The Possibility of Evangelical Theology
Christian theology arises from the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Word (Logos) of God who became flesh in order to make God (Theos) known (Jn 1:1, 14, 18). He did this to give believers eternal life, which just is the knowledge of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ (Jn 17:3).
God reveals himself truly in the things he has made (Ps 19:1-3; Rom 1:19-20), and in creation gave to angels and humans a rational (logikos) nature that we might perceive him and know him. But although Adam had a firm and true knowledge of God, our fall into sin has darkened our minds, corrupted our wills and thrown our affections into chaos. Some inchoate knowledge of God remains to all, that we might ‘feel our way towards him’ (Acts 17:27). But God remains fundamentally ‘unknown’ to us outside of Christ (Acts 17:23), because all have exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and suppress the truth about God in idolatry (Rom 1:21-23). The Christian gospel, by which our intellects and wills are redeemed and reconciled to God, is therefore the only ground of true theology (Gk. theologia – theos + logia), the science of reasoning rightly about God.
This means that true theology – and there are as many false theologies in university divinity schools as there are among the unlearned – is no mere subject to be studied. It is the reason humans were created, and the reason God sent his Son into the world. As Augustine knew, theology is simple obedience to the command of God: ‘You have said, “Seek my face’; my heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek’ (Ps 27:8; cf. 105:4).[1] In this sense, theology is the joyful obedience of every Christian, seeking the face of the one who has made himself known to human reason, the one our hearts love.
But this is also the ground of theology as a university discipline. Academic theology is rightly understood, with Anselm, as an exercise of faith seeking understanding.[2] It is not the free play of autonomous thinkers; rather theology is a disciplined discipline – made possible, and shaped, by the communicative presence of God in Jesus Christ.
God the Holy Trinity is the source of all knowledge of God, because God alone knows himself perfectly, and all other things as they come forth from him (cf. Matt 11:27; 1 Cor 2:10-11). Nevertheless, he has been pleased to share a portion of his self-knowledge with his rational creatures. He does this in nature, but primarily through Holy Scripture, the very word of God, breathed out by the Spirit (2 Tim 3:15-17). Scripture is therefore the source of saving knowledge of God. For, in Scripture, Christ has made himself known through the prophets and the apostles, by taking what he learned from the Father and by the Spirit making it known to them, for us (Jn 16:12-15).[3]
The Subject Matter of Evangelical Theology
This understanding of theology also understands theology to have a distinctive subject matter. Theology studies God and all other things in relation to God.[4] In the words of one of academic theology’s most eminent recent practitioners:
Christian theology is a work of regenerate intelligence, awakened and illuminated by divine instruction to consider a twofold object. This object is, first, God in himself in the unsurpassable perfection of his inner being and work as Father, Son and Spirit and in his outer operations, and, second and by derivation, all other things relative to him. Christian divinity is characterised both by the scope of its matter – it aims at a comprehensive treatment of God and creatures – and by the material order of that treatment, in which theology proper precedes and governs economy.[5]
First – and very unfashionably! – Christian theology considers God the Holy Trinity for his own sake. Although many things vie for our attention, and often seem more interesting or practical, nothing could be more important, nor in the end more compelling, than God’s life in himself, and his glorious works of creation, judgment, preservation and redemption. However, secondly, theology does not stop with God alone; it goes on to consider the works of his hands: the entire creation, and above all, humanity created male and female in the divine image, ruined in Adam, and redeemed in Christ. Yet even as it considers creatures, theology must never lose sight of God: theology proper (the doctrine of God) ‘precedes and governs’ economy (the study of God’s works in history).
Evangelical theology therefore has a certain intensity of focus, even as it attends to a wide variety of interests. It will not always be possible in a university theology degree to maintain this intensity of focus explicitly at every stage. Other demands will be made of the theology student; other topics of interest will rise to the fore. But in the background, the student dedicated to the gospel of Christ must slowly learn to be mastered by this concern for God and his works in relation to him. This is simple obedience to the first commandment: ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exod 20:3).
But if this is what theology is, what can we say of its students?
Evangelical Students of Theology
Although it lacks prestige in the modern secular university, academic theology makes great demands of its students. Basic theological competence requires the mastery of a wide variety of skills – awareness of the requirements of text criticism; sensitivity to the variety of genres, and the cultural backgrounds, of the biblical literature; exegetical acumen; skill in weighing different interpretations; knowledge of history and philosophy; ability to read historical and contemporary texts with precision, openness, generosity and discernment; aptitude for systematic analysis and synthesis; capacity to construct careful arguments; rhetorical abilities to commend the truths of Scripture to unbelieving colleagues and teachers. It should also require some ability in biblical languages.
But more than intellectual demands, Christian theology makes great moral and spiritual demands of its practitioners, because God is most interested in our sanctification through conformity to his Son. As C. S. Lewis observed, university studies require those who are ‘both humble and tough’.[6] But the demands that theology makes are particularly acute. Students who understand what theology is will be marked by eagerness for God’s instruction by his Spirit through his Word. They will therefore cultivate a humble and teachable spirit. Focusing on God and all things in relation to him will require a determined concentration, and a refusal to be thrown off course by fascinating but tangential concerns. Engaging alternative positions will require patience. Commending the truth of Christ in the seminar room and in essays and exams will require courage and gentleness combined. When others mock, or take offence, evangelical theologians will need a capacity to suffer that is shaped by faith in Christ, love for God and neighbour, and hope that the promise of Christ is true: ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away’ (Matt 24:35). Above all else, prayer will be at the heart of the theological student’s life: ‘Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things in your law!’ (Ps 119:18); ’Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.’ (Ps 25:4-5).
The Vindication of Evangelical Theology
This understanding of what theology is, and the demands it makes of students and teachers, is out of step with how much academic theology conceives of itself today. But its roots run deep throughout Christian history. If we are to be faithful theologians, we should worry less about what our sceptical friends and sophisticated teachers may think of us, and more about what Augustine, or Bernard, or Luther, or Calvin would make of our stumbling attempts to think and speak of God and his word.[7] We should certainly be more concerned than we are about the approval of the One before whom all things are laid bare, and to whom we will one day give account for every thought we have had and every word we have said (Heb 4:13).
The privilege of studying theology is very great. It is the privilege of thinking, speaking and writing about God in his majestic presence. It is the privilege of thinking, speaking and walking in the light of what he has said about himself, and what he has done for our salvation. It is the privilege of bearing witness to him, and his very great works for us, that we and all his people – and our unbelieving friends as well – might know him truly, and knowing him might have eternal life.
Notes:
[1] Cf. Augustine, De Trinitate, 1.1.5.
[2] Anselm, Proslogion, 1.
[3] See John Webster, ‘Principles of Systematic Theology’, in The Domain of the Word (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2012), 135-42.
[4] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia, I.1.7.
[5] John Webster, ‘Omnia…pertractantur in sacra doctrina sub ratione des: On the Matter of Christian Theology’, in God Without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology. Volume 1: God and the Works of God (Bloomsbury, T&T Clark, 2016), 3.
[6] C. S. Lewis, ‘Learning in Wartime’, in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (London: William Collins, 2013), 59.
[7] Cf. John Webster, ‘Christ, Church and Reconciliation’, in Word and Church: Essays in Christian Dogmatics (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016), 211.
