Territorial Bloggings

One of my pet peeves is when folks trot out the old chestnut of, “Well, I’m not a theologian, I’m just a simple layman…” Sometimes, they even mean it in a truly self-effacing way. Usually, however, I’ve found that it’s meant in a way that’s calculated to cut off any negative reaction, or correction, to whatever follows that declarative statement.

I would contend that it is actually more accurate for folks to say that they are not dogmatist/theoretician.

Let me explain…

Theology: The field of study and analysis that treats of God and of God’s attributes and relations to the universe; study of divine things or religious truth; divinity.

Theologian: a person versed in theology, esp. Christian theology

In short, theology is the relationship of God to the universe, and thus a theologian is someone who is interested in that relationship. Pretty simple.

I’ve said it in the past, and I’ll say it again here: We are all theologians.

What we might not all care to be, however, are dogmatists.

Dogma:

1. A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.
2. An authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true.

Dogmatist: One who dogmatizes; one who speaks dogmatically; a bold and arrogant advancer of principles. Another good word for describing what I’m after here is theoretician.

In other words, what I’m contending is that when folks say “I’m not a theologian…” what they really mean is that they’re not a policy wonk - i.e., someone who gets off on the minutiae of delving into the theological DNA of doctrinal issues. Most folks want to feel comfortable that they have a good grasp of the ‘big picture’ stuff.

The thing is, understanding the big picture framework is easy enough if you let yourself be open to what I’ve outlined above. That’s the easy part. Once you’ve accepted it, that’s when the hard part begins. Because no matter which direction you go in, theoretician or non-, you have to constantly work to keep up to speed, lest Satan overtake you & lure you off the narrow path.

As Luther himself observed, there’s a ditch on either side of the road, and you’re in equally bad shape (i.e., IN THE DITCH!) if you stray from the path. Meaning, if you get lost in the minutiae of the DNA, like so many dogmatists who end up down rabbit holes, your faith is in just as much danger as the “plain old pewsitting layman” who is led astray by that “nice man” Joel Osteen who preaches his false gospel of feel-good prosperity, or by Oprah with her new-agey paganism.

We are all theologians, my friends, and it is my fervent prayer that the Holy Ghost will strengthen and preserve us such that we will all be Theologians of the Cross!

-ghp