Friday, November 16, 2007

Should the average Christian care about Theology

There has been a steady movement away from intellectualism in the Christian church to the point that large portions of Christians are not taught the basic tenets of their faith. J.I. Packer, a personal hero of mine, addresses this in his book Knowing God.

"Should the average Christian care about theology?

A fair question! - but there is, I think, a convincing answer to it. The questioner clearly assumes that a study of the nature and character of God will be unpractical and irrelevant for life. In fact, however, it is the most practical project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.

As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul."

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p.17
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This quote was made available by Monergism a valuable resource on the internet (http://www.monergism.com/).
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I would say yes the average Christian should care about Theology. What do you think?
RC

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i would have to agree with that post. as long as he would include the study of the Bible in that educational process.

ttyl God Bless
DX :)

RC said...

Yes, Mr. Packer and I would be in total agreement that the Bible would be foundational to any study of Christian Theology. All Christian theology should be based on the Bible and what it teaches. No theological work should be considered truthful without verifying it's veracity by diligent study of Scripture. Christians are encouraged to be like the Bereans.

Acts 17:11 (New International Version)

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

There are various types of theology including Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology. These various types have different methodology, but they share the Bible as their foundation.

Thanks for stopping by DX and I hope you will continue to visit.

May the peace of Christ be with you,

RC