![\"me](\"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/me-a-long-time-ago.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen I was 22 years old, I remember meeting with the pastor of my home church, First Baptist Church of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.\u00a0 Rev. Billie Friel, or \u201cBrother Billie\u201d as I knew him, was a significant figure in my life.\u00a0 He was my pastor growing up.\u00a0 He saw my family through two tragedies: the death of my brother and the death of my father.\u00a0 He was an excellent preacher.\u00a0 His love for his people was apparent to everyone.\u00a0 I had gone on mission trips with this man and was impressed that he was the same person \u201con and off stage.\u201d\u00a0 As I was preparing to move away to attend Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, he gave me this challenge.\u00a0 \u201cBe careful.\u00a0 Don\u2019t believe everything that your professors tell you.\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t want to be one of those guys who graduates with a degree but loses their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of that encounter a lot as I read Who Needs Theology?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 For me, this book seemed to be a valuable introduction to Theology, which is explained in the book this way:<\/p>\n \u201cTheology is any reflection on the ultimate questions of life that point toward God\u2026No one who reflects on life’s ultimate questions can escape theology. And anyone who reflects on life’s ultimate questions-including questions about God and our relationship with God-is a theologian\u201d (Kindle Loc 54).<\/p>\n This book spends a lot of time defending the term \u201ctheology.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The clear context is that the writers have encountered many who have misunderstood the term as elitist or even anti-Christian.\u00a0 Coming from a conservative background, I can relate to that.\u00a0 When I encountered liberal theologians, like those who were a part of \u201cThe Jesus Seminar,\u201d I can see what faithless Christianity looks like.<\/p>\n This book challenged the reader to view theology as something that reinforces faith, not shatters it.\u00a0 It tells us that \u201cgood theology will make believers stronger, better informed, and consequently, more effective disciples.\u201d\u00a0 (Kindle Loc 423).<\/p>\n One illustration that the book utilized is that of food.\u00a0 There are scientists who take food into a laboratory, analyze the nutritional value, calorie count, ingredients, etc.\u00a0 Yet, they never actually eat the food.\u00a0 They neither enjoy the food nor benefit from it. \u00a0The book states that \u201cthe theologian-like the food expert-should be a connoisseur and not merely a critic\u201d (Kindle Loc 550).<\/p>\n This notion is taken further as the role of the Holy Spirit in the role of theological learning was highlighted.\u00a0 The authors make this clear when they state that \u201conly when you have truly encountered God and allowed God’s Spirit to transform you-including renewing your mind-will the deeper and higher dimensions of theology open up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Another hallmark of this book is the notion that theology should be practical.\u00a0 It should lead to action.\u00a0 The caricature is the isolated monk or the aloof theological professor who spends hours upon hours studying scripture, with no practical application.\u00a0 In contrast, the book states that \u201cthe final goal of theological reflection is that God might be glorified through believers’ lives, through how they live and what they do\u201d (Kindle Loc 442).<\/p>\n I personally enjoyed the explanation of the different ways that Catholic theology differs from Protestant theology.\u00a0 Mainly in the way that Catholic theology \u201cemphasizes what is known as \u2018natural theology\u2019-the rational discovery and explication of God’s existence and being through investigation of the natural world.\u201d In contrast, protestant theology affirms \u201cthe ongoing nature of theological reflection as a collaborative effort of God\u2019s people\u201d (Kindle Loc 826).\u00a0 \u00a0I had never heard this distinctive contrast put this way.<\/p>\n As someone who leads the \u201cmissions\u201d area of our church, I appreciated how the book addressed the relationship between theology and culture.\u00a0 From apologetics to social action, \u201ca relevant theology speaks to the problems, longings and ethos of contemporary culture\u201d (Kindle Loc 1003).<\/p>\n Another discussion that I appreciated was the relationship between theology and discipleship.\u00a0 In most Christian bookstores, the \u201cTheology\u201d books are kept far away from the \u201cChristian Living\u201d section of the store.\u00a0 In contrast, Grenz and Olson effectively make that case that \u201cTheology is crucial to the entire task of living Christianly in both church and world. Living involves questioning. Living Christianly involves asking and attempting to answer questions about God and the world. Thus, living Christianly involves theology\u201d (Kindle Loc 1519).<\/p>\n As I reflect on my conversation with \u201cBrother Billie\u201d over 25 years ago, I appreciate his sentiment.\u00a0 I wonder, though, if he could have given me a gift along with his challenge?\u00a0 What kind of gift?\u00a0 A copy of Who Needs Theology<\/em><\/strong> by Grenz and Olson.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grenz, Stanley J., and Roger E. Olson. Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God. Downers Grove, IL, USA: InterVarsity Press, 1996. When I was 22 years old, I remember meeting with the pastor of my home church, First Baptist Church of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.\u00a0 Rev. Billie Friel, or \u201cBrother Billie\u201d as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[747,128],"class_list":["post-10213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cocanougher","tag-theology","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}