forms, and in different places, while sharing much in common. But we must accept that:

The [academic] theologian gets no new revelation and has no special organ for knowledge. He is debtor to what we, in one sense, have already – the Scriptures and the lives and thoughts of the faithful … This puts theology within the grasp of … someone you know down the street who shames you with his or her grasp … Theology is often done by the unlikely. (Holmer, 1978, p. 21)

TO DO Dig out and examine some material written by academic theologians. If you do not have access to any appropriate theological books, look on the web. How does this material differ from the way ‘ordinary’ Christians talk about their faith?

Theology in conversation

It is certainly possible to develop your own ordinary theology so that it makes more sense (to you and, possibly, to others), and works better as an expression of your faith, while having little to do with academic or even ecclesiastical theology. Many people operate at this level. I assume, however, that you are reading this book and others in this series because you want to press your theology a little further and to open it up to the influence, ideas and arguments of academic theologians and the Church’s teachings. (Or, perhaps, because other people have told you that you should engage in this task.)

I suggest that the best way of understanding that process is to see it as a sort of conversation between the reflections of your ordinary theology, on the one hand, and the voices of academic (and ecclesiastical) theology, on the other (see Chapter 3). Each of the partners in this conversation has something to say, something to contribute on their own account. But each must pay attention to the other – each must ‘listen up’ – and each must be willing to respond and change. You can’t guarantee that your voice will change academic theology; although I have argued that in principle it sometimes should (see Astley, 2002, pp. 148–62). But you can make sure that you play your part in actively engaging your ordinary theology in response to what you hear from ‘the academy’. As you ‘take something from’ this conversation, you will become engaged in further, deeper theological learning as your ordinary theology changes.

But, I repeat, it is not your task here to become a professional, academic theologian. Your role is to listen to, think about, respond to and use academic theology in order to help clarify and develop how you think about God and how you articulate the other aspects of your own faith; and how you give ‘an account of the hope that is in you’ (1 Peter 3.15).

Further reading

Cobb Jr, J. B., 1993, Becoming a Thinking Christian, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

Grenz, S. J. and Olson, R. E., 1996, Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God, Downers Grove, IL and Leicester: InterVarsity Press.

Inbody, T., 2005, The Faith of the Christian Church: An Introduction to Theology, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, Ch. 1.

West, M., Noble, G. and Todd, A., 1999, Living Theology, London: Darton, Longman & Todd.

Wilson, J. R., 2005, A Primer for Christian Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, Ch. 1.

2. The Variety of Theology: Its Form, Audience and Source

Doing theology in style

It will be helpful if we begin this chapter by listening in more depth to the variety of theological reflections as they are expressed in ordinary as well as academic theology and by attempting to discern something of the form they take.

Ordinary theology is defined in terms of the theology embraced by people with little or no theological education. This, if you like, is its location. How might we portray the type of theology we find here? Unlike academic theology, it tends to be marked by an absence of technical terms and complex arguments. And its language is more everyday, more personal and often more passionate. In these respects, academic theologians can also employ ordinary theology, by using this type of God-talk; as can – and should – theologically educated clergy (chiefly, perhaps, in their sermons). This is possible, because so much theology begins as ordinary theology, his...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Beginning Where We Are? You and Your Theology
• 2. The Variety of Theology: Its Form, Audience and Source
• 3. Doing Theology and Studying Theology
• 4. Locating Theology at the Centre: Experience, Belief, Faith and Practice
• 5. Theology’s Main Sources: Bible and Tradition
• 6. Theological Subjects, Skills and Methods
• 7. Human Language and the Mystery of God
• 8. Modelling Theology: Classic and Contemporary Examples
• 9. Where to Next? Theology and the Future
• References