Every believer is a theologian

' If you are a theologian you will pray truly, and if you pray truly you will be a theologian.' (Evagrius Ponticus, On Prayer).

Here's my thesis for discussion:

If the priesthood of all believers is a revolutionary and essential principle of Christian community, so is the principle that every believer is a theologian.

Evagrius Ponticus established a theological democracy when he said, 'The theologian is the one who prays truly, and the one who prays truly is a theologian'. Theology is not a specialist subject for the awfy clever folk in the church. Theology is to talk about God, think about God, to find ideas, words and images that help us express the inexpressible, glimpse the ineffable, adore and praise the One we will never comprehend except through the grace and love of the One who in gracious love makes Himself known. Theology is prayer doing its thinking, and thought leading to adoration and contemplation. Theology is to enjoy God's company without ever forgetting in whose company we are.

So, in the Body of Christ, in fellowship with God in the communion of the Spirit, we're all theologians - some of us are better at it than others, but theology is something we do for each other, with each other. There is a theology of all believers, a call for us to bear testimony, to express our faith, to praise and glorify God in our language and song and art and actions towards each other and towards the whole human community.

All of this was sparked by my enjoyment of Tom Torrance's book, The Christian Doctrine of God. One Being Three Persons. (see sidebar). This is not an easy book - the greatest Scottish theologian of the 20th and 21st century wrote it, so devotional marshmallow it isn't; spiritual fast-food it isn't; the Trinity for Dummies it isn't. In theology, the via negativa is a theological approach that begins by saying what something is not.

Positively this book is amongst the finest pieces of theological writing on the Christian doctrine of God. Scottish theology has its own distinctive flavour, something I'll blog about one of these days. But part of that distinctiveness is critical indebtedness to Reformed theology and deeply informed interaction with the Christian ecumenical consensus. Tom Torrance embodies that. And the subject matter of this book is too important to be confined to any self-appointed theological elite. This is high carb theology for hard worked Christian souls. There's nothing instant or pre-cooked about it; it isn't theology to go. It's theology to sit down with, to develop a taste for, to be prepared to pay for...because it's worth it.

Torrance has an unrivalled grasp of theological history, combined with a passionate faith in the centrality of Jesus Christ for all Christian thinking about God, and these passed through the prism of a mind both pastorally sensitive and intellectually precise. So, not an easy read - but it is devotional reading, if we devote ourselves to the work it takes to know God, to learn of the great love which loves us, and rejoice in a mystery that baffles and a truth that our minds will never exhaust.

So I've a small cluster of questions about how we nurture devotion these days.

1. In the absence of regularly singing hymns which are deliberately and skillfully theological, where do we fix our doctrinal reference points?
2. In a Christian book market fixated on practical, applied, 'how to', self help approaches to Christian devotion, what ignites the fires of the mind and the passions of the heart to love God more than whatever it is we want God to do for us?
3. If in our different jobs, continuing professional or personal development is an accepted and valued goal, where is the equivalent of that in the life of the church as we each fulfil our role as true theologians who pray, and who when we pray are true theologians?
4. How daft is it to expect every Christian to be practical, practising theologians, prepared to think deep and long, to pursue the reality of God, and who knows, to risk being baffled by a chapter of Torrance in order at least to sense the complexity and richness, encounter the glory and the mystery, endure the discipline and soul stretching, of what it means to love God with all of the heart, soul, mind and strength we can bring?

Next post I'll give a few samples of Torrance in full flow - will it be devotional reading? Depends whether we do our devotions as theologians who pray, and whether in our praying we are theologians, lovers of the God who comes to us in Christ through the Spirit, and whose presence requires our best attention.

Comments

[andy goodliff]

Jim, a great set of important questions. They echo some of what i've been reading in remembering our future, as it explores deep church

[Douglas Knight]

Jim
I wish we could get Torrance's 'Royal Priesthood' back into print. Isnt it time we had a conference on Torrance's work in the UK, Rutherford House to host it perhaps?
Why no British theologians amongst your list of favourites?
Douglas

[jim gordon]

Hi Douglas - on my about me profile I predictably mention James Denney and P T Forsyth as amongst my favourite theologians. I have written on both these Scottish atonement theologians, and have found few rivals for sheer theological punch.
Thomas Torrance I have only recently begun to read again, but he is up there with his mentor H R Mackintosh. The problem with listing favourites is that I follow Wesley's dictum in his Christian Library, a 'devout eclecticism'. Charles Wesley is another of my favoutrite theologians, cos I think some of his hymns are theological miniature masterpieces.
A Scottish Conference on Torrance would be absolutely great, if it could be organised. Amazon are offering Royal Priesthood as in print at £17.99, steep price if it weren't that it's Torrance, which makes it worth it!

[mark]

I was actually going to ask you for a copy of this after prayers today; so thank you for making this available.
Question 1 - see dissertation by one Mark J Schenk !!