Over Specificity

Often theological essays and articles suffer from an over specificity in the current day. This pastor or theologian said x, y, and z.

The debate becomes about the individual more than the ideas. It is sort of difficult to read a times.

The issue is it is so narrow that it misses the whole point. The person saying the ideas is irrelevant more than we would like to admit.

The speaker is important, but it is the ideas and the truth or lack of truth which is ultimate. A lot of speakers in the bible were poor witnesses who brought messages of critical importance and truth.

And many men of great birth and stature among men in the bible spoke messages full of error. You see the life of men is important, but the message men speak is also important.

That is why it is difficult when the discussion becomes so narrow. You see that the focus becomes more on the individual than the ideas.

Really the focus should be flipped. Sometimes I sit writing with a specific theologian or what a specific pastor said in mind. But mainly I choose to skip the name and focus on the ideas.

The name is a distraction. It pulls up all sort of ideas before the ideas even come forth. If churches, theologians, and Christian writers deal more with ideas and less with who presented the ideas the quality of discussion would improve.

You see we miss at times that many of the great people in the bible did metaphorically flip out the local news networks in their day.

Sometimes their greatness was because of this and some times despite of it. But we have forgotten that they too are human at times.

At the other end are agendas to over demonize biblical characters and to paint a picture of modern man as at a much higher state.

This agenda is another issue entirely, but always it is the ideas which are important. And here the flaw is the idea that man is progressing and has reached some new moral level.