This is no secret: I read lots of what would be considered “academic theology.” The thing is, I don’t read it to be an academic, per se. The thought occurs to me that there are many out there who read and do theology for purely academic reasons. But you don’t have to. You can read academic theology simply to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ; to be active in the sanctification process, as the Holy Spirit blows and kindles the fire of Christ’s love upon our new hearts of ‘flesh.’ It is true, some might mistake you for being an academic, or aspiring to be an academic theologian when you read and comment on academic theologies. But in the end that might only be a superficial reading of things. Certainly, being a voracious reader of theologies, here and there, will begin to form a particular lexicon and theological imaginary for said reader. And yet, if being a reader in this way, but one who reads constrained by the love of Christ, with a flaming heart for the living and triune God, the way the academic theology gets internalized and personalized coram Deo doesn’t have to terminate in the guild or the academy. Indeed, I would argue if that is where such movings and breathings terminate then they are like the grass that withers up and blows away; better to spend our time and energy on something else at that point.
For me it isn’t enough to cloud such theological meanderings under the guise of being “nerdy.” What point does being nerdy accomplish for the Christian? To me this only serves to segregate the doing and reading of theology for a certain demographic in the church; i.e., those obsessed with purely intellectual pursuits. But what if you are so in love with Jesus Christ and the triune God that reading the depths has nothing to do with being nerdy? Just because the masses find such theological inkling to be too deep and unnecessary, this doesn’t make it so. So, if it isn’t nerdy and it isn’t too deep and unnecessary for the so-called everyday Christian, what good does such theological reading do?
I would simply suggest that it has a stretching effect, to the point that it elevates our altitudes to the heights; the heights that Christ has already forged for us in His ascension to the Right Hand of the Father. He has already performed these ‘good works’ for us, in Himself, so that we too might participate in the deeps and wides of His Heavenly Kingdom. Deep theology isn’t just for so-called theological nerds (whatever that is supposed to entail); deep theology isn’t “not” for everyday people (double negative, I see it); indeed, it is for lovers of Jesus Christ all the way up and all the way down. To me reading deep theology, and even the Bible (of course!) voraciously, is really just a symptom of being in love with the unfathomable God of life; who was, and is, and is to come. Thinking deeply about God, in a saturated and correct way, can only lead to a life of living in a saturated and correct way coram Deo (before God).
So, what are you waiting for?: read deeply, even if it ends up confusing people into thinking you’re some type of theological academic wannabe. Just know, that when you seek God you will find Him; and this, because He first found us in Christ that we might find Him indeed.
I have been reading theology as you have described for 26 years, and yes I have been misunderstood and told I read too much and am a frustrated academic but the fact the fact of the matter is my reading and studying theology has changed my spiritual life beyond my wildest imaginations: and all I asked for when I started was that the Lord “would give me spiritual insight into spiritual things” An He did.
“…To me reading deep theology, and even the Bible (of course!) voraciously, is really just a symptom of being in love with the unfathomable God of life; who was, and is, and is to come. Thinking deeply about God, in a saturated and correct way, can only lead to a life of living in a saturated and correct way coram Deo (before God).” Yes, Bobby!… and amen.
So it is for me now… having come to know God (or rather having come to be known by God); how can I turn back again to that which is weak and destitute, devoid of any consequential substance? I certainly do not want to be enslaved again!
The world is passing away, and the desire for it, but Christ affirms the one who does the will of God… and together, He/he remain forever.
@Richard Edwards, amen. Same thing. I just asked the Lord 30yrs ago now, to give me a deep thirst for His Word and His righteousness. And as a result, He brought me into the thralls of crises, and the realization that only being saturated in Scripture in encounter with Him (didn’t have that lexicon at that point, per se) was the only antidote. As a result of that it led me organically into wanting to know as much as I possibly could about the Lord I love. You’re a perfect example of what I had in mind. People just need to ask for this, and they will indeed receive! Thx for sharing
@RichardB, amen. Exactly! As Peter et al. said to Jesus: “where else can we go, Lord, you alone have the words of eternal life.” I don’t think until we come to that point that we will really begin to understand the depths and heights of the Lord we worship and adore. It is about “having the sentence of death written upon us, so that we wouldn’t trust ourselves, but the One who raises the dead.” That is indeed the crux of this whole thing. It entails much more than intellectual prowess, and making a name for ourselves. It has nothing to do with that. “Not unto us LORD, not unto us LORD, but to You be the glory” (Ps 115).
Bobby, I have a Theology question. In what way is the Word of God encountered by us in the Old Testament? The Apostles were witnesses to Christ, and He is truly presented in the NT, and truly encountered by readers with faith. What did the OT writers witness? What do they present in the scriptures?
Hello Frank. The Word of God I take to be Christ, the eternal Logos. Scripture, just as creation in general, has a theological ontology (and order/taxis) behind it. That is to say: Scripture’s reality is where it finds its reality as it is given by God in Christ. It is an aspect of His speech for us, as He first elected to be for us, with us, and in us in the primordial event of election/reprobation. All of this is to say, that Scripture has no ultimate referent or reality without its reality in Jesus Christ. So, Scripture functions as an instrument (which Calvin also emphasized through his ‘spectacles’ metaphor) which points beyond itself, again, to its reality/telos, in Jesus Christ. So, this is a theological understanding of Scripture wherein Scripture has an “ontology,” a being, in the economy of God’s life for the world. And that ground of being, reality, is none other than its centraldogma in Jesus Christ (Jn 5.39). When Jesus said what he did in Jn 5.39 and Lk 24 He wasn’t at that time referring to the NT, per se, but the OT.