⁴⁴ Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with Joshua the son of Nun. ⁴⁵ When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe ^[r]carefully, even all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 32:44-47

⁷ For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; ⁸ for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Romans 14:7-9

³¹ Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. ³ For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

Many other passages could be adduced; but these should suffice for our purposes. I simply wanted to reinforce the notion that to be a genuine Christian theologian is really to be a growing and moving disciple of Jesus Christ. I have come across theologians out there who treat being a “theologian” like it’s a profession; of the type that you clock in and out of. These are mainly academic theologians, or pastors who look at what they do as a discipline, or again, as a profession that they do, at points of the day, and then don’t do at other points of the day. I don’t actually take this mode of existence, though, to be an iteration of a genuinely Christian theologian. A genuine Christian theologian is someone who understands the gravitas of what the Christian life or existence entails. That is, the Christian theologian understands that all that they do, and are, is consumed by God, who is a jealous God. They understand that they aren’t their own, but have been bought with a price; the price of the blood of Jesus Christ. They recognize they can do nothing apart from the True Vine, and that their lives always have the gift and the burden upon it to represent the Christ, who is their life, to their families, the church, and the world. This type of existence isn’t one where you take your theologian hat off, and put your weekend warrior hat on; so on and so forth. To be a Christian theologian is a totalizing way of life; again, consumed by the One Who is our life: Jesus Christ in the triune God. Being a Christian theologian isn’t merely a “lifestyle,” but it is indeed to live life, coram Deo. Being a Christian theologian isn’t a performance we manufacture for others; but it is instead, an existence wherein we are constantly bearing witness to the hope that is within us, for us, and for the world. Being a Christian theologian involves constant labor, motored by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ; indeed, as that power is breathed into our lives, afresh anew, moment-by-moment, in and through the Holy Spirit. Being a Christian theologian isn’t primarily tinctured by being one of the ‘schoolmen’; instead, being a Christian theologian entails a life of deovtio Christi via participatio Christi. Being a Christian theologian is simply the Christian existence, it is the Christian life before God; from God, in participation with God unto all time and eternity.

I have grown weary of the so-called professional theologians. There is no love or passion of Christ there, for the most part. It is a manual-Christianity wherein the performer walks through the hoops of what being a professional theologian entails. There is a theology of glory underneath the professional theologians’ vector; you know “publish or perish.” The CV is king, and it is used as the reduction of the persons’ life within the professional guild of the theologians. A person, in fact, doesn’t even need to be an actual Christian to be a professional “Christian” theologian. A professional theologian is considered a better theologian if they are dispassionate, and discursively removed from the panoply of the lowly regular people Christians out there. For the professional theologian there is a premium placed on the intellect, and its force of brute power while it sits in the room at the annual theological conference[s].

Would Jesus, the Apostles, and Christians who have simply lived life before God, in and from His passion (and of course, Jesus is God’s passion for the world), as they inhabitatio Dei, be certifiable within the professional theologians’ guild today? I would say not! If the regular Christians of God’s in Christ’s declension would not be welcomed at the banqueting table of the professional theologians, what is there to say about the professional theologians? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

²³ Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24