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By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine, by Ellen Charry (Oxford University Press, 264 pp.; $45, hardcover). Reviewed by Douglas A. Sweeney, assistant professor of church history and the history of Christian thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

We seminary teachers complain a lot. We bemoan the theological ignorance of even our healthiest congregations, the widespread co-optation of Christian minds by secular learning, the way pop psychology informs more sermons than does the Bible, the frequency with which church meetings are conducted like those in corporate boardrooms. In short, we worry about the ways in which many secular modes of "discourse" have usurped the roles of Scripture and Christian doctrine in helping us come to terms with reality. And we hope and pray that it is not too late to shape the way Christians think by building bridges between the seminaries and the churches. That is our job: to relate theological scholarship to the practical work of ministry.

As Ellen Charry of Princeton Seminary explains in By the Renewing of Your Minds, however, such concerns of theologians are misguided. The very effort to bridge the gap between our theory and our practice suggests that something has gone quite wrong in the way we approach theological study. As Charry argues, the best theologians (or at least her favorite theologians) throughout the history of the church have always viewed theology itself as a fundamentally practical field of study. It is only since theology has been professionalized within the walls of the academy that it has become so esoteric, unapproachable, and often impractical.

More important, in the early years of the development of Christian thought, theologians taught that theological study was supposed to be salutary—for all of us. The knowledge of God was supposed to be good for us. It was supposed to enhance our well-being. Christian doctrine was even supposed to make us happy. (Try telling that to a seminarian who is preparing for final exams!)

The idea was that God has created us for right relation with himself, and that this relationship cannot be maintained without theological in-formation. As we learn more about the One from whom we take our very being, we grow closer (both in proximity and in character) to the source of life, love, and happiness. We stop seeking endlessly for fulfillment in things like sex, money, and power, and we actually find fulfillment in the God who created our longings and desires. In the words of the church fathers, the study of theology actually enables us to participate in the very life of God.

Clearly, this vision for theological study no longer captivates many minds. Theology has become academic, ever more technical and abstract. As theological knowledge has been purveyed by "ivory-tower" intellectuals, it has been viewed as disconnected from life on the streets and in the pews. This result was not intended. Most scholastic theologians have been committed to Christ and his church. Nor has this proven entirely bad. Indeed, theological studies are now pursued with a great deal of rigor and sophistication. But it has meant that the best and brightest theologians are now professional academics who do their most important work within the confines of the schools. They converse primarily with other scholars, write their books for other scholars, and advance professionally among other scholars. Is it any wonder, then, that the laity have largely ignored them?

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October 5 1998, Vol. 42, No. 11