1. The Problem
Theology in the present day is typically very straight forward. Often in the first few minutes of listening to a preacher he tips his hand to his assumptions and the rest of his sermon can be predicted. You can predict what parts of the text the preacher will emphasize and what parts of the text the preacher will gloss over.
I see American theology in a state of crisis because almost all theology of the present day suffers from redaction. Redaction is a systematic process where the teaching of the bible is ignored on certain issues. Liberal theology and conservative theology today redact scripture.
Liberal theology primarily redacts the Bible's teaching on salvation, human relationships, ethics related to human life. Conservative theology primarily redacts the Bible's teaching on the poor, social justice, and the Christian's obligation to the non-Christian.
Often the picture is painted in such black and white terms in the current day: Liberal theology ignores the whole teaching of scripture while conservative theology accepts the teaching of scripture. In reality conservative theology often redacts scripture by simply ignoring scripture.
2. Why the Problem is Entrenched
Mainly both liberals and conservatives consider each other enemies and themselves as having the monopoly on truth. The reality is that both sides to some degree are ignoring scripture.
3. How to do Organic Theology
Organic theology is simply accepting what the bible accepts. You see in traditional theology that certain texts are given priority over others and used to interpret other texts. It seems better to simply affirm all texts and say "yes" to what they teach.
You see theology is not done in this way because it is more paradoxical to say "yes" to all the contents of the bible than to force the bible into a neat tiny mold. The issue today is that theology is irrational in its pursuit for pristine logic; it cannot interpret all of scripture without paradox so it instead philosophizes by determining priority.
4. Why Organic Theology is Biblical
The Bible is God's word where He speaks to us. We cannot interpret some texts through other texts in a way which destroys the meanings of other texts. The issue today is that philosophy has triumphed over true exegesis.
5. Why Organic Theology is Desirable
The Bible says that the whole bible is useful for teaching and instruction. That is why American Christianity is weak. We separate into camps each of which ignores parts of the bible.
Showing posts with label liberal theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liberal theology. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Monday, April 22, 2013
Doing Theology
A key aspect of doing theology is to always remember that theology is intended for worship. A lot of theology starts to go offtrack when it begins to analyse the subject apart from the way the subject was intended to be studied (i.e. faith).
Much of Liberal theology results in a fashion such as this. The first step is to study the bible by reason alone apart from faith. This is of course exactly the opposite of the intent of scripture.
How you look at things depends on what you see! If you see the Lord of Heaven and earth standing at the top of a hill speaking the words of eternal life to you then you will hear one thing. If you are simply looking at a text written 2,000 years ago and using reason alone then you will see something completely different.
The reality is that faith is not separate from reason. In fact faith is based on reason. But if reason becomes convinced that God himself is speaking to oneself, it becomes a very different sort of listening.
If God is speaking to you and you are having a difference of opinion with God then one needs to look deeply inside oneself to see if it is rational to disagree with such a being. If God is who he says he is and he has a word for you and that word is found in scripture then when God speaks to you and you do not like he says the correct approach is to say "Lord have mercy on me a sinner."
Is man greater than God? No! But many men wish to think that by their reason they can out think God. Or as if "God says" is simply not enough reason to end an argument.
Of course it is always imperative to confirm that God has actually said what people say he has. Many people have made claims about Christianity that are very hard to substantiate from the bible. But if in fact God did say it then it is a great folly to stand toe to toe against the Living God.
Much of Liberal theology results in a fashion such as this. The first step is to study the bible by reason alone apart from faith. This is of course exactly the opposite of the intent of scripture.
How you look at things depends on what you see! If you see the Lord of Heaven and earth standing at the top of a hill speaking the words of eternal life to you then you will hear one thing. If you are simply looking at a text written 2,000 years ago and using reason alone then you will see something completely different.
The reality is that faith is not separate from reason. In fact faith is based on reason. But if reason becomes convinced that God himself is speaking to oneself, it becomes a very different sort of listening.
If God is speaking to you and you are having a difference of opinion with God then one needs to look deeply inside oneself to see if it is rational to disagree with such a being. If God is who he says he is and he has a word for you and that word is found in scripture then when God speaks to you and you do not like he says the correct approach is to say "Lord have mercy on me a sinner."
Is man greater than God? No! But many men wish to think that by their reason they can out think God. Or as if "God says" is simply not enough reason to end an argument.
Of course it is always imperative to confirm that God has actually said what people say he has. Many people have made claims about Christianity that are very hard to substantiate from the bible. But if in fact God did say it then it is a great folly to stand toe to toe against the Living God.
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