A Jester in the King's Court

When people say, “I don’t need theology”….I die a little inside. Not just because “theology” and “buffalo wings” would be 2 of my Facebook “Five things I love more than ever” list, but also because anyone that claims they have no need for theology is pretty foolish…and I do not do super well with the fools. I should work on that…

When some people say they don’t need theology, they follow it up with “I just want to love God”…and that’s cool. Problem is that that statement presumes 1) A God exists and 2) He is an object worthy of love. That’s theology. You can make no statement about God that is not a theological one. So, you can’t “just love God” w/o theology…I mean…how do you even know what God you are loving w/o theology? Defining Jesus as God is a theological statement.

The bigger issue I have is with what someone told me this semester in my theology class. They said they didn’t see the need for theology because they’d never use the big words they are learning here when witnessing. The “hypostatic union” is not a useful evangelism tool. Again, I agree…but, Christianity isn’t about evangelism. Yes…that’s shocking I know…and I will say it again…just to drive home the point of my bold and shock inducing claim…inspite of what you have been told, Christianity is not about evangelism. It’s about Christ.

Now rest assured, I love and support evangelism…and I know that evangelizing is a means we show our love for Christ…but at the end of the day, Christianity is about Christ. Theology is studying Christ. It seems kind of important.

Let’s say I have a friend…or at least a person that knows me…and we start our relationship, but anytime we got to something deep about me, they said, “Um…I don’t want to know about your goals in life…how is that going to help me tell other people about you?”….or lets say they see my Facebook and my status says something about me going through a hard time (and note…my status will never say that…not because I don’t have hard times…but because I usually don’t put a flashing neon light over said hard time)…and their response is, “Sam! Stop it! I am not going to use this information when I ask people if that want to know more about you!”

Now, I love being talked up. I love my friends telling funny stories about me to people that don’t know me. I even love it when those friends say things like, “That guy Sam is super funny…I have to meet him”….and I in turn love those new friends to pass on funny stories about me as well. The thing is though….I’m not friends with people so that they can get me other people to have relationships with…I’m friends with them to have relationships with them. Which means I’d expect them to get to know me pretty well over time, and actually want to learn about the things in my life deeper than the funny shows I watched last night (FYI: Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation).

This is a dreadfully weak analogy. And I’m not saying everyone has to be scholars….my gosh that would be bothersome…nothing would ever get done:] But what I’m saying is that because of my relationships with people, I mention them in conversation to others. The closer we are…the greater the probability they are going to get there name dropped. But I mention them because I know them, I’ve “studied” them to an extent in that we’ve lived life together, and I think there is a reason to mention them. Not because I think they are super cool and want everyone to know that I know them….even if that’s the case. But, this is what we do with Christ all the time. We don’t care about learning more about Him, because we don’t see value in what we are learning. I’m not saying every inane theological debate is worth pursuing…but if we have a mindset that doesn’t want to learn about the person we are telling others about…we really don’t understand what a relationship is.

I’m not saying you need to drop “hypostatic union” all the time in daily conversation…but why look at that doctrine and not care? Yeah, monothelitism vs. dyothelitism is a debate that at the end of the day doesn’t change much…and I hope you’d never use those words talking to the unsaved…but why look at scorn, or see no value in discussing if Christ had 1 or 2 wills (that’s what those words mean by the way)?

People always think about theologians as stuffy people that don’t care about God, just about facts…and that’s sad. One of the greatest theologians I’ve ever read is Jerry Bridges. He hasn’t written a single book that’s not in the “Christian Living” section of a book store, but his theology is amazing. Why? Because he has studied God. And because He has studied God…he has something of value to say in evangelism.

All that to say: You need theology. You already do theology. Being a Christian is a study in living a theological life. Part of that life should be evangelism…but the purpose of that life needs to be Christ.

Once the semester ends I’ll be funny again…I oath it;]

PS: Christianity also isn't about theology. Its about Christ. After I posted, I thought I should balance things out. Theology is the study of Christ. Christianity isn't about the study of Christ...its about Christ; but getting to know Him more? That is theology. Ok...now I feel better.