DJ Chuang, explaining his decision to move away from pastoring, makes this comment:All those years of theological training sits in dusty boxes because most people don’t ask the questions that got answered in seminary.
People ask practical everyday questions about life, for which theological answers undergird a wisdom, perspective, and discernment, [the ability to translate] abstract metaphysical ideas into pragmatic realities...
Some people call it common sense; and, where in the world do you learn that?
Where indeed?
This is probably the issue that grabs my attention most when I think about the jaw-dropping reality of Christ. It's a great challenge to translate biblical theology into authentic spiritual living - "great" in every sense of the word. I appreciate DJ's perception in hitting the heart of the matter so directly. So how do you go about "translating abstract metaphysical ideas into pragmatic realities?"
I'd suggest that we take our cues from the Bible, for starters, seeing as the book is 75% narrative and 15% poetry - all conveying the timeless, propositional truths of God. In case you're wondering, that last 10% is thought-organized, or "abstract" theology. But every page of the Bible does the "theological" work. In other words, "sermonizing" and "theologizing" are not only not the only ways to convey truth - they may not even be the best ways. The creativity I see in Jesus' teaching, and even in the writing of Paul, the Bible's great "theologian," is staggering. Gritty nouns and verbs and vivid metaphors should be the tools of every pastor-theologian.
That, and C.S. Lewis should be required reading in every seminary. Creative theology is what we're after - creative in that it makes sense amid spilled coffee and smashed relationships, the detritus of a broken world.
(Anyone else have advice?)
Monday, October 23, 2006
Creative Theology is Non-Negotiable
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5 comments:
All theology students should be required to teach Sunday School from scratch with no curriculum so that they are required to reinvent the wheel every week (a very creative excersice), engage their students with relevant teaching (not something that has been tested to the umpteenth time on a statistically average group of teenagers), and learn to deal with questions and situations from real life that seem to come right out of the blue.
I've always thought that the most wise people in a church tend to be those who deal best with children, as they have developed the ability to answer theological questions at a level that even a child can understand.
I like what you said about Gritty nouns and verbs and vivid metaphors should be the tools of every pastor-theologian.
But it seems that some (Chuang perhaps) drive a wedge between creative theology and pastoring. There seems to be a setting of the two against each other, as if there was a dichotomy between the narrative and poetice elements of the Bible and the Sermon or preaching event. I think we move quickly away from truth when we sunder these two intrinsically fused ideas (even in theory). I'm not sure if I'm making sense...
I think we need both creative and real theology. I know that the word real seems cliche in the culture of "reality" television, but I really feel that is what is needed. Some of the most sound doctrine I have learned has been in the home of my pastor watching him interact with his wife and children. Pastors will teach people how to live out the gospel by first showing how they live it out. Although theological debate has its place in the universities and classrooms, it will not help me know what to do or say when I get into an argument with a co-worker or when a loved one disappoints me.
I want to quickly affirm the fact that "theology" (at least in my mind) = propositional truth set in narrative & poetry - that is, truth ingrained in life. This is what we hold in our hands when we open the Bible.
Systematic theology is an attempt to organize the Bible's "abstract" truth-principles, but this becomes a dangerous exercise if we assume that theology = a system.
Then there's the question of embodying what we find, which is something else entirely, and doesn't necessarily correspond to our knowledge or communication abilities... Just wanted to put this on the table.
I've always thought that the most wise people in a church tend to be those who deal best with children, as they have developed the ability to answer theological questions at a level that even a child can understand.
Will, this may be the best hands-on advice I've heard yet. C.S. Lewis wrote for children, did he not? :) Apparently, making truth clear is not as easy a task as it might seem. Good call.
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