Just a word with reference to “online theology.” I’ve been doing it now since I first started theoblogging in 2005. It has been fruitful in manifold ways. I have made connections with many a theologian on an international and domestic plane. Two edited books, an article for Christianity Today and other work, editorships for a peer reviewed theological journal, and a host of other pluses have resulted from my decision to sit down and start typing back in 2005. But there are manifold dangers as well. That’s primarily what this post will be about.

Some dangers of doing theology online are:

1. Too much transparency, which can result in giving too much away to the world. I am already a very transparent person, in person; but when that’s coupled with the sense of anonymity, even when you use your real name, online, it can produce things you’d rather not produce.
2. At points you can subject yourself to people who don’t have your best interests in mind. In other words, there are people out there, I know it’s hard to believe!, that would simply engage with you in order to promote their own online presence; and they don’t care if that’s from negative or positive exposure.
3. Online theology can suffer from audience drift. In other words, you’re not always sure who you’re writing for as an online theologian; or why. This can cause the quality of your work to wane, in ways that if done offline might not happen.
4. Probably the greatest downfall to online theologizing is getting caught in the weeds with people you’d rather not. This happens all the time. Although since the quasi-death of the theoblogosphere this doesn’t happen as much; at least not on blogs—happens more on Twitter and Facebook now.
5. Online theologizing can cause said theologian to move too quickly. Although in a sense that’s also the benefit of online theoblogging. For me, my blogging has been mostly a place for me to think out lout and to speak freely. But the downside to this is if it only stays in the bloggy-stage. I have all kinds of work I’ve proposed here on the blog that has the potential of being developed into a PhD dissertation; into theological essays (with the potential for publication); into books; or into more thoughtful papers that carry a greater sense of substance and development. If the theoblogger gets stuck in the mire of “just-blogging” the downside is that this rut might become a lifestyle. This is probably where I have fallen most (for a variety of life and logistical reasons).

These are just some thoughts off the top; there is more to be said, of course, about the dangers of online theologizing, but I think the above captures some of the concerns well.

My goals are to start turning the years (the decade and a half) of blogging I’ve done into things of greater substance. I have hours upon hours of research right here at the blog. Like I noted, much of it could be turned into a PhD dissertation, books, or theological essays. This is where I need to go next. Rather than get caught in the gutterland of online theological jousting, as I’m prone to do (although not as much as I used to be), I need to turn my work (for that’s what it is!) into greater works. I am writing this post, partly, as a signpost for me to refer back to, in the days to come, so that I will remember what my goal is.

To be sure, I will always be a theoblogger at heart. Many a theologian out there sneers at such endeavor. They think it cheapens theological discourse by making it too pedestrian; maybe giving away too many of the insider secrets, or something. I’ve experienced this sort of sneering from the “guilders” more than once; and very directly and intentionally. But I write to learn, and so this blog has been of great benefit to me that way (and in other ways as already noted). In fact, ironically, I never would have come into contact with the theologians who have sneered at me without my theoblogging Laugh Out Loud! Soli Deo Gloria and Sola Theobloga!