Keeping Ourselves Theologically Literate

Written by Douglas R. McLachlan

Gary L. W. Johnson, in an essay entitled "Does Theology Still Matter," indicts the evangelical world for its "astounding degree of theological illiteracy" and its "growing bias against theology" (The Coming Evangelical Crisis, p. 58). He cites a 1994 survey in Christianity Today which demonstrates clearly that theology really does not matter, either to the people in the pew or the pastors in their pulpits. The way the magazine interpreted the data gleaned from the survey was especially disconcerting to Johnson:

Because seminary professors put a high priority on theological knowledge, they were considered out of touch with reality and did not have "a good understanding of the needs of local churches or the culture." The article concludes with this ominous remark: "Something’s got to happen. The church is not going to wait. If the seminaries don’t wake up and come along, they will be left in the dust." Wake up to what? . . . The article implied that less theology (or maybe no theology) in the seminary curriculum is the direction needed (Crisis, pp. 59, 60).

David Wells is perhaps the most prophetic voice speaking to the tragic loss of theology in the Christian community. In the introduction to his most recent book, Losing Our Virtue, he says the following:

I should say straight away that what I have done in this book will be irritating to those who do not wish to hear theological truth, and many in the evangelical world do not. They have already washed their hands of it. As little as I wish to wave red rags before bulls and further provoke those who took offense at my earlier books, the fact is that the enculturation of the evangelical world and its self-betrayal through its theologically emptied-out faith is the reason why the Church has no answer to the national crisis of character. It is also the reason why the postmodern world is not hearing, as it should, a Word from God. For this is what theology is really about. I am understanding theology, then, as the work of bringing the truth of God’s Word into lively intersection with the life of the Church, as it exists in its own culture, with the intention of seeing Christian understanding, character, and behavior made more authentic (Virtue, pp. 1, 2).

On account of our abandoning the work of doing theology, Wells says, "the seeds are now being abundantly sown out of which a new liberalism is already arising that will be as destructive to biblical faith as was the older liberalism" (Virtue, p. 2). In addition, he says:

There has . . . come a hollowing out of evangelical conviction, a loss of the biblical Word in its authoritative function, and an erosion of character to the point that today, no discernible ethical differences are evident in behavior when those claiming to have been reborn and secularists are compared. When evangelicals were small in number in the immediate postwar years, it seems that they were larger in stature, but now that they have become large in number they have been diminished in stature (Virtue, p. 3).

Wells laments this transition in his lifetime when he says:

Twenty-five years ago, I am quite certain, I could have cheerfully used the word theology without having to reach for the smelling salts. For then I was a young professor, a sapling in an evangelical world filled with large trees. It was a time when evangelical beliefs were more certain than they are now, theology was a more honorable word, and there was a sense of mission that was infectious. That was the day when the trees that stood so tall in this world were usually made so by their theological conviction and not simply by their money, the size of their church, or the expansiveness of their organization. Then, the leaders in evangelicalism were often its pastors and biblical scholars; today its leaders are its entrepreneurs and managers, and an increasing number of its pastors are indistinguishable from business people whose skills in finding market niches have been honed to a fine edge (Virtue, pp. 2, 3).

What all of this means is that for huge segments of evangelicalism, and in many cases, fundamentalism, the maintenance of theological literacy is passé. But for people who are committed to biblical faith, who are anchored to Biblicism and not pragmatism, theological literacy is of monumental importance. It rescues us from the tragic loss of truth, delivers us from the terrible erosion of Christian character and moral behavior and protects us from the defiling slide into the abyss of raw pragmatism – all of which seem to penetrate much of contemporary evangelicalism. I think David Wells says it best in another of his essays entitled, "The Word In The World":

In the Old and New Testaments, the moments of great impact in the world were never those in which the people of God became indistinguishable from those in their world. When this happened it was a moment of spiritual debauchery. In order to influence the world, the people of God have to be quite different from it cognitively and morally. The irony is that to be relevant the church has to be otherworldly; and when this spiritual otherness is extinguished by the ache for this-worldly acceptance, it loses the thing that it wants above all else – relevance. The church eventually discovers, to its great dismay, that it has lost its voice and no longer has anything left to say. That is the discovery that now seems to be looming ahead of the evangelical world. It is the iceberg that awaits the Titanic as those on board persuade themselves of their invincibility and pass the days in partying (The Compromised Church, pp. 32, 33).

Theology matters profoundly. So what tasks must we fulfill to keep ourselves theologically literate?

Develop a Passion for God
The fundamental engine driving the pursuit of God in theology is a passion for God in our hearts. The question is: "How can we grow a passion for God?" I would suggest three biblical strategies:
1. Be Enamored With Christ (Philippians 3:1-10). There is a whole lot of passion in this passage, and it is all sourced in Paul’s utter infatuation with Jesus Christ. Paul counts all things "loss" and all things "rubbish" in order that he might "know" Jesus Christ personally and intimately by faith (3:7-10). He dispenses with everything which previously had value to him in order that he might connect with Christ. Most scholars believe that a part of the "loss" Paul suffered was that of being disinherited by his Judaistic parents. For Paul, there was nothing in the material world which could compare at all with the joyful privilege of knowing Christ personally. Get to know Christ! Your passion for God will grow!
2. Be Saturated With Truth. Biblical passion is not mindless. It is defined, shaped and bounded by the truth of God’s Word. As the disciples on the road to Emmaus said following their post-resurrection interview with Jesus: "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us" (Luke 24:32). An in-depth knowledge of the Word sets our hearts aflame for God. In getting to know God’s truth we get to know the true God, and the passion grows.
3. Be Surrendered To The Holy Spirit. The Spirit, too, sets our hearts aflame. Why else would Paul say: "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19)? We are not to extinguish the flame which He kindled when He entered our lives. In the 17th century the Puritan preacher, John Owen wrote prolifically on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In plain terms, Owens tells us that if the sin of Old Testament times was the rejection of God the Father, and the sin of New Testament times was the rejection of God the Son, then the sin of our times is the rejection of God the Holy Spirit. Stephen Olford in his book, Anointed Expository Preaching, tells us that our rejection of the Holy Spirit happens in two ways – and both our sins. There is the sin of escapism. Some preachers rarely mention the Holy Spirit for fear of being labeled. Their pulpits are virtually silent on the subject. At the other end of the spectrum is the sin of extremism. While we tend to be somewhat apathetic about the Spirit, others are somewhere out in the ozone layer! The shallow ministry, the subtle manipulations and the senseless manifestations that are so prevalent today do not square with the Word of God or the glory of God. What we need of the Spirit is neither escapism or extremism, neither apathy or the ozone layer. We need "the radical center" (Gordon Fee), which means giving the Holy Spirit His place and His due in our lives, but making absolutely certain that it squares with God’s Word and ends in God’s glory.
The first task essential to keeping ourselves theologically literate is growing our passion for God. The only way I know to do this is to be enamored with Christ, saturated with truth and surrendered to the Holy Spirit. When these components are in place we will be driven to learn more theologically of the God we know personally, intimately and passionately.
Connect with the Discovery Process
Authentic students of theology are exegetes of the text of Scripture. They don’t invent their ideas out of their own minds, they discover them in the Word of God. Yet, this is not merely an academic exercise. There is a spiritual dimension suffusing the whole of it. I hope to make this clear as I define what I believe to be the essential steps in the discovery process:
1. A God-Commitment (John 7:16, 17; Psalm 111:10). All knowing begins in commitment. That is what the Old Testament psalmist meant when he said: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do (His commandments)" (Psalm 111:10). That is what Jesus meant when He said, "My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (John 7:16, 17). Those who are deeply committed to doing God’s will can expect to be guided by God in their understanding and comprehension of His truth. The pursuit of truth is not a mere academic exercise, it is a spiritual journey which begins with a deep-seated God-commitment.
2. A Devotional Immersion In Scripture (1 Timothy 4:15; Psalm 1:2; 119:11; Luke 2:19; Colossians 3:16). It is possible for long-time well-trained servants of God to develop the kind of professional mindset that renders unnecessary the spiritual discipline of a devotional journey with God and His Word. In my mind, this is a position where great jeopardy lurks. It is still true that, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Stephen Olford suggests several procedural movements in this devotional connection with Scripture:
  1. Wait. This is centering on God as we clear away the clutter of the time-space-matter continuum. We wait momentarily in order to sense His presence, seek His purpose and ultimately see His power in our lives.
  2. Read. Get acquainted with the text – its flow, its development, its sense. Approach it reverently and expectantly and read it generally, carefully and meditatively. System and sequence are vital. Therefore, plan your reading passage by passage. Olford suggests that a short passage well read is better than a chapter or more superficially skimmed.
  3. Think. In your devotional journey ask your text several crucial questions: Is there a promise to claim; a lesson to learn; a blessing to enjoy; a command to obey; a sin to avoid; a new revelation of God in Christ or the Holy Spirit; a new theological insight. This kind of thoughtful reflection rarely fails to reveal a word from the Lord.
  4. Write. There is no lasting impression without personal expression. Chronicling our devotional journey gives us the opportunity to test and confirm God-given impressions on paper. Briefly recording the thought you glean in a devotional form can aid in personal appropriation and practical application.
  5. Pray. There is great value in turning the meditation into prayer and praying back to God what He speaks to us out of the text of Scripture. In this way we are refusing to change the subject. What He says to us, we pray back to Him. This gives us the opportunity to adjust our will to His will.
  6. Share. Sharing the good we gain from these quiet moments with God cements the truths we learn in our hearts and minds. We can do it through humble conversation with God’s people, wise witness in personal evangelism or in personal correspondence with others.
  It is this devotional discipline, sourced in our love for God, our passion to know Him, that prepares our mind and heart for the exegetical, theological journey into literacy.
3. A Dependence Upon The Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). This is what theologians call illumination. Illumination is the quickening of our cognitive powers by the Holy Spirit so that we can understand the already revealed Word of God. With the psalmist we pray: "Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law" (Psalm 119:18). Illumination does not mean that we know everything (Deuteronomy 29:29); that there is no need for teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12); or that understanding comes easily without significant expenditure of mental energy (2 Timothy 2:15). Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit should be trusted to lead us to an authentic understanding of the text when we approach it and Him humbly and transparently. He is the key to overcoming the liabilities of hermeneutical horizons, distanciation and our cultural predispositions. Whatever baggage we may bring with us to the text, we can expect Him to overcome it, as we humbly acknowledge our need and fully depend upon Him to perform His illuminative tasks!
4. A Dialogue With The Interpretive Community (Proverbs 27:17, 2 Timothy 2:2; Acts 15). Nobody stands alone in the interpretive process. All of us stand on the shoulders of others. We stand in the mainstream of a rich theological tradition. And we ignore it only to our hurt. Connecting with people in the interpretive community who share our loyalty to Scripture is a major means of knowing and growing in truth. There is a whole lot of dialogue going on in 2 Timothy 2:2. Look at the ever widening set of concentric circles of interaction: Paul; Timothy; multiple witnesses; faithful men; others also. The dynamics of this kind of interaction serve us very well in our pursuit of the truth about God. In Acts 15, in what has often been called the Jerusalem Council, the believers engaged in great dialogue, under the umbrella of absolute truth (the old revelation of the Old Testament, and the new revelation of the Apostles), in order to resolve the monumental issue of the conflict between law and grace. These are models which should be imitated by ourselves as we struggle to know the truth authentically.
5. A Skill In Critical Exegesis (2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Timothy 5:17). We cannot believe the text naively. A warm, fuzzy feeling without the critical tools of exegesis will lead to imprecision in our comprehension of truth and confusion in our theology. All of us, I think, know that the term "critical exegesis" does not mean that we have critical attitudes in life, or that we set in judgment of Scripture. It simply means that we lay hold of the necessary exegetical tools so that we can affirm sound reasons for the opinions we hold, the belief-system we embrace. David Alan Black has done as well as anybody in defining the processes involved in critical exegesis (Using New Testament Greek In Ministry, Baker, 1993). He shows us how to answer the three exegetically crucial questions in any probing of a text of Scripture. Those three questions are:
  1. Do I know where my text fits biblically? Here we are honoring context.
  2. Am I really certain about what the text is saying? Here we are discovering meaning.
  3. Could anyone benefit from what I have to say about the text? Here we are defining significance.
6. A God-Centered Telic Point (James 1:21-25; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 3:10). In defining the essential steps in the discovery process, we end where we began – with God and our relationship to Him. In our ignorance we commit ourselves to Him and in our growing knowledge we do the very same thing. The goal toward which we move is not the mere acquisition of factual data about God; it is personal, intimate acquaintance with Him. We want to know Him, not just facts about Him. With Paul our hearts cry out: "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10). Clearly that is the God-ordained end of the fulfillment of our task as teaching-shepherds – that our people would know and love God and His church more (Ephesians 4:11-16). And that same end is defined by James as the goal of our own personal study of God’s Word (James 1:21-25). We are called to be "doers" not just "knowers" of God’s truth.

Anchor to Absolute Truth

The only legitimate source-material for accurate and rich theological understandings is the absolute truth of the Word of God. In a postmodern world of anti-truth this is no time for any of us to go soft on absolutes. Albert Mohler has rightly said: "To identify with truth is to place oneself in the heart of a storm from which there is no escape until death." The shape that storm takes is a violent assault on the very category of truth. We expect this in the secular academy but what saddens us is to face it even in the evangelical community. Roger E. Olson, who teaches at Bethel College and Seminary, favors broadening the sources of theology to include culture and experience. He rejects propositional inerrancy in favor of narrative theology and dismisses the idea of any epistemological certainties based on universal or absolute truth ("Postconservative Evangelicals Greet The Postmodern Age," The Christian Century, May 3, 1995, pp. 480-483). This is the shape the storm takes!

Conversely, people who take the concept of divine revelation seriously believe that absolute truth is both objective (standing outside the "I" / anchored to a breathed-out, written-down document called the Bible) and knowable (through the illuminating influence of the Holy Spirit and the accurate exegesis of a text). Nobody can know truth about God, or "do theology" as God ordained, apart from confidence in and meticulous attention to God’s own revelation of Himself in the text of Scripture. Even God’s revelation of Himself in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth is of little help to us now, since He has ascended back to heaven. But the text of Scripture is something we hold in our hand and can hide in our mind and heart. So we must "do theology," as David Wells defines it, by "bringing the truth of God into lively intersection with the life of the Church, as it exists in its own culture, with the intention of seeing Christian understanding, character, and behavior made more authentic" (Losing Our Virtue, p. 2).

So if we are to be theologically literate, we shall have to anchor to the absolute truth of Scripture, exegeting out of the text its theological understandings, axioms and equations, and applying them to our personal, spiritual journey.

Practice a Disciplined and Discriminating Regimen of Reading
1. Read Widely. I mean here that we should read selections from multiple disciplines, while focusing primarily on the areas which relate most closely to our specific calling in life. The shape this regimen could take would include exposure of our minds to data which is theological, missional, devotional, historical, exegetical and homiletical.
2. Read Wisely. In the simplest sense this means, first, do not allow yourself to become the prisoner of your most recent book. Be so anchored to the absolutes of Scripture that you filter everything you read through its theological grid. Second, this means that we will be selective in our reading. The overwhelming abundance of information demands that we do this. In the passage of time, we become acquainted with authors and publishers who focus on the various disciplines I mentioned a moment ago. It is best to connect with those in whom we have confidence, and who for the most part, share our loyalty to Scripture. If our motive is more missionally and spiritually driven than merely academically driven, we should not find this kind of selectivity difficult to embrace.

For me this is the pathway to theological literacy:

Develop A Passion For God
Connect With the Discovery Process
Anchor To Absolute Truth
Practice A Disciplined and Discriminating Regimen of Reading

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