This Theology. That Theology!

“I don’t have a theology”. Someone I met said this to me after I told them of my study of theology. They were and are wrong, maybe about most things, but definitely about this.

Theology isn’t something you can choose not to be part of, nor is it something that you cannot have. A personal theology, which is what most people refer to as their own system of belief, is something that rooted deep within every one of us, whether you like it or not.

Marcus Borg, an American theologian, tells of the many conversations that he has embarked on with many an Atheist; he begins the conversation with a simple question, “tell me about the God you don’t believe in?”. This is the crux of theology; the minute, nay, the second that they start to form a picture of God, they have entered into a personal theology.

The truth is that probably every one of us has at least a slightly different picture of God.

On any one Sunday morning service there may well and almost certainly will be several people sharing the same row, yet their differing views of God would be alarmingly contrasting.

Maybe there are Christians whose PoG would be more closely matched with certain strands of Judaism, Extremist Islam, Charitable Pro-Life Atheists or Old Men’s Social Clubs.

Whatever your personal view of God is, be assured that it does exist. Whether it is the picture of the God that you don’t care about, claim to follow, avidly protest against or attempt to please daily, it is your own theology that leads you to this structure of belief.

Theology affects us all.

What shaped your theology?

What challenges your theology?

Does it change? Why? How?

What could transform your theology?

Experience? Friends? The Bible? Despair?

In a bit. J.