{"id":6141,"date":"2015-10-22T13:26:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T20:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=6141"},"modified":"2015-10-22T13:26:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T20:26:24","slug":"paralysis-by-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/paralysis-by-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralysis by Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pic<\/a> INTRODUCTION<\/u><\/p>\n

Recently, at the center stage of international news was the discovery of an ancient church in Chiapas, Mexico. Ever since a dam was built in the region, the ancient building was covered with water, disappearing not only from sight, but also from the memory of the faithful. In these past days, however, the water receded and the beautiful church made out of rock was once more revealed.<\/p>\n

This discovery illustrates my experience of reading the fifth edition of Christian Theology by Alister McGrath. More than two thousand years have passed since Jesus built the church on the rock. Yet, like the forgotten church in Chiapas, the heritage of the Christian church throughout the centuries can be covered by the waters of ignorance, risking also to disappear from the minds of the faithful. This ignorance can be costly in three ways. It can lead new believers to think that they are the only ones dealing with some theological issues, completely unaware of the writings of many Christians who have dealt with these same issues throughout the centuries.\u00a0\u00a0 It can also lead to denominational arrogance, making believers think that their local church or denomination is the only one that has gotten it right. In the worse cases, it can also lead people to embrace heresy, without realizing that the ancient church has already debated and defined these key doctrinal convictions.<\/p>\n

SUMMARY<\/u><\/p>\n

Page by page, professor Alister McGrath helps the waters of ignorance recede slowly, by helping the reader unveil the complex and beautiful theological heritage of the church\u2014from ancient times to modernity. He does so with an informative rather than indoctrinating approach, maintaining a neutral perspective as he takes the reader through a summary of church history, a description of the tools used in theology, and a detailed explanation of the major doctrines of the Christian faith. He helps the reader learn about significant theological ideas that have transpired throughout church history, and how these ideas and events have shaped the way the global church is today\u2014with all of its denominational and doctrinal complexity. His goal is that the readers will discover a fascinating world that will ignite in them a passion for the study of God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pic<\/a>REFLECTION<\/u><\/p>\n

McGrath recognizes that his goal is not to tell people what to believe; instead, he seeks to \u201cexplain to them what has been believed, in order to equip them to make up their minds for themselves.\u201d (xxiii). Yet, as much as I agree with his goal, I find it necessary to point out the dangers of this journey. Having walked the path of academic theology for more than two decades now, I\u2019ve come to realize that both ignorance and knowledge of theology can be equally costly. This is due to the fact that the waters illustrated above cannot only keep people in ignorance, but they can also drown faith. \u00a0When I was in my second year of graduate theological studies, I was learning to swim in an ocean of perspectives on many of the subjects included in the five hundred pages of McGrath\u2019s book. I was being equipped with knowledge in order to make up my mind. However, there was a point in which I started drowning, and I started questioning the very existence of God. Thankfully, I was surrounded by an academic community that I could talk to and pray with, which helped me in the process. Consequently, I came out of the water stronger and with deeper convictions. Sadly, I know of other cases of people whose faith did not survive the process. Wanting to come out of the waters of ignorance, they ended up drowning their faith in the waters of knowledge.<\/p>\n

So, why is this the case? The last thing you want to experience when you are swimming is to suffer from paralysis. Yet, this is exactly what can happen in the study of theology. There are so many views and so many arguments, that some people can end up suffering from what I call \u201cparalysis by analysis\u201d\u2014that is when a person becomes content with being aware of all of the views but committing to no one. When theology simply becomes a collection of opinions, it can lead some believers to conclude that there is no objective truth, and that faith is founded on a relative epistemology.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the place where many people in the journey of theological discovery can take the wrong turn. I believe that it is our responsibility as theological educators and pastors to equip the new believers not only by exposing them to the vast array of theological perspectives, but also to help them develop a criteria to navigate through the waters of knowledge.<\/p>\n

So, how c\"Pic3\"<\/a><\/u>an Ethnos Bible Church help new believers as they embark on this journey of theological discovery? Based on my survival experience, I humbly suggest four principles that helped me in my own journey, and I hope they will also help the ones under my pastoral care. First, we must provide the new believer with an atmosphere of theological reflection in our ministry; a place where people feel free to ask and think out loud without the fear of being judged for their inquisitive mind. Secondly, we must help the disciple distinguish between a possible<\/em> and a plausible<\/em> interpretation. That is to say, just because somebody came up with a theological perspective on an issue does not mean that the perspective is plausible<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Making this distinction helps the new believer avoid concluding that theology is epistemologically relative. Third, we must help the disciple understand that plausible theological views are the ones that best connect the most dots of biblical evidence<\/em> on the topic. For instance, imagine a page full of dots. A person can draw some lines that connect some dots, leaving some others completely disconnected. However, another person may masterfully connect each dot, revealing a beautiful image that suddenly makes sense of all the dots. That is the picture of what plausible interpretation looks like. The most plausible interpretations in the ocean of theological views are the ones that include all the biblical evidence on the topic\u2014not just selective sections\u2014and they do so in a cohesive way. Finally, we must help the disciple understand that the most plausible interpretations are not always the ones that give the best answers, but the ones that ask the best questions in light of the biblical evidence.<\/p>\n

Well-equipped disciples know what the Bible says, what the church has thought, and have the discerning tools to understand why they believe what they believe. My hope is that our ministry will facilitate the journey of theological discovery in community by thinking about the process of theological education in this holistic way. By doing so, we will cause the waters of ignorance to recede as the disciple learns to swim in the ocean of theological reflection, never to be worried of suffering from theological paralysis or drowning their faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTION Recently, at the center stage of international news was the discovery of an ancient church in Chiapas, Mexico. Ever since a dam was built in the region, the ancient building was covered with water, disappearing not only from sight, but also from the memory of the faithful. In these past days, however, the water […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"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":[689,199,688],"class_list":["post-6141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethnos-bible-church","tag-mcgrath","tag-pablo-morales","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141","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\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6141"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6149,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141\/revisions\/6149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}