Everyday Theologians

"A theologian takes God seriously as subject and not as object, and makes it a life’s work to think and talk of God in order to develop knowledge and understanding of God in his being and work.”  We need these types of people in our lives, theologians who contemplate the mysteries of God.  “Mystery” of course, “is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend.”   People like Piper & Packer, Ryle & Ryrie, Grudem & Guinness who enlarge our understanding.

 They explore and explain the intricacies of the atonement, the richness of Christ’s nature and the various facets of sanctification.  Because of them we do not lack understanding of the Spirit filled life, the devastation of original sin or the fellowship among the Trinity.  They give us an overall grasp of the Bible as a whole.

On the other hand, we are all theologians to some degree if we are reading and learning from the Bible.  We may not read systematic theology in the evenings, or read   the Bible in Greek or have studied formally in a seminary.  We may not even know the difference between soteriology and pneumatology, but in an informal yet very real way we are theologians.

 Both formal professor theologians (like them) and informal everyday theologians (like us) need to answer some basic questions about our “study of God.”  Like: what is the ultimate aim in occupying our minds with these things? What do we do with our knowledge of God, once we’ve got it?

 The opening chapter of Knowing God gives some answers, “If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us.  It will make us proud and conceited.

 “There can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard. In this way, doctrinal study really can become a danger to spiritual life.

 “Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God Himself   better.   Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.  We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.  It was for this purpose that revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.”

(Quotes by: Eugene Peterson, Dennis Covington, J.I. Packer)