"Everyone has warned me not to tell you what I am going to tell you
in this last book. They all say the 'the ordinary reader does not want
Theology; give him plain practical religion.' I have rejected their advice.
I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means 'the
science of God,' and I think any man who wants to think about God at all
would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him which are
available.
"I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the RAF, an old
hard-bitten officer got up and said, 'I've no use for all that stuff ! But,
mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God, I've felt him:
out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that's just
why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To
anyone who's met the real thing, they all seem so petty and pedantic and
unreal ! '
"Now in a sense, I quite agreed with that man. I think he had
probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned
from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning
from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has
once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map
of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something
less real... But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only coloured
paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first
place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out
by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way, it has behind it masses of
experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only while
yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different
experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the
map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks along
the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun that looking at a map. But
the map is going to be of far more use than walks on the beach if you want
to get to America.
"Now Theology is like a map. Merely learning and thinking about
Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than
the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they
are only a kind of map. But that map is based on hundreds of people who
really were in touch with God - experiences compared with which any thrills
or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary
and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must
use the map. ...In fact, that is just why a vague religion - all about
feeling God in nature, and so on - is so attractive. It is all thrills and
no work: like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to
Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal
life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither
will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea, nor will you
be very safe if you go to sea without a map.
"...If you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you
have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones -
bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas..."
from
Al McCarrick
Wendee Holtcamp wrote:
................
> Theology really gets the "church" nowhere, since the people who were most
> well-studied in Jesus' time (Pharisees) were typically the most incorrect
in
> their understanding. (Remember, Jesus said in a moment of joy that is was
> God's pleasure to hide things from the learned and show them to little
> children). That is not necessarily children in the age sense, but that
> non-theologically oriented Christians can have greater servant's hearts
than
> the most learned. And becoming very intellectual and having lots of
degrees
> tends to inflate one's ego rather than promote humility. Power and money
are
> very similar that way. .................
George Replied:
> Theology in the most basic sense is thinking about one's faith. If
we don't
>do theology then we are being thoughtless Christians and, among other
things, unable to
>give any reason for what we believe. Our choice isn't between theology &
no theology
>but between good theology & bad theology (or if you wish, better & worse).
I think
>that the problem with a lot of creation-evolution discussion is
unreflective &
>just plain bad theology.
> Too many people are content with the theology they learned (or think
they
>learned) in Sunday School: There's a big difference between a childlike
faith & a
>childish one. It's true that some theology can be too abstract & academic
& of no use
>for the church, but that doesn't excuse anti-intellectualism in theology.
We are to
>love the Lord with all our _minds_, among other things.