I found this interesting reflection that I remember we were told we should write. The only question was "Who Needs Theology?" This writing is a reflection, and I thought it was interesting some of the topics I brought up like dualism worldviews and holistic worldviews. I wish I would have expanded more in this for you, but again I remember just sitting down and typing this out just like I type out most of the posts on here. I have actually brought most of these topics up in my writing on this site. Maybe this paper actually sparked my interest in starting this Blog up in the first place!
(Most of the papers that actually seem like college papers that I have are more than 15 pages long, so the ones that I put on here may seem pretty simple...... because they were intended to be that way. One of these days I will post a huge one... and no one will read it haha.)
9/20/2005
Studying, really studying, about God and religion has just been introduced to my way of thinking in the past year or two. Deep study of the Bible had never been something that I had thought about. I have realized that the study of the Word and the contemplation of God and his principles is very important to my Christian faith. Important questions like “did God do this?” or “what does this really mean?” or “what am I supposed to be?” are all questions that need to be answered or thought about by studying the Bible and through personal and group conversations. An answer to the question of “Who needs theology?” is: I do. I also believe that anyone that wants to grow in their faith and understanding would find it to be vastly valuable.
When I was younger God was someone who older people told me about and who I heard about in church. Throughout high school I felt as though I was growing in God but it got to a point where it seemed to level off. After I got to college I got introduced to actually studying the Bible, not just reading it. I had never thought that studying about God would have an effect on my relationship with him. My main focus in years past was the “spiritual” side of Christianity. Never did I think that theological study would have an effect on my walk with God. What had been taught to me is that spiritual growth is the most important side of Christianity, and that everything came second to that. I have realized that all things are important to God and all parts of knowing him are important.
Now that I know that theological studies and the theological task of understanding God and what he is and does is very important to my own personal walk with God. I have also realized that it changes the way you see all of life. When you debate in your mind about things like “why would God do this?” or “did God do this,” and come to a conclusion or at least a decision in your mind you see the world in a different light and come to realize how amazing God really is. Debating these topics helps to build a solid foundation and helps to build a giant skyscraper of faith, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding on top of that foundation. Even if no decision is made on a question, getting to know other peoples opinions and coming up with your own is truly growing in understanding and wisdom.
Theological studies can change your life from being dualistic to holistic. Dualism is the belief that the spiritual world and the real world are separate in most aspects. A holistic view of the world is that God cares about every aspect of your life and that spirituality is not separate from the “real world” we experience every day. This includes work, play, fun, leisure, relationships, feelings... everything. Studying about God gets me to think about him a lot more even in simple things. The questions asked when that happens can come up at any point in the day as something reminds me of something said about God. This helps me to realize that God is in everything and cares about everything. Our original task as Christians was to have dominion over the earth, this means that God doesn’t want everything to be spiritual, he wants everything in our lives to be guided and to be about him.
The importance of all of this makes me realize that it is our job as Christians to be thinkers and people who contemplate the word. Every time we study I realize that God shows himself and reveals himself more and more to his people. If God didn’t want this, why would he give us the Bible and the yearning to study it? Maybe what we’ve been taught our whole lives isn’t what God intended and only by theological study can these things be revealed. Theology can reveal new ideas about Jesus, new values that change the way we think. There is always something in the Bible that can be debated and contemplated. I feel that it is our job to perform this theological task.
From growing up in a Christian home to learning about the theological task later in life, I have realized one major thing about Christianity; you cant just sit back and let people tell you what you believe! Just as important, you cant just assume that God will tell you what is right! He gave us insightful minds and religious text for a reason.
So, “Who needs theology?” Anyone who has the passion to know God more and to know more about God should be involved in the theological task as a theological thinker.
What sparked your interest in Theology? was there something that triggered it? Most people would think that the only people interested in Theology would be future priests and pastors...etc... Has the thought ever crossed your mind to become a youth minister?
ReplyDeleteHey Gina. It has been a long time! I'm not sure why I never responded to this. But here I go....
DeleteIn college I switched from Pre-Med Chemistry, to Business Management, ultimately landing on Religion and Philosophy. In my travels getting there, I had to take certain ethics, and bible classes no matter what degree I wanted. Early on those professors like Andrew Kohl and J. Richard Middleton, inspired me to follow that path. It was never for the purpose of becoming a priest or pastor. In fact it was mostly for personal development as well as a yearning for understanding logic, debate, and interpersonal relationships in the church.
Since I had grown up in the church, I knew that much of what I experienced was a bunch of individuals who collectively agreed to "worship" and have service in a particular way. The other, more real part, of what I experienced was service, love, community, family, and yearning to understand truth(to a certain extent). Through this however, I found that the collective minds of the people often chose to decide what their truth was without much effort in using their minds and resources available to them. They chose to be sheep, because it was easier and there seemed to be fewer responsibilities and consequences. Leadership in a lot of churches prefer to have absolute leadership, and the path the church moves and the understanding it has of God and the Bible are dependent. if they had it their way, wholly on leadership's PERSONAL goals for the group. Most people in churches are encouraged to just be faithful sheep, in my opinion.
I believe that we were never meant to be just sheep, just as we are each a functioning and vitally important part of the body, God has chosen each of us to use our gifts as an active role in guiding each other through our journeys with God and each other in this world...... I think other posts that I have made can expand on this.
DeleteWith all of that being said, I continued the path through religion and philosophy not for career purposes, obviously, since I can find any work dealing with it, but because I have a mind that seeks truth and deeper knowledge. That is especially true when it comes to people and communities that I love are lied to, purposefully or ignorantly. I still don't really know how that plays out in my life, but I take it day to day.
Yes it has crossed my mind to be a youth pastor. However, I am not sure that what I have to say or do would play along with most church leaderships aspirations of power and control. Neither would parents appreciate the knowledge nuggets that the Bible shares that people decide have no place in the church. Simply, I am not one that follows traditional teachings in the church and that does not sit to well with those that seek to "be biblically based" but perpetually do not use proper exegesis to extract truth from the Bible. Instead they prefer to impose their own "truth", or traditional "truth", or "truth" coming from a commentator or author that agrees with them.
For these OPINIONS of mine, I fail to see a place where I fit in the church realm of education and leadership. I would love it however, I have always thought that to change the church, the best place to start is from the inside. I also just may have not come across a church who seeks to be humble in their journey. Most of the time they can start off that way, and even appear to be that way as they grow. Digging deeper, though most churches turn out to have corporate structure very similar to that of Wal-Mart, a service plan that turns out to be simply finding those that are willing to spend their time accomplishing things for the good of the corporation, instead of the gospel (while there are still spoken intentional gospel actions, most are publicity and "feel good" stunts.)
So........ I suppose that was my inspiration, I see a flawed body that needs healing. I see people in pain inside and outside of the church that need compassion and love. I see minds that are drones following and believing everything that is spewed from the pulpit. I see death, and not life, coming from the church's influence. I want to affect that in a positive way, I think that is why I chose that path. People and truth, that is all.