Thinking Theologically

Eric D. Barreto

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781451483413
• eBook ISBN: 9781451494211
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Ministère chrétien

We are constantly engaged in processing data and sensory inputs all around us, even when we are not conscious of the many neural pathways our minds are traveling. So taking a step back to ponder the dimensions and practices of a particular way of thinking is a challenge. Even more important, however, is cultivating the habits of mind necessary in a life of ministry. This book, therefore, will grapple with the particular ways that the theological disciplines invite students to think but also the ways in which thinking theologically shapes a student's sense of self and his or her role in a wider community of belief and thought. Thinking theologically is not just a cerebral matter; thinking theologically invokes an embodied set of practices and values that shape individuals and communities alike. Thinking theologically demands both intellect and emotion, logic and compassion, mind and body. In fact, this book—as part of the Foundations for Learning series—will contend that these binaries are actually integrated wholes, not mutually exclusive options.

6

Thinking Systematically

Amy Marga

There are no bystanders to God’s self-revelation.

This is the first premise of thinking systematically. Those who feel compelled to begin the intense journey of talking about God in a coherent and rational way do so because they have experienced the living God. This divine presence in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is so free, so undomesticated, so challenging that the people who encounter it have no choice but to work to make sense out of such an experience. They know that something happened.

To be encountered by this one is to experience a new sense of yourself, your place in the world, and your priorities. God’s self-revelation beckons all believers to become theologians. Theologians join an ongoing conversation about God’s love and grace in the world; it is a conversation that has been going on for centuries, throughout human cultures. It demands listening. It calls for action. It clings to the prayer “Come, Holy Spirit.”

Anselm, the twelfth-century bishop of Canterbury, defined thinking systematically as faith seeking understanding. His words insist that thinking systematically is about God. In other words, it can happen only from the perspective of faith. Thinking systematically is not study of the phenomena of human religiosity or a psychology of religion. It is not a sociological study of a community’s religious practices.

Rather, thinking systematically about God is the work of organizing one’s experience of God as a living subject among the wide variety of witnesses to God. It is the task of faith to articulate experiences of God so that they stand in a logical—even if critical—relationship to all the other witnesses to God’s work.

Thinking Systematically Is Like a Journey

The process of thinking systematically about God can be described as a winding road. It is a trail of thought that treads back and forth along the desert paths of the biblical narrative. It travels the cloudy past of Christian thought passed down through the ages. It sails within the currents of contemporary human experience.

This road is often traveled with a commitment to a particular creed or confession, such as the Lutheran Confessions as compiled in the Book of Concord or the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer.^[1] These commitments carried by the theologian provide continuity, perspective, and perhaps a little comfort in the struggle to make sense of how God is working in human history today; they are the tools of the theologian.

It is no small task to decide upon reliable sources of knowledge as one thinks systematically. For instance, should modern science be a privileged conversation partner for theology today? Or, as another example, are historical texts like the Lutheran Confessions the most faithful way to interpret the biblical witness to Christ’s work?

These questions are not new. The second-century theologian Justin Martyr relied upon the dominant philosophical language of his day to describe Christ as the logos of God. His contemporaries could then relate to Christ through a Greek concept that was familiar to them: the Logos as the cosmic, beautiful, rational ordering principle of the natural world.^[2] When Thomas Aquinas spoke of God as the Unmoved mover, he was innovating based on the newly rediscovered texts of Aristotle that were circulating through thirteenth-century Italy.^[3] In modern theological reflection, James Cone looks to the music and lyrics of American slave spirituals as voices of the Christian faith under a racist and oppressive system.^[4] Much like the Psalms, these slave spirituals are a resource for systematic theological reflection.

Seeking out historical voices that illuminate the scriptural witness to God’s activity for today is central to thinking systematically. Resources come in the forms of confessional creeds, prayers, songs, philosophical works, even cultural attitudes. These are the tools that theologians carry on their journey.

Finding Places to Rest on the Thought Journey of Theology

Resting places matter on this journey of faith and discovery.

The thinking theologian chooses places upon which to settle and make sense of God’s activity. One might find a resting place in a particular school of thought, in the writings of a particular theologian past or present, or in a compelling conversation with a classmate or colleague. Resting places provide a home for our theologies to grow, but the best resting places don’t cultivate complacency; rather, they inspire continued learning.

For centuries, the most common theological resting place has been the European or Mediterranean male experience. One reason for this is that cultures and philosophies have historically claimed that only European or Mediterranean males have had the intellectual capacity to think in a rational way about God. Women and dark-skinned men were seen as having no such capacity. Unwittingly or not, the historical record of theology mostly contains thinking done by men for men, even though from time immemorial women and people of color have been thinking rigorously and rationally about God as well.

Today, cultural and political structures have allowed more and more women to reflect publically upon God’s nature and work. Theologians are resting, for instance, in the experiences of African American women. Womanist theologians like Delores Williams and Jacquelyn Grant think rigorously about God’s action and the agency of black women, especially through the lens of the embodied, black, female experience.^[5] Amos Yong thinks systematically about the Holy Spirit from his commitment to the Pentecostal faith.^[6] White feminist thinkers such as Elizabeth Johnson have rigorously reflected on the way human language shrinks or expands believers’ imaginations about God.^[7]

Theologians across the globe—from the suffering places of oppressed dalit groups in India to the places of poverty and liberation in Latin America and the United States^[8]—are thinking systematically about what it means to have faith in God’s work within and despite oppressive economic and political systems. Other resting places along the theologian’s journey are found in the traumatic experiences of reproductive loss,^[9] the survival of abuse,^[10] or the experiences of prejudice toward those outside the norm of heterosexuality.^[11] These are only some of many stops along the way.

When theologians rest among particular peoples and within particular experiences, they often can see more clearly the folly and ugliness of those who oppress, exploit, and hate. Resting places help theologians cultivate this kind of vision. They help theologians uncover their own assumptions and face the limits of their own systems of thought.

These resting places matter deeply for thinking systematically about God because God delights in encountering people in these spaces too. When theologians stand still for a while among the existential realities of particular communities, they begin to comprehend how it pleases God to move and work among those who have traditionally been voiceless, despised, or forgotten.

Theological reflections from such a variety of perspectives uncover God’s hidden works within the secular veils of human history. In these places, believers see the way that God’s works of love create strength, foster resilience, and encourage laughter among believers. Indeed, resting places matter on the thought journey of systematic theology.

The Use of Human Cognitive Powers in Thinking Systematically

Systematic theology requires thinking Christians to utilize all their powers of sensing, knowing, and experiencing the world in order to make sense of God’s activity.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, named these human powers within a “quadrilateral” of Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. Using Scripture, experience, reason, and tradition, believers tell the stories of God’s work in their lives and in the world in ways that are logical and rational. This is thinking systematically. It sets out to make claims about God’s nature that are based on the narrative of God’s work in Scripture and based on God’s work in people’s lives.

For instance, the Gospel of Mark is one way that a community set out to tell the narrative of God’s work. The Gospel of Mark is hardly a systematic theology in that it does not try to follow certain rules of logic. Nor is it giving the reader a set of propositions that require assent in order for the reader to be properly faithful. However, it does give a coherent narrative of God’s work in Christ that takes into account life events, places, persons, and cultural realities that resonated in and were central to the community of which Mark was a part. This narrative forms the basis for further reflection about God.

Thinking systematically takes the narratives of God’s activity and the narratives of people’s lives seriously. It seeks to give an account of God’s love for humanity in ways that are compelling and convincing to those seeking to understand the nature of their experience of God’s revelation.

Relevancy and Authority in Thinking Systematically

Systematic expressions of God inevitably deal with issues of authority and relevance. For some theologians, the relevancy of God’s word happens when believers obey the authoritative words of Christian leaders and adhere to Christian teaching through their lifestyles and attitudes. For others, by contrast, the authority of God’s word is felt only when that word pierces the din of secular life and touches the listener in a highly relevant way.

Systematic theologians who prioritize authority over relevancy emphasize the correctness and precision of Christian teachings. They often see themselves doing dogmatic or systematic theology because their theological reflections form the basis for official church teachings. They base theology’s authority on the premise that theological expression is an elongation of God’s own word through Jesus Christ. Roman Catholic dogmatic theology is an example of an authoritative approach. Following the thought of Thomas Aquinas, it sets up doctrine as the authority over believers’ lives and faith practices. Theology is literally sacred doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church.^[12]

Another example of authoritative theology can be found in various communities within American evangelicalism. The preaching and views of American evangelical leaders hold a particular kind of theological authority over believers. This authority arises from their understanding of how God’s word has been r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Thinking Mindfully
• Thinking Bodily
• Thinking Pastorally
• Thinking Biblically
• Thinking Historically
• Thinking Systematically
• Thinking Ethically
• Thinking Socially
• Thinking Spiritually
• More Thinking
• Bibliography