Theological Thinking and Biblical Thinking
Radically different starting points
One day in seminary, after class, I was sitting in an office talking with a theology professor. I don't remember what we were talking about specifically, but I do remember something he said.
“One of your problems, Bo, is that you are thinking too biblically and not enough theologically."
I now realize it wasn't meant as a compliment, but at the time I took it as one. For me, understanding scripture and its meaning in our lives was of utmost theological importance during that phase of my life.
Somewhere along the road, however, I transitioned from “biblical thinking” to “theological thinking”. I'm not sure when it happened because I can only see it in hindsight. But, I'm glad it did.
Back in seminary, I struggled to see a distinction, and I expect many of you out there may mistakenly see them as two sides of the same coin. So, as I move forward, I think it's best to take some time and draw out the difference I see between the two.
Thinking biblically
“What does the Bible say?”
When thinking biblically, this is hands-down the most important question. The texts and stories of the Bible have superior spiritual importance. Indeed, when we encounter issues in our lives, this mode of thought allows us to default to biblical narratives and their patterns to help us discern our own upcoming actions.
When we think biblically we often think narratively. We look at the stories of the Bible and claim them as our own. We see ourselves as participants in them. We see parallels in our own lives.
The stories are meaningful to us, and they become even more meaningful the more we see ourselves participating in them.
Thinking theologically
“What does the Bible mean?”
There may come a point in our lives as progressive Christians where we start to wonder how to make sense of biblical narratives that don't always go together.
Sometimes, the stories in the Bible give us contradictory information regarding who God is and what we are called to do as Christians.
Think for a moment about the following biblical events…
Like a loving parent, God continues to provide for Adam and Eve after they have left the garden.
God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac
Jesus says if you don't hate your father and mother, you can't be his disciple
“God is love”
When you put all this together, what does it tell us about God?
If it seems like the Bible is all over the place when it comes to a coherent understanding of God, that's probably because it is.
The Bible is a collection of works spanning hundreds of years, written by various authors, from various traditions, and they don't always agree. In fact, sometimes they are in direct conflict with each other.
Making sense of the Bible, then, requires us to break it into themes that tie it all together.
This is where theological thinking truly emerges. Once we start identifying themes, we can start exploring them.
What is love?
What is justice?
What is hospitality?
What is peace?
What is the human condition?
What is hope?
What is evil?
Once we start thinking through themes, they begin to take precedence over the narratives that inspired them.
For example. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors. As a result, we get to wrestle with questions like, “What is love?” and “Who is my neighbor?”
Of course, people who think biblically also wrestle with those questions, so this may look no different on the surface.
But, here’s the twist…
Those who cross the line into thinking theologically generalize beyond the text in a way that overwrites the texts.
In other words, we create answers that will fly in the face of some of the texts, and that's okay…if for no other reason, because (as I've noted) the texts don't all go together.
So, when we come across a passage where Jesus says we have to hate our family members in order to be his disciples, we can say something is wrong with that articulation, regardless of what it actually says.
When we come across a passage that shows God demanding a father to sacrifice his son as an act of worship, we can say we don't believe that passage accurately depicts God's desire.
Those who are more biblically minded might be more inclined to study the texts further in order to make sense of them. They may even feel a need to do that because the texts are that important to them.
I say, if they want to do that, more power to them. (Indeed, I learned a lot this way because I used to think this way.)
But let's face it, most people have neither the time nor energy for that.
And, for those of us who think more theologically, the texts simply aren’t as important. We don’t need them to harmonize with one another. And, we don’t need to agree with all of them.
Instead, it’s okay to just say, "Yeah, no, I don't buy that. It doesn't seem like something a loving God would say or do," and leave it at that.
For those thinking theologically, when texts are in misalignment with theological concepts, the concepts take precedence.
When we think theologically, do we abandon the biblical texts?
I don't think so. At least not entirely.
Remember, the themes and concepts we begin to think through come from the content of the biblical texts.
The reason we are asking, "What is love?" or "What is justice?" in the first place is because of those old, conflicting stories.
And once we have come up with today’s answers to the questions, the texts are still there to challenge us to come up with even better answers tomorrow.
I can safely say that my understanding of God has grown through the years as a result of interacting with sacred texts.
So too, my understanding of justice.
So too, my understanding of peace.
So too, my understanding of…well, everything else.
Our human brains need to make sense of things in order to feel safe. It's part of how we are wired to survive in this world.
When the interplay of incongruent biblical stories becomes so complex that they can no longer give us answers to our questions, it's only natural for us to start engaging more conceptually.
In fact, I believe bringing us to this crisis is the whole point of the texts, and we are actually meant to move beyond the biblical texts and think outside of them.
Can I get some examples of the difference between theological thinking and biblical thinking?
Sure. Please pay close attention to the key difference between them, which is where you start.
(Brace yourself. This is where I start to get super geeky.)
Process theology is a great example of theological thinking.
This is probably the most popular theology among progressive Christians.
It begins with “God is love”. This is the Gospel. From there, it draws on process philosophy and science to articulate an understanding of the nature of God and how God relates to the world. It portrays God as Creative Love, Responsive Love, and Unifying Love (their version of the Trinity). From there it draws out implications for our relationship with God and how we live our lives.
The God of process theology is a God who changes through time. It doesn't make sense to say God doesn’t change if we truly believe God is love. After all, the nature of love is to be open to transformation through relationship. Indeed, if God truly is love, God is necessarily affected by what happens in the world and necessarily changes as a result of it.
Do process theologians refer to the Bible? Sure. But the point isn’t to look at the biblical narratives to create the theology. The theology was born from the theological concept "God is love" and articulated through process language.
Process theology has moved beyond the biblical text because it is not really concerned about what exactly the Bible says. It is not concerned with addressing inconsistent understandings of God in the Bible that are often at odds with each other. Instead, it starts with an understanding of the Gospel and builds from there, largely independently of the texts.
Openness theology represents biblical thinking
In evangelical circles, openness theology is the equivalent of process theology.
This theology looks at the biblical texts and notices that God is portrayed in various ways. To make sense of these diverging portrayals, they assert that God changes through time.
Over and against a more accepted doctrine of God, this theology argues that God is not a static, immutable being. Rather, God grows through relationship with us. Or to put it another way, God is continually in the process of becoming.
Notice the radical difference is where each theology starts
Openness theology is primarily concerned with the question, "What do the biblical texts tell us about the nature of God?" That is biblical thinking that then finds itself articulated theologically.
Meanwhile, process theology is concerned primarily with the concept "God is love", and uses the best intellectual technology we have (a combination of today's philosophy and science) to articulate that. It isn’t concerned with the particulars of old understandings of God that come to us through ancient texts.
(If you're interested in learning more about process theology, I recommend Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. If you want to learn more about openness theology, I recommend A Wideness in God’s Mercy: The Finality of Christ in a World of Religions.)
Are theological thinkers necessarily progressive and biblical thinkers necessarily evangelical?
I'm not entirely sure but I'm going to run with "not necessarily".
Remember my story earlier about the conversation with my theology professor? Back then, while I was more in line with biblical thinking, I was also a theological progressive. Of course, once I crossed the line and started thinking theologically, I felt liberated. But the point is I was a progressive Christian while I was thinking biblically.
Meanwhile, I'm not sure how possible it is for evangelicals to cross the line into thinking theologically. After all, one of the key elements of evangelicalism is biblicism, which places ultimate authority in the Bible and inherently requires biblical thinking.
Indeed, evangelicals I'm aware of who began thinking theologically would probably be identified as progressive Christians due to their perspectives and stances. So whether there are theologically-thinking, conservative evangelicals out there, all I can say is I don't know of any, and the starting point seems antithetical to their dogmatic biblicist posture.
This isn't a new divide
As you can imagine, thinking biblically and thinking theologically tends to lead people to radically different conclusions on issues.
Today, part of the argument regarding LGBTQ+ people and their relationship with the church revolves around a clash between the concept of justice and the desire to uphold ancient social norms as found in biblical texts.
But, what about the earliest Christian communities? What about the communities of Peter and Paul, communities that were living in those ancient social norms?
When we look into that next week, you might be surprised at what we find.
Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net
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