h An oft-spoken thought among Christian theologians is that everyone
does theology. Many Christians would disagree. These Christians view
theology as the realm of the academic with “nothing to do with the
ephemeral world of the public.”[1] These Christians often go beyond this
statement to express a clear suspicion of intellectual pursuits, believing
that their faith precludes the need for reason or intellectual learning.
I grew up in this environment at a small, independent, “King James
only,” fundamentalist, Baptist church. In my church, even a child going
to college was something met with caution and suspicion as my
congregation felt that the classes and university life would cause a
young adult to lose his or her faith.[2] When I, as a young
undergraduate, began to express an interest in majoring in religion, my
parents threatened to cut me off financially and kick me out of their
house if I continued to study religion at the university. I was surprised
since my father was the youth pastor at our church, but anti-
intellectualism and fear was strong in the life of this congregation. They
did not realize that “even within the academy much biblical scholarship
is done by believers who regard Scripture as authoritative and who seek
to serve the church in their scholarship.”[3]
h h h h h h h h My parents and other leadership in our church would
have said that they were not doing theology, but that, instead, they
were simply taking the Bible literally. After all, they had read the
passage where Paul states that God has “chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise,” and they knew that God had promised
to “destroy the wisdom of the wise” (I Cor. 1:19, 27 KJV).[4]
Unfortunately, a too literal interpretation inevitably pulls Scripture out of
its historical context, and “to ‘take the Bible literally, word for word’ is
often to miss the point.”[5] A faithful Christian interpretation that
considers historical context and how that context bridges into their
current context “cannot help but ascend from the literal to the
figural.”[6] Despite this, interpreters must also do their best to avoid
conflating scripture’s historical context with its theological usefulness. To
do this would be to give Scripture a naturalistic interpretation that does
not account for God’s involvement in its message and creation.[7]
h h h h h h h h Proper contextualization and interpretation of scripture
for use in a congregation’s daily lives demands that pastors become
well versed in theology. Pastors and other church leaders are
accountable, not just to themselves, but ultimately to God for their
shepherding of their congregations. If pastors view their profession
correctly, they will realize that their profession is not just “another
helping profession,” but is instead, is sacred calling from God.[8] A
pastor who wants to be faithful to his calling will make every effort to
learn theology, “rightly handling the word of truth” in his sermons, his
life, and his discipleship of other believers (2 Tim. 2:15).
Bibliography
Graham, David. “Defending Biblical Literalism: Augustine on the Literal
Sense.” Pro Ecclesia 25, no. 2 (May 2016): 173-199.
Klink, Edward W., III. “The Pastor Theologian and the Interpretation of
Scripture: A Call for Ecclesial Exegesis.” In Becoming a Pastor Theologian:
New Possibilities for Church Leadership, edited by Todd Wilson and
Gerald Hiestand, 137-149.
Leithart, Peter J. “The Pastor Theologian as Biblical Theologian: From
the Church for the Church.” In Becoming a Pastor Theologian: New
Possibilities for Church Leadership, edited by Todd Wilson and Gerald
Hiestand, 7-22. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016.
Markham, Ian S. “Public Theology: Toward a Christian Definition.” Anglican
Theological Review 102, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 179-191.
McLaughlin, Rebecca. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the
World’s Largest Religion. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019.
Vanhoozer, Kevin J. “Introduction: Pastors, Theologians, and Other Public
Figures.” In The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, by
Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan, 1-27. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2015.
[1]Ian S. Markham, “Public Theology: Toward a Christian Definition,”
Anglican Theological Review 102, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 179.
[2]This has also led to my lifelong question: how strong is faith really
if one or two college classes will take a dedicated Christian to a full-
blown atheist? Where, in the process, do we learn to trust in and act
out of God’s sovereignty?
[3]Peter J. Leithart, “The Pastor Theologian as Biblical Theologian: From
the Church for the Church,” in Becoming a Pastor Theologian: New
Possibilities for Church Leadership,” ed. Todd Wilson and Gerald Hiestand
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 9.
[4]Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the
English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).
[5]Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the
World’s Largest Religion (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 96.
[6]David Graham, “Defending Biblical Literalism: Augustine on the Literal
Sense,” Pro Ecclesia 25, no 2 (May 2016): 174.
[7]Edward W. Klink III, “The Pastor Theologian and the Interpretation of
Scripture: A Call for Ecclesial Exegesis,” in Becoming a Pastor Theologian:
New Possibilities for Church Leadership, ed. Todd Wilson and Gerald
Hiestand (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 140.
[8]Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “Introduction: Pastors, Theologians, and Other
Public Figures,” in The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost
Vision, by Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2015), 9.
