Theological Discussion Is a Dialogue

Theological discussion requires dialogue.  This sentence in some sense seems not worth stating or writing about.  Discussion is dialogue by definition.

Too often, however, our sinful condition turns theological discussion [or discussion of any kind] into multiple monologues which alternate.

Any discussion of theology requires listening.  If we cannot listen we cannot discuss.  We can of course state our own views without listening.  Even if our views are entirely right we have not really discussed anything if we have not listened.

Really good discussion takes time.  Too often we find it expedient to not spend time to actually listen and understand.  Of course any time saved in this way tends to be wasted time  because it leads to unnecessary misunderstanding and later issues.

At times I believe that theological discussions are rushed for lack of time.  They would be better served to be tabled until there is actually time to discuss the matters at hand.

Dialogue always involves speaking to others, not at others.  Christian dialogue should be characterized by love.  Love  requires special concern about others and we cannot dialogue in love without listening and understanding.

Why Experts get No Listeners

I was recently reading a really excellent article by an economist lately which was far better than most economic articles I've read. I was struck as a realized the article was probably far less read than most of the prevalent economic drivel on the Internet.

I realized that the issue was that the article was too instructive. We want quick fixes. We want to know is the market going up tomorrow or not. We want to know how to make money.

We aren't really interested as a group in underlying economic currents and really understanding. All human action is motivated action.

And as humans our shortsightedness draws us away from a acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. Often we need to slow down in life.

The path to true knowledge in most fields is long and hard. The short cut to "easy answers" in life often gives us know answers.

Often we never learn because we do not have the humility to admit that learning takes time. We imagine we may sit down in and afternoon and master a topic.

True learning takes time, humility, and patience. There are no short cuts. No quick solutions.

We meet ourselves when we seek to learn. Our impatience, our shortsightedness, and our pride.

The great failure of mankind is learners is because the bible is right about the nature of man. The bible does not paint a pleasant picture of the nature of mankind, but it paints an honest picture.

And to that honest picture the bible gives a glorious solution of a the free offer of grace for all who will come to Jesus.

Listening as Love

One way to show love to others is to truly listen. Hearing is different than listening. To hear means you only hear the sound of words, but it doesn't mean any thought has been taken to truly understand and process what has been said.

People can tell if you've been listening to them and feel loved or respected if they know you're listening. They can tell by your questions and responses and if you remember what was said later.

It's not always easy to listen. Our brains are powerful and have the ability to process thoughts faster than words are spoken, so we have to purposely try to not have our thoughts go to the next thing or how to respond before the person is stating their complete thought when we should focus on what the person is saying.

And this principle also applies to listening to God's word. Listening to God's Word is one way to show love to God. We should think about his Words enough to truly understand. The same principles apply.

Listening as Vital for Friendship

It is common in life for people to try to do too much. They will try to be friends with everyone in the church and in the end they are friends with no one in the church.

I am not saying there should be an inhospitable spirit of anyone to anyone else in the church. It is quite frustrating to see Christians who do not wish to include other Christians in conversation or such.

What I am saying is that we cannot have significant relationships with all people. I often find that people who try to have too many friendships begin to have a deep knowledge deficit about their "friends." They cannot really remember the details about their many friends because they have too many friends to count.

Ultimately the friendships are of a kind which are quite trivial and often verge frankly upon having a vast number of acquaintances. Ultimately true friendship takes time.

I believe that true friendship requires listening. And listening takes a great deal of time. We often have a choice between developing many shallow relationships or a few deep relationships.

I believe developing a few deep relationships is usually preferable to many shallow relationships. Of course having deep and shallow relationships are not absolutely opposed, but with limited time often having many shallow relationships will leave no time for deep relationships.

Choices often make other choices untenable. A choice is not wrong in any logical sense because it makes choices untenable; it is simply the nature of life. Often we choose one thing at the expense of another.

The issue of course is when we try as we often do to choose too many things. Often when we choose too many things all of our choices suffer or we suffer because of our choices.

Listening

The bible always encourages us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. The reality of life is that our pride causes us to wish to speak and not listen.

We cannot be of edification if we do not listen. Even if we know more than those we speak with we cannot edify by speaking.

I have found often when I have had problems people are quick to give advice without listening to what I have to say. You see they wasted my time and their time by not listening before speaking. You see their advice was worthless because it was so general I could have found it on a thousand web pages and had already seen similar advice on many.

Maybe they could have been of use if they first spent a few moments listening. They might have had something helpful to say if they spent a few moments listening to my situation instead of spending five minutes saying vague generalities which do not apply.

You see speaking with an expert on a topic is not necessarily of use if you have a question if they will not take time to listen to your question. This is how it is often in life with many issues. We all speak so much that no progress is made because we have never listened to other's issue.

A related issue is trying to have too many friends. There are those who try to juggle fifty relationships and do none of the relationships well. They are friends with so many people they cannot keep any of the details of their friend's life straight.

You see relationships take time. There is a thing as having too many friends. The issue is that friendships take time because they are based on knowledge. We must listen and learn to be truly good friends.

You cannot really listen effectively to the lives of fifty friends. I personally would rather have two to three really close friends than fifty friends whose lives I cannot keep straight.

I find at times there is a loneliness of being with people you have spent so much time interacting with that exceeds that of being completely alone. I have never felt so alone as being around people who I have spent years trying to share my life with and I know massive amounts of things about them, but they cannot keep the smallest facts about me straight.

The reality is that these people were too busy to really try to have a relationship with me. I wish they had accepted the fact and not gone out of their way to pretend they cared.

Listening, Getting Things Right, and Rest

It is always of great use to listen to the implications others see in their positions which they hold. Often we might guess what the implications should be in their positions and we may or may not be wrong.

Is it that other people are inconsistent and they might not have implications in their system that should be there? I suppose this is always possible however often we see mystery in things.

It is not common to see logical thinkers have views which have an interesting tension. This is not simply in a field such as theology: it carries in many fields.

You see large systems of thought often have many nuances. Often a position is not fully rejected but partially affirmed with qualifications.

And this is the great issue in communication; it is that often others attempt to carry out the implications of the thought of others. In doing so they often create positions which the author of the ideas does not hold.

It is interesting to see many great theologians or great thinkers get others' positions in their field so completely wrong. Often, I suppose, many people try to do too much.

Maybe they have a critique in mind of a figure and they have a few months to write a book. In those few months they produce a book of some value which gets the other thinker wildly wrong.

It is often the case that many positions which we disagree with are not so easy to critique as we would think. We might undertake a nuanced critique but that would take a very long time.

Often you will see too many people in fields taking short cuts to try to prove their point. The reality is we often accomplish so little because we do too much.

We try to do ten things and do all ten in a mediocre way and very little good results. If we had simply done one or two things we might have had better results.

Billy Graham near the end of his ministry was asked of his deepest regret. He said that he preached too much and spent too little time in the Word and prayer.

You see sometimes we can accomplish more by doing less. This is why Jesus so frequently withdrew into solitude in the wilderness.

Keeping the Sabbath is having faith that we can do more in six days with God than seven without God.

Danger of Christian Scholarship

There is a great danger to Christian Scholarship. This is important for the academic to understand (as a warning to self) and the student (as a healthy suspicion of the academic).

The danger is that the bible only ever speaks to oneself. It wasn't intended to be studied ever in a primarily literary or thematic way.

The Christian scholar whose study of scripture does not contain an element of worship faces a great danger to his heart. To be honest we all find work difficult and at times tedious, but the danger is when we are approaching the word of God in this way.

To be honest I have always been a bit concerned by those who must study the bible every day or attend church every Sunday. There is a very good tendency in those things, but we must realize that we are entering into a the presence of God were God will speak to us.

I personally find there are moments where I'm not particularly interested in listening to God in this moment (maybe I am simply too tired). I actually consider that it is possible that to read scripture in some states where you are doing so out of duty can be detrimental to oneself.

If we are hearing God's word we must be prepared to listen. If we nod off a bit in church there is nothing wrong so long as we had really intended to listen in worship. But to simply come to church or scripture with no intent to listen is of great danger.

Christian scholars face this danger frequently. There is great pressure to study and publish a large amount of materials. But one must always remember the scriptures are always speaking directly to you.