Simon Swift (UK) is someone I met on Zoom and, like so many of us, in seeking to engage with the who and what of our context has explored what a biblically-informed faith and beliefs might look like. I look forward to reading them as they will be practical as well as provocative. Enjoy this first one!
So often one is given the impression that you must have an understanding of God packaged in a set of rules and facts. These facts defining the type of christian you are. Often labelled by this or that theology. This can constrain our ability to develop an understanding of God within the world we live in. Surely theology should be a tool to help us in our discovery of who God is and the on going story of humanity in God’s creation. In other words theology should be a useful guide.
Theology shapes what type of believer you are. It is often defined by the type of church you grew up in or was most exposed to when you became a believer. Yet a lot of Christians are unaware of where their beliefs come from and how they are born out of theological debate and argument. There are many different church movements and denominations promoting their own theologies as the truth, one wonders which one is right. We should not let theology be a form of christian identification and exclusion.
But what if theology was not meant to be defined in such a tribal way. Instead simply an attempt to be helpful in understanding God and our relationship with him. That these theologies are best understood as forming out of a context of those developing their knowledge of God and faith. A theology based on the Bible, understood through the lens of our circumstances and experience. This will mean that different generations will have a different take on how they interpret what they meet in the scriptures. Even our own experience, language and world view will mean we to have to do the work of developing a theology for our generation. For example, what the gospels meant for black slaves in the historical Americas compared with today’s inner city populations in the UK will be different. How do we in different circumstances and ages relate to God the Father or what does Jesus’ Death on the cross means for those living in the 21st century?
In the west the corporate economic system has struggled to deal with a changing world. The imperial powers have evolved out of industrial revolution to a digital technology driven system. The pressures have lead to the rise of populist politics, culture wars, and the power of social media. In the UK the speed of fake news transmitted around the world led to riots on the streets. Fortunately, what looked like an attempt to destabilise the newly elected government failed and came to nothing, but it has left a scar and the divisions in our society have been exposed. In these turbulent times what has Jesus’ journey to the cross have to say to us?
We do not have fake news, but the Good News. However, if we want to speak into our times and the people of our nations with this good news. We have to learn to interpret Jesus’ teaching, and what the passion of Christ is and able to do, in a way that modern people, whether boomers, x, y, or z generation can understand and see as meaningful to their circumstances. In short what does being set free mean in the modern world of consumerism and digital technology?
Sure you can answer that with a discussion about going to heaven or hell. But does it have any meaning to the people of today? To be honest, it doesn’t mean much to me. I’m a heaven down to earth kind of guy. I’d want to see heaven come down to earth in the here and now. When we meet Jesus for the first time we are helped by the holy spirit and find it a wonderful experience, but then comes the settling down as we go to church and are invited to read the Bible. That can be difficult without help and the cultural gap between us and the ancients is massive. Here theology can come to the rescue. But if the theology is old itself, we can find it difficult to align our own world view and be able to make it meaningful. I’m not saying theologies from older times are wrong, no, they where probably right, but for then. I just question whether they make sense now and do they answer the questions of today. Here is where scholars and academics can be a great benefit in helping us to understand the background to the development of the different theologies.
In many of the stories that fill the Bible we encounter people who often have to go on a journey, discovering who God is. Abraham is a good example. Looking for a fertility god he encounters the creator god. But it takes him a long time to learn this, to be able to comprehend the magnitude of the promise he is given. When we read his and other stories from the Jewish scriptures, do we get it, do we see the Father God of creation, of his son Jesus or do we just see an archetypal god of wrath and judgement?
In the gospels, as we follow the stories of the disciples, we see the change in their understanding. In particular Peter, his perception of Jesus and his relationship with him changes, their relationship strained and almost broken. Yet it was always about a living relationship that created a meaningful faith for Peter and a deep friendship between both of them.
Is theology of any use? I think so. Just as Jesus taught his disciples, taking them on a journey of discovering faith. So too we journey in our faith, we too have to grow in our relationship with the trinity and have our worldview impacted by the gospels. The theologies we have can help us in that journey. But for us to grow we must understand our theologies are never complete. That some of our understanding will be wrong. We must be able to hold such theories lightly, letting go of them if needs be. There is such a thing as bad theology. We must temper our knowledge with love, gaining wisdom to avoid theologies that bring hate and division.
We do need theology, allowing it to inform us, giving us a good foundation to build our faith on. However, we must remember our lived out relationship with God, the Son and Holy Spirit within creation and expressed in our lives will teach us: there is always more than we know and the adventure of life is to find out.
Our theologies should be capable of equipping us to speak in our modern language, into our world, to our times, bringing the freedom of the Gospels and the kingdom of heaven down to earth. Just one word of warning, the Gospels are not conservative; they are radical. Jesus has a habit of upsetting the apple cart. If we want to speak into our world, are we ready for that, those of you living in the western world?
