Yesterday, in the context of a "creative" theology discussion, Stejahen burst on the scene with this excerpt from Peter Leithart's book, Against Christianity: Theology tells us that God is eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
The Bible tells us that God relents because He is God (Joel 2:13-14), that God is "shrewd with the shrewd" (Ps. 18:25-29), that He rejoices over us with shouting (Zeph 3:14-20), and that He is an eternal whirlwind of triune communion and love."
Theology is a "Victorian enterprise, neoclassically bright and neat and clean, nothing out of place.
Whereas the Bible talks about hair, blood, sweat, entrails, menstruation and genital emissions.
Not bad for an introductory comment, Stejahen. While appreciating the quote, I'm also slightly embarrassed, because Against Christianity is on my shelf and I haven't made it past the introduction yet. Clearly, this is something I should have already read. However; this excerpt from Leithart (who is not against Christ, incidentally, and is someone I would ironically call "theologically solid") gives me a chance to voice a few more thoughts on theology, and what I'm calling "creative theology."
1. Is Theology Victorian silliness?
Leithart and others rightly skewer the reductionist tendency of systematic theology, in that what is extracted "neatly and cleanly" from the Bible is always something less than God himself. Touché. But I'd point out that theology, in the most basic sense of the word, is inevitable if we are going to talk and think about God. Theology = core truths about God, or "the study of God and his ways." So theology is not necessarily Victorian. In fact, Paul produced some pretty good stuff in the Epistles. All this goes to show that semantics can be a confusing element in this discussion.
2. Is Theology a wallflower, divorced from "real" life?
If you think so, the joke's on you, dog. Theology has an apartment but he's rarely at home. In others words, don't go knocking on the covers of his books on the weekend, expecting him to be watching reruns on the couch. Theology has better things to do than sit around waiting for your flirtations. Theology is already out on the town, he has things to do and places to be. Theology is active wherever Christ is active, because you can't love Jesus without THINKING about him.
Thus, we need "creative theology" - an attempt to point up the ways that theology infuses every moment of life with purpose. Thinking and acting are not at odds. Therefore, theology is not merely mental. It's existential, because if you don't think about God as he is, you won't experience him as you should.
Just my quick thoughts. What say you?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Creative Theology Is Not Victorian, You Dig?
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1 comments:
I find this post and the former one very interesting. I believe that Theology is the pitiable but necessary (!) effort of humans to categorize and understand God. But the more one talks about 'Theology' the more one realizes that it really demands for further definition...
There are all sorts of theologies out there. Dogmatic theology, systematic theology, practical theology, biblical theology, or even just the day-dream kind of theology that you (Arie) talked about! It is impossible to think about God without using the venue of theology - meaning: categories to understand God. The main issue I assume turns on if the categories you set are correct, or way off! Every theology sort of has their own categories. Feuerbach's projection theory reveals some the problems one encounters psychologically in the day-dream theology, but even biblically it is very well possible to create your own little God within the scriptures. Every generation has given birth to some group that has misused the bible to legitimate certain categories. (Biblicists seem to be the ones who do use the bible for their own dogmatic categories most and feel most hurt when you point it out!)Or check out, for instance the Urban's II. speech at the Council of Clermont 1095 that precipitated the first crusade! Amazing and aweful stuff.
I believe that it is our goal as Christians to let our categories continually be renewed. I believe the bible is God's vehicle to do just that. If I were an idealist I would say we should let the bible take away our categories completely (and say that very old, boring and empty phrase: "we should think outside the box!"), but I know that humans are not capable of thinking without categories. So, I agree (of course) with Childs: "The true expositor of the Christian scriptures is the one who awaits in anticipation toward becoming the interpreted rather than the interpreter. The very divine reality which the interpreter strives to grasp, is the very One who grasps the interpreter. The Christian doctrine of the role of the Holy Spirit is not a hermeneutical principle, but that divine reality itself who makes understanding of God possible." (Biblical Theology, 1993:86)
(and Arie: yes, the whole text was from me) =^)
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