Sep
29
What Sort of Theologian Are You?
“Theology is for everyone. Indeed, everyone needs to be a theologian. In reality, everyone is a theologian — of one sort or another. And therein lies the problem. There is nothing wrong with being an amateur theologian or a professional theologian, but there is everything wrong with being an ignorant or sloppy theologian.”* — Charles Ryrie, theologian
If you are like me, you sometimes hear someone make a religious/theological statement that just makes you cringe. That could be for any number of reasons, really, but today I am particularly referring to goofy stuff that sounds like they got it from a magazine cover, pop-culture, or maybe it’s a holdover from Medieval superstition. And yet, some people eat this stuff up, assuming it’s legit, even though there is little-to-nothing from Scripture to back it up.
A while ago, I was listening to Credo House’s “The Theology Program” course, and there is an early section in which they describe the “six arenas in which we can do theology” (adapted from Who Needs Theology? by Grenz and Olson): Tabloid Theology, Folk Theology, Lay Theology, Ministerial Theology, Professional Theology, Academic Theology. As you may have guessed, it’s the first two I want us to consider here.
Tabloid Theology: Most of us know what “the tabloids” are, i.e., sensationalistic “news”-magazines (e.g., The National Enquirer) with weird claims and often outright lies. Typical headlines are things like “Two-Headed Baby Quotes Shakespeare” and “Nostradamus Predicts Second Coming of Elvis!”. It’s attractive because it’s new and exciting! Maybe it sounds “cutting-edge”! The equivalent in theology would be stories about supposed visits by angels and miraculous healings and psychic predictions of a religious nature and things like that. It might even come from an actual tabloid, e.g., “Pope’s DNA Traced Back to St. Peter!”.
Lest we get sidetracked, I am not denying that miracles ever happen. But, this approach to theology is “based upon naïve hearsay information that has no basis in fact and very little, if any, evidence to be believed.” When we assume that God always operates this way, we get in the habit of uncritically accepting everything we read or hear. We start to look for those things everywhere, and when the miracles don’t happen for us, we become disillusioned and possibly apostate.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon for “religious” people, because they have been conditioned or socialized into thinking that’s the way they’re supposed to be — what they’re supposed to think, how they’re supposed to live. They have either consciously or subconsciously bought into the idea that an uncritical faith is better than critical thinking. Anti-intellectualism in action. So much for wisdom and discernment….
Folk Theology: You’ve heard of “folk medicine”, right? It’s basically methods for treating sickness and injury that got passed down over the years, decades, centuries, but are based more on ignorance than on sound evidence. The practices range from therapeutic bloodletting (with or without leeches) and trepanation (i.e., drilling a hole in the skull) to various home remedies and cure-all elixirs. I’ll get to a few examples of the theological equivalent in a minute. But, an important distinction from ‘Tabloid Theology’ is that, rather than focusing on the new and exciting, ‘Folk Theology’ is based on things that are old and (possibly) foundational. Things we’ve held onto for a long time.
The ‘Folk Theologian’ is “One who uncritically and unreflectively constructs his or her theology according to traditions and religious folklore. The ‘Folk Theologian’ is often very dogmatic and militant about his or her beliefs.” This is because s/he has invested time and maybe even some effort into these beliefs. So, without sound reasons for the beliefs, s/he must resort to a raised voice (or online equivalent) and doubling-down on his assertions.
A few examples of folk theology are: 1) St. Peter at the Pearly Gates; 2) the Devil in red with horns, tail, and pitchfork; 3) angels look like (often white male) humans with wings, though some look like chubby babies and small children; 4) “good”/saved people who die become angels; 5) those angels sit around on clouds all day, playing their harps; 6) people are basically good at heart; 7) “good works”/merit-based salvation. (Regarding those last two, the Bible clearly teaches the opposite.) If we accept things like that, we’re allowing a web of falsehood to form in our minds and in our theology. One thing affects another, and we end up with a very messy theology (and unnecessarily so), which in turn hinders our spiritual walk.
It is important to note that sometimes folk theology is true. There are certain things, doctrines and other ideas, that we have picked up over the years and accepted as true — and they are! But, it’s still “folk theology”, because it’s baseless. We haven’t investigated or considered it carefully enough to justify that belief.
In case I haven’t been clear so far, Tabloid and Folk Theology are not good. We need to recognize and avoid this stuff and be much more discerning about what we accept into our “theological gate”, so to speak. We laymen need to do our theologizin’ more in the “Lay Theology” arena. According to the Credo course, a ‘Lay Theologian’ is a layperson, who constructs his or her theology and who, unlike the folk and tabloid theologian, is (1) more reflective upon learned theological concepts; (2) likely to formulate a system of beliefs which distinguishes between essential and non-essential doctrine; (3) more critical of unfounded traditions; and, (4) willing to use study tools.
As we mature in our spiritual walk and gain better habits, we can strive to shift into being a ‘Ministerial Theologian’. (Btw, despite the label, one does not have to go into regular ministry to do this.) This is described as a layperson who constructs his or her theology and who, unlike the lay theologian is (1) educated in theological methodology (even if just through a class/course like “The Theology Program”); (2) able to use study tools and resources at a more effective level (and being more discerning about good books vs bad books, etc.); (3) able to openly critique personal theology against competing models; and, (4) intent on devoting more time to reflection so that theological integration can take place.
If you haven’t looked into the many courses available from Credo House, you really should. Subjects range from Church History to Text Criticism, from Christian Theology to Apologetics. They often have sales, even offering some stuff for free. (In fact, I got the MP3s for the course referenced in this post for free. Sometimes there are videos, PDFs, Powerpoint slides.) In addition to C. Michael Patton and his associates at Credo House, several Credo Courses are presented by guest experts in their fields (e.g., Daniel Wallace, Darrell Bock, Rob Bowman, Gary Habermas, Tremper Longman III). Do yourself a favor and check them out!
* Note: This post is geared more toward my fellow-Christian readers, of course. But, as Ryrie and others have pointed out, we are all (even atheists and agnostics) ‘theologians’ of one sort or another, as soon as we start pondering questions about God and related metaphysical issues.
