A Little Book for New Theologians

Why and How to Study Theology

Kelly M. Kapic

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780830866700
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Whenever we read, think, hear or say anything about God, we are doing theology. Yet theology isn't just a matter of what we think. It affects who we are. In the tradition of Helmut Thielicke's A Little Exercise for Young Theologians, Kelly Kapic offers a concise introduction to the study of theology for newcomers to the field. He highlights the value and importance of theological study and explains its unique nature as a serious discipline. Not only concerned with content and method, Kapic explores the skills, attitudes and spiritual practices needed by those who take up the discipline. This brief, clear and lively primer draws out the relevance of theology for Christian life, worship, mission, witness and more. "Theology is about life, " writes Kapic. "It is not a conversation our souls can afford to avoid."

Part One

Why Study Theology?

1

Entering the Conversation

We are all called theologians, just as [we are] all [called] Christians.

Martin Luther, “Sermon on Psalm 5, Jan. 17, 1535”

Tell me about God.

For some people the question of whether or not God exists is a painful and haunting uncertainty not easily dismissed. But for most people the question is not whether God exists, but what is God like. Not whether there is a deity, but how many, and which one(s). How do we know God? Can God be trusted? Does God care? And is God good?

Whenever we speak about God we are engaged in theology. The term “theology” means a word (logos) about God (theos), so when anyone speaks about God, whether that person dropped out of high school or completed a PhD in philosophy, he or she is engaged in theology. Theology is not reserved for those in the academy; it is an aspect of thought and conversation for all who live and breathe, who wrestle and fear, who hope and pray.

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If I speak truth here, it is not so much knowledge that lifts me up, but rather the ardor of a burning soul that urges me to try this.

Richard of St. Victor (d. 1173), “Book Three of the Trinity”

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Theological questions surround our lives, whether we know it or not. A wife and husband facing infertility inevitably struggle through deep theological questions, whether or not they want to voice them. College students working through issues of identity, culture, politics and ethics struggle—in one way or another—with theological convictions and how to live them. Our concepts about the divine inform our lives more deeply than most people can trace. Whether we view God as distant or near, as gracious or capricious, as concerned or apathetic, the conclusions we reach—whether the result of careful reflection or negligent assumptions—guide our lives.

Christians must care deeply about theology. If the true God is renewing our lives and calling us to worship him “in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23), then such worship includes our thoughts, words, affections and actions. Do we want to worship Yahweh or waste time and effort on a deity we have constructed in our own image? Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), a nineteenth-century atheist philosopher, argued that talk about God is no more than amplified talk about ourselves: “God” is merely the projection of human thoughts and desires.[1] Surprising as it may seem, Christians share a fundamental concern with Feuerbach, for we recognize the temptation to create our own gods—gods that belong to us—rather than to respond faithfully to the One who is.

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Whether our theology is good or flawed, those we love most will be first to feel the effects.

Carolyn Custis James, When Life and Beliefs Collide

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The Scriptures testify to the God who made the heavens and the earth, who created men and women to enjoy his creation and their communion with him. But sin has entered the world, creating chaos instead of order, death instead of life, and substituting idolatry for the worship of the true God. The Bible often describes our temptation to create and follow false gods. For example, after delivering Israel from Egypt, God warns them against forgetting their Redeemer and turning to false gods: “Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them” (Deut 11:16). The Song of Moses warns that, despite this display of God’s favor and power, the Israelites would eventually look to “strange gods . . . to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut 32:16-18). The Song warns coming generations against provoking God with their idols—with “what is no god” (Deut 32:21).

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Praise is, among other things, a form of thinking, and aims to “think God” as adequately as possible.

David Ford and Daniel W. Hardy, Living in Praise

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Theological reflection is a way of examining our praise, prayers, words and worship with the goal of making sure they conform to God alone. Every age has its own idols, its own distortions that twist and pervert how we view God, ourselves and the world. Whether it is the distant and uninterested deity of modernity or the fragmented and territorial gods of postmodernity, all times and cultures carry the danger of warping our worship. We aim not to escape our cultures, however, but to recognize that God calls us to respond faithfully to him in our place and time, whatever our particular social and philosophical climate. We, not just our ancestors, are invited to know and love God—and thus to worship him.

While most of us are no longer drawn to the Baals and Ashtaroths of the past, we still look to idols—that which is not God—for our security, happiness and comfort. Is it not true that when many of us feel anxious or depressed, we seek relief by purchasing things: we head to the contemporary temples of self-indulgence in the malls across the country or on the Internet, where the shopping experience is meant to calm our souls? Similarly, the emphasis in American culture on comfort, which exalts the consumer over the community, skews how we view ourselves, others and creation. We lose sight of our relational nature, embracing instead the myth of individuality and autonomy. One of the greatest theological challenges of our time is to move our worship beyond self-absorption.

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Let me seek you in longing, and long for you in seeking. Let me find you in love, and love you in finding.

Anselm (c. 1033-1109), Proslogion

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This takes us back to Feuerbach’s critique of religion: that we religious folks are, in the end and at the start, concerned only with ourselves. Sociologist Alan Wolfe has criticized contemporary evangelical churches for mirroring the self-centered aspects of American culture. “Television, publishing, political campaigning, education, self-help advice—all increasingly tell Americans what they already want to hear. Religion, it would seem, should now be added to that list.”[2] One great danger of idols is that we try to fill our souls with what cannot satisfy, and then in our loneliness, questions and despair we wonder where God is. We were created for fellowship with God, and apart from that communion we are lost. Theology is about life, and it is not a conversation our souls can afford to avoid.

2

To Know and Enjoy God

Becoming Wise

Theology is more of a virtue than an art, more wisdom than factual knowledge. It consists more in virtue and efficacy than in contemplation and knowledge.

Alexander of Halles, quoted in Theological Commonplaces

We enjoy God to the degree that we worship him faithfully. Faithful worship—including praise, prayer, obedience and faith—matters because idolatry, in whatever form, satisfies neither God nor us. Worship does not require that we perfectly understand everything about God but that we respond genuinely to the true God who makes himself known to us. The words of Saint Augustine (354-430) are as true now as they were in the fourth century when he first prayed them:

You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy,

because you have made us and drawn us to yourself,

and our heart is [restless] until it rests in you.[1]

God freely created that which was not God, and among his reasons for creating was a desire to see his creation freely reflect his glory and bask in his love. Under the warmth of his creative work and care, humanity was invited to walk with God, to know him and to love him. This is worship. But from early on there has been a power that seeks to distort our view of God, to call his provision and kindness into question. With human sin we come face to face with the realities of evil, suffering and death: this is the broader context of our brokenness. Sin creates a rupture in relationships between God and humanity, between people, between humanity and creation. Sin has clouded our view of and interaction with God, ourselves and the world. In this situation worship is impaired, confused and often lost. The gospel proclaims reconciliation in these relationships—first to God and then to his creation. Christians are called to enter into the chorus of praise that is true worship, responding in the Spirit to the revelation of the saving God in Jesus Christ. Theology is all about knowing how to sing the song of redemption: to know when to shout, when to mourn, when to be silent and when to hope. But in order to enjoy the song and sing it well, we must learn the words and the music.

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Theologies that cannot be sung (or prayed for that matter) are certainly wrong at a deep level, and such theologies leave me, in both senses, cold: cold-hearted and uninterested.

J. I. Packer, God Has Spoken

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Ignatius of Antioch (d. 117), who died by the mauling of beasts in a Roman arena not many years after the death of the apostles, wrote seven challenging letters to churches being pressed to alter or abandon their worship of Jesus Christ. He said, “Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever you do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit.”[2] Rather than compromise his worship of God, Ignatius was willing to face death—and his knowledge of God sustained him. Writing more than a century later, Lactantius (250-324) similarly concluded that “the knowledge of God comes first, His worship is the result of knowledge.”[3] When one begins to know God in his beauty and truth, worship springs into being. Having said that, even as we worship, our knowledge not only grows but also is often revised and reshaped. Worship and knowledge are interrelated. There is reciprocity between the two; they are not simply one-way streets. But how do we understand what or whom we are worshiping?

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He who understands Him best loves and praises him best.

Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), The Life of Teresa of Jesus

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“Knowledge” in theology is not merely cognitive but also personal with elements of connection and commitment. It would be a dangerous misunderstanding to assert that we can only worship God once we have understood all ...