Getting our theology from Facebook or Twitter is unadvisable. I think at best these “social” mediums have the capacity to give us suggestive lines of theological thought to consider, but that should be their maximum capacity. I have been influenced, no doubt, to read various theological thinkers, over the years, because of the exposure I have received on social media. But as I reflect: my theological trajectory was really set from in-person influences that I had as a result of bible college and seminary; mostly seminary. My love for historical theology, and Barth’s theology, in particular, were given impetus by personal mentors and former profs of mine; none of this has come from Twitter, Facebook, or the Blogosphere.

Why am I saying this? Because what I have noticed is that theological social media is so rife with a litany of theological perspectives, and from so many varied motivations and contexts, that it doesn’t seem viable for such contextless, people-less (other than virtual instantiations) theological offerings to have the sort of concrete and real impact that only flesh and blood in-formers should have. In other words, when we are dealing with the weightiness of what theology portends to be, it seems to me that that should spring from real life communally oriented situations wherein a living breathing human being can speak meaningfully into our lives. Social media, by nature, is too random and ad hoc to offer this sort of context for personal theological development. I have seen younger guys and gals, as far as theological development, get chewed up and spit out by social media; in regard to the theological trajectory they open themselves up to. In other words, social media, to rip off of Rahner in a rhetorical way, allows for us to be ‘anonymous’ Christians in a way that can be damaging to our theological souls. We can get the whole panoply of theological traditions and iterations by a single swipe of the finger on our Twitter or FB feeds. Without a concrete ground, prior to this ‘swiping,’ we might be swept away with every wind or breath of theological teaching available to us in the worldwide web of the interweb. At the very least, without personalist concrete grounding, prior to our logging-in to theological social media, we open ourselves up to influences that may well confuse us, or marginalize the concrete work that the Lord would seek to do in our lives.

Don’t get me wrong, there is relative value to theological social media; at least my blogging for fourteen years ought to indicate to you that I really do believe this. But it all must be taken in with discernment, and a theological penchant for grains of salt. We should be getting the heft of our theological in-formation from fellowshipping at our local churches around Word and Sacrament (even though, as a Free church evangelical I know the sacraments as ordinances 😉 ); through reading developed works of theological importance; and most importantly through prayerfully reading and meditating on Holy Scripture. Surely, we can be aided in our development by interacting with others via social media outlets; but these can only be, at best, supplements that have marginal value in regard to their ability to spark critical angles that we might not have come to on our own (left to our own studies and devices). But my point in this post is to say: We shouldn’t be getting our theologies from social media! I don’t, and I don’t think you should either.