I often rail against the theological guild and the attendant academy therein. In this post I would like to offer the obverse, and give due credit to the importance of Christian academia and the attending guild. I see a necessary function for the guild, and it is this function I’d like to speak to further. It entails at least two important loci: 1) the guild’s capacity to sustain a space for critical engagement with the Christian reality, and 2) the guild’s ability to provide a concrete example of what rigorous Christian discipleship might look like in regard to its material theological production.

When we operate as Christians, particularly in the online world of the 21^st century, we are confronted with an assortment, a barrage even of Christian teaching and commentary. In the online world, and in the communities or sub-cultures that support much of the information put forth online, in the name of Christ, what we get is a smorgasbord of unregulated uncriticized opinions and viewpoints that have not, therefore, undergone the sort of critical scrutiny truth-seekers would ostensibly like to be exposed to. As such we get, often times, these inane ideas that are typically idiosyncratic to the “communicator’s” own shallowly formed ghetto of reflection and in-formation. This is the dilemma, at least one that the guild can confront and correct. Guilds are made up by people who ostensibly have dedicated their lives (and livelihoods) to the task of engaging with the ‘best’ of what is available in the theological literature as that has taken in-formation in the history of Christian ideas. In this process of engagement the ‘guildite’ produces literature or studies of their own, and then offers them up for “peer” scrutiny in order to test if their ideas are viable or not. The online world does not have this process or mechanism in place, and as such what we often get are untested ideas and theses that may or may not be viable and/or fruitful for the learner’s own theological-formation.

Personally, it is in this sort of critically based environment, that the guild ideally provides for, that I have probably grown most spiritually. In other words, while, of course!, I have grown leaps and bounds by simply being part of the worshipping local body of believers, at the same token, I have found great hope in knowing that there is a world out there that desires to be as critical as possible when coming to the formation of ‘orthodox’ or right Christian theological thinking. As we all know, there is a gamut of heterodox Christian thinking out there, particularly given expression on social media, and so it warms my heart to know that there is an alternative to the craziness; and this is typically found in the theological guild. As such, the guild has the possibility to present growing Christians with the resources necessary to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The guild itself might not be self-consciously attempting to be a ‘para’ arm of the Church, in regard to discipling Christians, but at its best, I would contend, the theological guild does have this capacity.

If what I just mentioned is the case, then this begs a further question: how is the lay or pew sitting Christian supposed to appropriate guildite work that is not necessarily intended to speak to them (at their educational level or whatever). Ideally, this sort of Christian, the motivated sort, has pastors in their churches that are like-minded to them. Ideally, these sorts of Christians have pastors who have not simply thrown off the “shackles” of their training in seminary and bible college, but who themselves have kept at the task of growing and utilizing the tools given to them in their educational process. There does need to be someone present, in the know, who can help these sorts of deeper seeking Christians along the way; someone who can help guide these growing Christians along the way, in such a way that they can utilize what the guildites are offering the Church at large (even if that might seem obscure to the average Christian).

These are some positives that I still see present in the Christian theological guild. There are more, but these are what come immediately to mind. My own reactions to the guild online have been mostly to do with those who are in the guild and engage in an obvious sort of elitist back-patting, and then the snubbing of others (like myself). You might ask: “okay, so if they didn’t snub you, if they patted your back, would you be okay with it; is that what you’re looking for, Bobby?” No. It’s exactly that that I wish would go to the abyss where it came from; it has no place in the Kingdom of Christ. I contend that what makes a healthy Christian theological guild is not the sub-cultural artificial elitism that has grown up around it, but what demarks the guild as a good is the critical work it produces; a work not contingent upon the sub-culture that many of its producers participate in socially. In other words, for me, it is the merit of the work itself that makes the guild the guild; it is not the outlying subculture that ultimately is the guild. If we can make this distinction, it is at this point that we can begin to benefit from the guild, whilst avoiding the elitism that the guild’s participants often practice.