{"id":651,"date":"2013-10-11T01:32:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T01:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=651"},"modified":"2014-08-13T22:09:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T22:09:07","slug":"theology-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/theology-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Theology 101"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After reading and reflection of this week\u2019s book by Roger Olson and Stanley Grenz, Who needs theology?<\/em> I was impressed by their definition of theology and their outline of the different levels of theology that a person can have. The author\u2019s definition of theology, \u201cseeking to understand with intellect what the heart-a person central core of character-already believes and to which it is committed\u201d<\/em> (Kindle Book Loc 88), is a very good definition.<\/p>\n

Being a seminary trained theologian and working in a local church, I see that many don\u2019t understand what theology is, and even if they do, they don\u2019t know who is or is not a theologian. \u00a0\u00a0The concept that every Christian is a theologian on some level is important. Many pastors do not teach the importance of theology and how it is intertwined with one\u2019s faith. \u00a0Very rarely do you hear the term theology or doctrine preached or talked from the pulpit. It is not enough to teach good theology if people don\u2019t even understand what theology is.\u00a0 They need to understand this, as it is how they become grounded in their faith.\u00a0 \u00a0We need to instruct our congregations that you don\u2019t need to be a pastor or have a Masters of Divinity degree to be a good theologian. Any Christian can be a theologian by reflecting and thinking about God \u2013 they need to ask questions and not blindly follow.\u00a0 \u00a0This can be good if they are provided with a solid theological education whether formally or informally.\u00a0 Unfortunately, if they are not given a good foundation then they can build the wrong baseline for their beliefs.\u00a0 The authors outlined five types of theological reflection or thinking. We can use these as a barometer for judging where an individual is at in their understanding and thinking of theology. \u00a0I see many Christians at my own church operate within the first two categories: folk and lay.<\/p>\n

I disagree with the author\u2019s statement: \u201cProfessional theologians may sometimes benefit from the study of academic theology, and they usually are required to study it to some extent to earn their degrees, yet the church and individual Christians struggling in the real world gain little from it.<\/em>While academic theologians are\u00a0<\/em>extremely reflective, they may take this good thing too far-cutting reflection off from faith and seeking understanding for its own sake. At its worst, academic theology follows the motto \u201cI will believe only what I can understand,\u201d which is quite different from \u201cfaith seeking understanding.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0I believe that academic theology can be valuable to everyday Christians.\u00a0 Without academic theologians, there wouldn\u2019t be a depth or foundation to be built from.\u00a0 The real world benefits greatly from academic theologian\u2019s work, such as the Apostles\u2019 Creed and Nicene Creed.\u00a0 I do agree that academic theologians can take reflection of theology to extremes, but generally they give us a solid foundation from which Christians can better develop and understand theology.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Stanley J. Grenz;Roger E. Olson. Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God (Kindle Locations 277-279). Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After reading and reflection of this week\u2019s book by Roger Olson and Stanley Grenz, Who needs theology? I was impressed by their definition of theology and their outline of the different levels of theology that a person can have. The author\u2019s definition of theology, \u201cseeking to understand with intellect what the heart-a person central core […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"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":[2,198],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-grenz","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1984,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}