why every Christian should study theology
mostly just stol...er, borrowed from C. S. Lewis
Theology.
To many of us, it’s kind of a stuffy word, one that denotes pointless arguments and controversies that only prevent us from having a relationship with God. Theology isn’t important, some say, knowing God is what’s important.
Well, have I got some irony for you.
Theology literally means knowing God, from the Greek theos, god, and logos, which means knowledge or study. Yes, it’s true, the field of theology hasn’t always stayed true to its roots, but at it’s core and origin, it is all about knowing God.
Most everyone who knows me knows that I’m a bit of a C. S. Lewis fanboy. I know, you’re shocked: Christian dude likes Lewis. I can’t help it. He just says things exactly how they should be said. And that includes his explanation of why all Christians should study theology.1
Lewis writes in Mere Christianity of an old officer of the Royal Air Force he once met while giving a talk who said of Christian theology “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.”2
Lewis’s reaction to this may surprise you: he agrees! Turning from a real experience of God’s presence to doctrine and theology really is turning from something more real to something less real. In fact, it’s just like someone looking out on the Atlantic Ocean, turning around and looking instead at a map of the Atlantic Ocean.
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 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 on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.3
I’ve spent plenty of time at the beach, looking out on the water, a great sunset, or the stars late at night. But if you put me in a boat a mile offshore, I’d be in serious trouble!4
Lewis goes on to say that theology is just like that map: yes, it’s less real than experiencing God. But if all we ever do is experience, we’ll never really get anywhere. Theology provides us with the cumulative experience of generations of believers that have come before us. A lot of the “new” ideas about God and Jesus that some people think they just came up with are actually ancient ideas that the early church Fathers wrestled with and ultimately rejected. By studying theology we can build our understanding of God upon the work and thought of two thousand years of Christian history.
Does that mean that the theological giants of the past got everything right, and we should just take what they say as gospel truth? Of course not. I’m sure if you go read some St. Augustine, you’ll find a few things you disagree with. None of these folks got it all right, just like nobody today gets it all right. But even when they get it wrong, we can learn something from reading them.
So, where do we start in studying theology? I’m going to give you one good suggestion, but in my next post, I want to explain an important concept you’ll need along the way.
If you’d rather just read it in his words, by all means, stop reading this drivel, go find a copy of Mere Christianity, and start reading Book 4, Chapter 1: “Making and Begetting”!
C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity,” 153.
Lewis, “Mere Christianity,” 153.
At the same time, if all I’d ever done was study a map and never actually went out and experienced the ocean, I’d probably be just as lost.