Is Theology Useless?

The website of Solomon’s Porch states: “You will not find statements of what our community believes on this site.  Belief is a dynamic lived reality.”  Instead, they list “dreams,” which include lots of very nice things like beauty, art, justice, mercy, and truth. Even “innovation .. in order to bring glory to God.”  But you will find nothing about monotheism, the trinity, or the gospel.

This feeling has long been common among laypeople—something which perhaps reflects as much on the bad attitudes of their pastors as of the people—but what I find more disturbing is the increasing trend toward this feeling among Christian students who are called to be lovers of learning as well as lovers of things pertaining to the kingdom.  I am stunned every year to discover students about to graduate, having never taken a single upper-level theology or Bible class, announcing to me that they intend to enter into ministry, missions or even Bible translation.  Some of these seem to think it a positive virtue to have never been contaminated by the academic study of theology or Bible before they serve the world in Christ’s name.  Yet to think one is fit to minister on the basis of Sunday-school training, Bible reading and zeal is tantamount to believing one can be an be an emergency-room doctor after having a first-aid class.

Does it really matter, after all?  I believe this anti-theological education sentiment is driven in part by the belief that, in the end, what really counts is simply loving people for God, not communicating doctrines.  As Peter Rollins wrote, “Orthodoxy … is a way of being in the world rather than a means of believing things about the world.”  However, this is a false dichotomy.  One cannot escape theology, for theology simply means what we believe about God and his relationship to the world.  As J. I. Packer used to tell his students: “Everyone has a theology.  The only question is—is it a good theology, or a bad theology?”  One has only to peruse the Emergent Village blog to see lots of both among people who claim to be doing neither.

This attitude exists not only among “emerging” Christians; it is to be found here in Houghton, and among many younger Christians.  What is perhaps more disturbing, however, is the increasing trend among some to view even evangelism as superfluous next to loving friendships, community development (here or in the two-thirds world), aid work, etc.  “I don’t care if they ever hear ‘the gospel’ from me” I have heard more than one person say.  The intent is that the object of their good works will see the gospel in their deeds.  The answer is: no they won’t.  I can say this having been raised in a bona fide “nonchristian” family, with no Bible, no religious training, no church, and no Christian family or friends.  We don’t infer theology from your good-works mimes.  You have to actually tell us the gospel.  Jesus proclaimed the gospel to his audience too, and ordered his disciples to proclaim the kingdom and to make disciples (Mark 1:14-15; 6:7-13; Matt 28:18-20), although Israel already had known God’s Word for over a millenium.

I realize that this current emphasis on social action and loving neighbor is a reaction to the weaknesses of previous generations.  And as a corrective, it is welcome and a part of God’s will.  But we must be careful lest in correcting the past we also fail to learn from it, and end up creating new errors.

Exactly one hundred years ago another Christian movement was at the height of its popularity, and like many trends today, it de-emphasized traditional theology and emphasized intervening to change the world for justice and mercy.  It was called the Social Gospel.  Its adherents accomplished many worthwhile and noble things for society, including advancing trade union rights, advocating for women’s rights, limiting child labor and prostitution.  But in the end, its adherents had so weakened the gospel half of the social gospel by various compromises, that they were unable to distinguish their cause anymore from nationalism and democracy.  In the U.S., they urged men to kill Germans to advance the kingdom of God.  And after the war, their social progressivism survived in various political organizations, but only at the cost of eliminating even more remnants of traditional Christianity.  The authority of the scriptures, the deity of Christ, the atonement, and the traditions of the church, were all trodden under in the name of progress, and faith in science subtly replaced the old faith.  There was no longer much Christ, or much gospel, to transform or to claim people’s allegiance, and many churches that bought into it declined.  The movement had killed itself spiritually.

My point is not, of course, that social action or loving neighbor is bad.  My point is that theology matters.  And one cannot escape the consequences of one’s theological beliefs.  In the New Testament, Saint Paul expected ordinary believers to think theologically and addressed open letters with profound theological arguments to congregations that were ninety percent illiterate.  Even Jesus took three years to train his so-called “unlearned” disciples before sending them out.  We should take note and be willing to learn if we wish to be Christ’s ambassadors.