Why We All Must Be Theologians: Foundations in Theology Series Part 1
Series: Foundations in Theology (Part 1)
Authors: Drs. John M. Frame and Steven L. Childers
Title: Why We All Must Be Theologians
Don’t Be Afraid
The term theology scares people.
It sounds formidable, abstract, and academic. Many of us see it as disconnected from real life. We associate it with old seminary professors and even older, musty books.
As a result, we feel a tension between doctrine and practical living. Sadly, doctrine can bring back painful memories, stirred up by self-appointed theologians who care more about truth than love. We probably should be a little suspicious of academic theology because, studied in the wrong way, it can cause unhealthy thinking and living.
So it’s important to start with a good orientation, to which end we hope this booklet will be of some help.
Let’s begin by understanding what theology is not. It's not trying to articulate our feelings about God (Schleiermacher).[1] Neither is it trying to present all the content of the Bible as a sequential list of topics in a "proper order” (Hodge).[2]
We’ll give you a more formal definition later, but for now, it’s helpful to understand theology as applying the whole Bible to the whole of human life. It is teaching the Bible to meet human needs.[3] This doesn’t elevate the practical over the doctrinal. Neither does it elevate the doctrinal over the practical. Instead, it sees the Bible as authorizing the harmony of doctrine and practice.
For example, when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you get some elementary doctrinal teaching to help you begin your practice of walking with the Lord. But understanding biblical doctrine is not enough. You must also learn how doctrine helps you solve practical problems you face in life.
For instance, the meaning of the sixth commandment (“You shall not kill.”) includes more than not killing people. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us how the sixth commandment also applies to our practical problem of anger toward someone (Matt 5:21-26).
However, as soon as you learn how to apply biblical teaching to your anger in one area, you face new problems with your anger in another area. As a result, you go back to Scripture and theology for more advanced solutions. But now, through the ministry of God’s Spirit and Word, your greater spiritual maturity enables you to apply the same teaching in much greater depth.
Therefore, your growth in grace helps you become a better theologian, and becoming a better theologian helps you grow in grace. Similarly, your theology depends on your spiritual maturity. And your spiritual maturity depends on your theology. Theology is not something you believe, it’s something you do.[4]
This is why we are all theologians.
And this is why a Bible study leader dealing with the doubts of church members is as much a theologian as a seminary professor. Likewise, the Christian employee trying to solve an ethical problem at work is no less a theologian than the seminary student struggling to answer: “What is Christ’s hypostatic union?”[5]
Most authors of the New Testament were not theology scholars.[6] They were ordinary people: a fishermen, a tax-collector, and a physician. These everyday followers of Christ were writing their books and letters in response to the problems and questions they faced as they were living out God’s mission. In his book Kingdom and Mission, Arthur Glasser calls them task theologians.
The New Testament authors and local communities of faith, in whose midst these documents were written, were not marginal to participation in the mission to which God had called his Church. These authors were all missionaries. When they were engaged in theological reflection, its focus was on the missionary task in hand. They were “task” theologians, and what they produced had relevance to the particular tasks in which they were involved.[7]
In the same way, we are to learn God's solutions to our problems so we can obey and honor him as we advance his mission. If we are true followers of Christ, we must be theologians. The only question is whether we are good or bad theologians. Our sincere hope and prayer is that this booklet will help you become a better one, by the grace of God and for his glory.
What is Theology?
This will become clearer as you continue reading. But for now, let’s ask and answer a few questions to help you connect what you've just learned with our more formal definition of theology. Read each question carefully and formulate your best answer. Then compare that with the answers below. You may want to cover the answers until you’ve formulated yours.
Q: What is theology?
A: Theology is the study of God.
Q: Where can we study God?
A: We can study God only where he makes himself known.
Q: Where does God reveal himself?
A: God makes himself known in nature, but primarily in the Scriptures.
Q: What is the difference between theology and the Scriptures?
A: Theology restates the truth revealed in the Scriptures.
Q: If we have the Scriptures, why do we need theology?
A: Theology helps us know the Bible’s solutions to our problems.
Q: Why do we need to know the Bible’s solutions to our problems?
A: To become mature in Christ by applying Scripture to our lives.
So, what is our definition of theology?
Theology is the application of God’s revelation in Scripture to all areas of life.[8]
Notice the important word “application” in this definition. The purpose of theology is to know God’s truth in Scripture so that we’ll become mature in Christ by applying it to all areas of our lives.
The Apostle Paul’s goal in all his teaching is to apply God’s word to real life. Therefore, in Colossians 1:28-29 he writes, “Him (Christ) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
When Paul writes to Timothy, he reminds him that the purpose of the “sacred writings” is to make him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” so that, as a man of God, he “may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:14-17). Paul’s focus is on helping us understand and apply God’s word to our lives so we will grow spiritually.
Likewise, this is what Jesus had in mind when he gave the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20, NIV). His commission to us is not just to teach people everything he commanded, but to teach people how to obey everything he commanded.
There is a big difference between learning all that Jesus commanded and learning to obey all that he commanded.
As a result, the real test of whether you understand Christian theology is not in the classroom. For example, passing an exam on the doctrine of God’s sovereignty is not the real test. It’s later, when you’ve just learned that a loved one has been in a serious accident or has a life-threatening disease. That’s when you learn how sound your theology is and what you believe about the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.
Kinds of Theology
It's helpful to understand that theology is divided into several biblical and theological disciplines described by these terms: exegetical, biblical, systematic, historical, philosophical, and practical. Each of these disciplines work with Scripture, but the unique focus varies by discipline.
Exegetical theology explains the meaning of the biblical texts in the original languages and historic contexts.
Biblical theology describes the progressive, unfolding themes revealed throughout Scripture, like kingdom, covenant, and nations.
Systematic theology arranges all the major subjects in Scripture into an organized system by asking what the whole Bible teaches about any subject, such as God, Jesus, sin, or forgiveness.
Historical theology analyzes past explanations of doctrine by the church, including creeds, confessions, and traditions, for the sake of the church’s present and future.
Philosophical Theology articulates and defends a general conception of the universe to help us understand Scripture. It’s the study of how people view what is real in the world. It helps us answer the ancient questions: what is (metaphysics), how we know what is (epistemology), and how we should act (ethics).
Practical Theology contextualizes and applies theology to all areas of life, both private and public. It includes the disciplines of apologetics, evangelism, discipleship, personal and social ethics, church planting and renewal. It also includes ministries of mercy, justice, prayer, preaching, world missions, etc.
We'll study these topics later in this series. For now, just be aware that a common problem in theological studies is failing to integrate these essential kinds of theology into one unified whole. In an age of specialization, theologians can focus on their areas of specialty to the neglect of other areas. For example, exegetical and biblical theologians often neglect historical theology. Likewise, systematic theologians may neglect practical theology and vice versa.
Applied Theology
In our study, we will seek to integrate the strengths of all these kinds of theology in an approach shown in the diagram below. Notice how the definition of theology, written across the top from left to right, gives us three sections separated by arrows:
Under God’s Revelation on the left side, we’ve placed the disciplines of historical and philosophical theology. The triangle represents integrating the three disciplines of exegetical theology, biblical theology, and systematic theology.
We set apart these three disciplines because they focus on the Scriptures. The focus of exegetical theology is on biblical texts, the focus of biblical theology is on biblical themes, and the focus of systematic theology is on biblical topics.
The value of historical and philosophical theology lies in their contributions, from the wisdom of the past, to these other three disciplines. That’s why they are placed to the left of the triangle.
Under Applied in the middle, we see practical theology’s contribution in how it applies (contextualizes) theology to ministries that transform lives and communities. The goal of these ministries is to see God glorified and his kingdom come in the private and public lives of Christians.[9]
It's okay if there are parts of this diagram you don’t understand yet. Just think of it as your theological roadmap for future reference. Our focus here is on the definition of theology shown at the top of the diagram: “Theology is the application of God’s revelation in Scripture to all areas of life.”
Footnotes:
[1] Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), a liberal theologian, held that religious feelings lie at the heart of theology. He taught the essence of religion is piety and that piety consists in the feeling of absolute dependence. In his earliest work, the Speeches, he famously writes that "religion's essence is neither thinking nor acting but intuition and feeling."
[2] In my (John) Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, I take issue with American systematic theologian, Charles Hodge’s (1797-1878) statement that theology “is the exhibition of the facts of scripture in their proper order and relation, with the principles or general truths involved in the facts themselves, and which pervade and harmonize the whole.” My question to Hodge: if we need theology to put the facts into their proper order and relation, what does that say about the formulations of the facts in Scripture itself? To explore the answer, see Frame, John M. The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. P & R Publishing, 1987, p. 76 ff.
[3] This teaching is the didache, the didaskalia, that Paul refers to in his New Testament letters. So this definition of theology has a direct biblical basis.
[4] When we act on Scripture, there is a sense in which we are interpreting Scripture. We are doing what we think Scripture commands or at least permits. We may be doing it wrong, of course, either through rebellion or incompetence. So, in this sense, every act we perform is theology—an interpretation of Scripture.
[5] Hypostatic union is a technical term in Christian theology that refers to the union of Christ’s divine and human natures in his one hypostasis (ὑπόστασις), or individual existence (i.e. person). We’ll learn later in this series that Jesus, as the God-man, is one person (individual existence) with two complete natures: one fully human and one fully divine.
[6] I (Steve) realize the Apostle Paul was not “normal” among the early followers of Jesus because he was a cosmopolitan (from Tarsus) Roman citizen and had distinguished himself as a highly religious Jew, ”circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless (Phil 3:5-6).”
[7] Glasser, Arthur, Kingdom and Mission (1992), Pasadena, Fuller Seminary Publishing, 6. See also Engen, C. E. V., Gilliland, D. S., Glasser, A. F., & Redford, S. B. (2003). Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible (8.2.2003 edition). Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic.
[8] The previous definition was, “The application of Scripture, by persons, to every area of life.” Frame, John M., and J. I. Packer. 2013. For a more in-depth treatment, see: Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 8. See also Frame, J. M. (2006). Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology. Phillipsburg, N.J: P & R Publishing.
[9] Later in this series, we’ll develop this model in greater detail examining how humanity’s four essential relationships in life (God, self, others, creation) collectively shape the world (creation) forming spheres (social, cultural, political, religious, economic) that in turn shape humanity’s four relationships in life, that in turn shape the world, etc. Areas of life include: 1) Mental (Self), 2) Spiritual (God), 3) Social (Others), 4) Physical (Creation). Areas of Society include: Social, Cultural, Political, Religious, Economic, Education, etc.
