Exploring Theology

Elaine A. Robinson

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781451488913
• eBook ISBN: 9781451489613
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Fortress Press's Foundations for Learning series prepares students for academic success through compelling resources that kick-start their educational journey into professional Christian ministry. In Exploring Theology, Elaine A. Robinson introduces readers to the study of theology as a central task of all Christians and one that deserves careful and consistent attention. Following a lively examination of what theology is and how we do it, Robinson provides a basic map of the major doctrines of the faith and asks readers to consider their own beliefs at this important point in their journey. She invites readers to think of theology as a stream into which we enter and which carries us deeper into the vast ocean which is the fullness of God.Designed for those who are beginning a more serious study of theology, Exploring Theology helps readers navigate what might, at first glance, appear as a confusing or abstract subject. Navigational aids include an introduction to theological vocabulary, the sources and methods of theology, and tips for reading primary sources as a spiritual discipline.

4

What Do We Believe?

In the previous chapters, you arrived at the banks of the stream we call Christian theology. You have taken a quick tour of the flow of theological movements and activity down through the centuries, observing some of the twists and turns of these turbulent waters. Then you began to construct a raft that might help you travel along the stream of theology, piecing together the sources, methods, and approaches to theology. Significantly, you also began to think about your own starting point and sources for doing theology, since each of us must develop our own credo, or thoughtful understanding of what we believe. But all of that work, while important, is merely preliminary to the life that teems within these waters: our doctrines or teachings of the faith. Often we speak of the content of the Christian faith as a way of naming all of our theological concerns, our doctrines, our teachings. In this chapter, we examine the content of the Christian faith—though in a general and incomplete manner—so that you might begin to articulate, consciously and deliberatively, where you stand within the stream.

As you might expect, there is no one universally accepted set of beliefs or teachings held by all Christians. But we can turn to a skeletal framework that yields the common beliefs shared by most Christians—a starting point from which we diverge through deeper reflection and considerations. The basic outline of what Christians believe is found in the church’s creeds, those statements of faith hammered out at the councils of the early church. The Apostles’ Creed is most commonly used among Protestants, but the Nicene Creed also provides a good starting point for theological engagement. It might be helpful to pause here and recite the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed aloud. Listen to the shape of the words, and pay attention to the structure of the Apostles’ Creed printed below as an example.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Is there anything significant in the ordering of the faith claims? Are there beliefs that you would raise questions about? Every time the church or an individual recites a creed, each reciter has taken the first step in doing theology, though often it is done as an embedded rather than deliberative theological act. How many times have you recited this Apostles’ Creed, knowing the words by heart, but not consciously considering their meaning?

Now go online and use a search engine to find an introduction to theology textbook (you will find a number of possibilities at the end of this chapter). Websites where you can purchase books will often provide you with a free glimpse inside, enabling you to review the table of contents. You might also borrow a theology textbook from a pastor, a seminarian, or the library. In either case, make sure it is an introduction to systematic theology. Turn to the table of contents, and read through it with some care. Do you see a resemblance to the creeds? While few theology textbooks follow the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed exactly, you should still be able to discern a basic pattern to the teachings of the Christian faith. Check a second textbook in order to confirm this statement.

All theology textbooks will cover the same broad set of doctrinal concerns. These usually include preliminaries such as method and sources (prolegomena), God, Jesus Christ (Christology and soteriology), the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), humanity (theological anthropology), the church (ecclesiology), and the last things (eschatology). As you might expect, each doctrine has various theological considerations associated with it which deepen, expand, and complicate that teaching. For example, the doctrine of God will usually include not only questions of God’s nature, but also the Trinity, creation, providence, theodicy, and other topics. Of course, how we explain and develop the detailed theological accounts within each doctrine varies by Christian tradition, denomination, and even era, which is why we do not have one common systematic theology textbook for all Christians in all times and places.

This diversity of interpretations and the intricacies of each doctrine mean that in this short book we cannot examine all the trajectories and different theological positions in detail. It is not my intention to direct you toward what I think are the “right” teachings or to impose my personal beliefs upon you. That would do you, the reader, a great disservice, since the goal of studying theology is to enable you to articulate your beliefs within the context of the communities of faith to which you belong, as well as to recognize differences that exist in our expressions and articulations of the faith. As a result, the pages that follow will emphasize two things. First, I want to help you grasp the basic contours of the broader doctrines and the key questions or concerns within each doctrine. The goal is to provide you with a sense of the points for further study and reflection, but the details of each doctrine are beyond the scope of this volume. Second, in doing so, I hope to encourage your deliberative reflection around questions that pastors often face from their congregations or must wrestle with in sermons, Bible studies, and pastoral situations. Remember our previous discussion of the problems related to asserting that everything is “God’s will”? The basic doctrinal loci of the Christian faith should enable us to reflect more carefully and fully on such vital questions. So with this in mind, let’s dive into the stream and begin to swim around in these swiftly moving and life-giving waters.

Most theology textbooks begin with the doctrine of God—a pattern we will follow here. But we could begin with any doctrine, because the content of the Christian faith is interrelated, and one doctrine leads to and is connected to the others. In Jürgen Moltmann’s theology, especially his early theology, for example, the starting point is eschatology, or the notion that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ we find hope, which orients us toward God’s promised future and our present mission in the world. Hope draws us forward toward God’s good future. Thus, if he were to write a one-
volume systematic theology, it might well begin with a chapter on eschatology as the focal point for how we do and enter into theological discourse. Depending upon the starting point or approach taken by a theologian, the order of the chapters might differ, but the same content would be presented. If you are a creative thinker, you might want to consider where you would want to begin your own theology and why that would be your focal or entry point. For our purposes, we will follow a more traditional order that approximates the Apostles’ Creed.

I Believe in God

As we mentioned in chapter 1, the entirety of the study of the Christian faith begins and ends with God. We think of God as a name for the ultimate reality or divine being, though God is actually symbolic language. A symbol is something that both points to and participates in something else. For example, a nation’s flag is a symbol, as it points to that nation, but also is deeply woven into the identity of the people. A symbol is contrasted with a sign, which simply points to something else. Take, for example, a stop sign. It points toward the action the driver must take but does not participate in or carry meaning beyond that momentary action. Thus, when we speak of this word, God, as being symbolic, we do not diminish the divine reality but instead acknowledge our finitude in trying to name the fullness of the divine. God is not really the given name of the divine, but the symbol we use to point to and convey the meaning of the One we recognize as ultimate.

Throughout this chapter, you are encouraged to write down terms and ideas that are new to you and then to define them so they become part of your vocabulary. This process of learning theological vocabulary will make your future study of theology easier.

Recognizing that God is the symbol we use for the divine begins to awaken our minds and spirits to think more deeply and carefully about the subject of our faith. Suppose for a moment that you are on an airplane or in a coffee shop and a stranger sitting next to you sees that you’re reading this book. The stranger asks what you are reading, and you explain that it is an introduction to the study of God and the life of faith, to what Christians believe. Then the stranger says, “I’m a scientist and believe in hard data,” and he asks you this question: “Who is this God? Why should anyone believe in this unseen being? What makes God worthy of study or devotion or worship?” So, how would you begin to respond to the stranger? I imagine many would offer two basic responses. First, that God is love. But unless we are able to explain that God’s love is of a different nature than human love, and what it means when we claim that God is love, our answer might not be very satisfying to the stranger. Second, we might respond with a claim that God is the creator of everything and the source of our salvation. But how will we make the idea of creation meaningful to a scientifically oriented mind? And how would we describe salvation to this person? If we simply say it is the promise of heaven, that answer will likely fall on deaf ears, as a concept that seems irrelevant or silly to many people today.

To answer well the question of who God is and why we care about and are devoted to God, we ourselves need to begin by asking questions and learning as much as possible about God. Theology, at heart, is a discipline of asking questions. The more you learn about God and the life of faith, the more questions you will have. It seems paradoxical. You would expect to have more answers. Of course, you do have more knowledge or understanding, but the reality of God is such that the more we ask and begin to understand, the more questions we are likely to have, and the more we will be humbled and in awe of this One we call God. Don’t worry; God can stand up to our scrutiny and questions. After all, if we believe that God created human beings, then it is surely the case that God intends for us to use our minds to question and to learn.

In considering the doctrine of God, traditional theology will often begin with questions about the nature and attributes or characteristics of God. Ask yourself what you know about the nature of God; perhaps write down a list of attributes as a starting point. Then, as we go along, you can add to that list and begin to expand your understanding of who God is. But as you do so, you might find yourself wondering how we know anything about God. As we discussed in chapter 3, Christians have generally believed that we can know something of God through nature (general revelation), but our most intimate knowledge of God comes through special revelation and, in particular, through the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ. Thus, we might begin by asking ourselves what we know about God from the scriptural witnesses.

There are, of course, a variety of biblical witnesses and a range of attributes ascribed to God, but there is no systematic accounting or comprehensive statement of who God is. Moses’ encounter with the burning bush provides a starting point by reminding us that God will be who God will be (Exod. 3:14). Throughout our discussion of the doctrine of God, it will be helpful to keep in mind this divine excess that overflows our human capacities to know in full. The Bible tells us that God is creative, just, righteous, steadfast, loving, compassionate, and jealous, among other qualities. If we are reading carefully, we also would find that God is vindictive at times and sends the people of Israel to kill other peoples in battle. In both cases—whether the attributes are positive or seem less than divine—we are left to interpret the biblical witnesses and to confront our human limitations in fully understanding the nature of God. As human beings, we can only use our own frames of reference to interpret these claims to the nature of God. We can never know God in God’s self.

Spend some time considering the qualities that the biblical witnesses ascribe to God.

Intellectually, there are three basic ways to approach our knowledge of these attributes, as first proposed by Thomas Aquinas. First, is the via negativa (the way of negation), by which we are able to look at all the imperfections of the created world in order to assess what God is not or to assign to God the opposite quality. Thus, we are able to claim that God is not finite (e.g., in-finite). God is not arbitrary and capricious. God is not subject to decay and death. You can add to this list other qualities by way of negation. Second, we engage what is known as the via causalitatis, which means “the way of causality,” or the idea that God is the cause or source of all things such as wisdom or goodness. The third approach, via eminentiae (the way of eminence), suggests that the perfections of the world can be attributed to God in a higher or more perfect sense (e.g., all-powerful or omnipotent), though remember that we should not assume God is simply quantitatively more of any attribute we observe in human beings. Some attributes of God might be considered as internal to God in God’s self (e.g., perfection or unity), while others might be understood in relation to the world (e.g., freedom or mercy).

Thus, even though we have a tendency to speak of God as a “being,” God is not a being in the sense of any other being that we know or can imagine. The character of God differs fundamentally from that of created beings, and for this reason, Paul Tillich used the phrases “Being Itself” and “the Ground of Being” to refer to this absolute distinction between God and all else. The classical formulation of God’s existence, Anselm’s ontological argument, points toward this fundamental distinction when he claims in Chapter II of his Proslogium, “Thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived.” Though Anselm uses the terminology of God as “a being,” he also suggests that our notion of this “being” is at the furthest reaches of our intellect and reason. Anselm’s point is to prove the existence of God by means of a complex logic characteristic of the Scholastic theologians. Still, his ontological argument is helpful in identifying the distinctiveness of the “being-ness” of God.

But how does God relate to the world and to human beings? If a person is a deist, he or she believes that God set the world in motion but is no longer involved in its ongoing development and existence. Usually, we use the analogy of a clockmaker winding up the clock and then leaving it to run on its own. In other words, for deists, nothing that happens should be attributed to God’s will or providence or agency. But most Christians are theists, in that we believe in the relationship of God to the created order. How much “control” God exerts over the creation is a matter of debate. If we believe that God determines absolutely everything that happens, then it is reasonable to claim that anything and everything is “God’s will.” If we hold a position in which God is involved in the world but does not dictate each moment and, in fact, gives us free will, then ascribing everything to “God’s will” is meaningless and perhaps lazy thinking. We can do better if we want to communicate to others about the God we worship and serve.

Two terms commonly characterize the way in which God relates to and is present to the world: transcendence and immanence. God’s transcendence denotes, in the language of Karl Barth, God’s “wholly otherness.” Transcendence suggests that God is set apart from the created order and is inaccessible to the human mind and senses. God is not found in human experience. God transcends our experience. God is shrouded in mystery, and the divine is unknowable and unapproachable, which might be reflected in the first creation story in Gen. 1:1—2:3. Sometimes Christians will behave as if they know God’s will or truth with absolute certainty. Yet the transcendence of God reminds us that we are never in possession of the full truth, will, knowledge, or presence of God. God is removed and at a distance from human beings. Transcendence also relates to God’s sovereignty or the notion that God has the final word or governs the universe and all that is within it. Traditionally, theists have stressed the otherness of God. Some theists so emphasize transcendence, or the distinction between God and all created things, that they virtually eliminate any sense of God’s presence or relationship to the world.

Yet, simultaneously, we believe God is present to us and active within the cosmos. The word we use is immanence (not to be confused with imminence). God is immanent within the created order, in time and space, though not in physical form (except, of course, for the historical point of the incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth). Some interpreters suggest that God’s immanence is highlighted in the second creation story in Gen. 2:4b—3:24. Immanence means that we can speak of God being with us and never leaving us alone or “orphaned” (John 14:18). Two clarifications should be made here about how God is present in the world. Pantheism argues that God and the natural world or universe are identical or equated, which might be considered the extreme form of immanence. God is utterly and completely present to and in the created world; the created order is God’s very self. Therefore, pantheists eliminate the possibility of transcendence. The concept of panentheism go...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Additional Praise for Exploring Theology
• Introduction
• What Is Theology?
• How Did Theology Develop?
• How Do We Do Theology?
• What Do We Believe?
• Conclusion: Going Deeper