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Your cover story "The New Theologians" by Tim Stafford [Feb. 8] is a breath (neshamah) of fresh spirit (ruach) that gives hope of deliverance from the eclipse of historical-critical nonsense. God bless this new generation of theologians and, by the Holy Spirit, may their scholarship help restore Scripture as the inspired, trustworthy, and authoritative word of God to the church and its pastors.

I am especially encouraged by N. T. Wright's challenge "to see the gospel as something which was basically God saving the world. The gospel declared something that was publicly true about the whole world rather than simply opening up an option into which I as an individual and other individuals could step." Amen! It's high time to take the next steps from the Reformation to restore the gospel to its original purity and power.

Chuck Starnes, Sr.
Grass Valley, Calif.

As a parish minister, I am acquainted with the disparity which exists between the teaching that takes place in seminaries and the reality of life in the local church. Real, personal, and relevant pastoral theology is what seminaries need if they are going to throw themselves into the life of the parish. The new theologians are necessary if this is to occur.

One thing I think is clear is that the new theologians are men and women who have to think "outside the box." They need to know what's going on in the real world where people are living and dying and struggling to find the voice of God in the midst of a million other voices that are calling them to pay attention. They need to be capable of articulating and relating the priceless wisdom of the Scripture in ways that are faithful to the message as it was articulated to congregations long ago, but contemporary and fresh enough to speak to us today.

Pastor Steven E. Berry
First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, Calif.

* The tension between theologians and pastors is again highlighted in the article on Ellen Charry in which we read that "the theologians' guild is almost completely oriented to the university and cannot communicate with ordinary people. … Just to make a living, to get jobs and tenure, a theologian needs to distance herself from ordinary people." Since Charry was struck first by Barth and wants to be "writing theology that is helpful to the church," perhaps she understood Barth the way William E. Hordern does in his A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology when he says, "Later, as a theologian, Barth remained convinced that the only excuse for the existence of a theologian is that he should be a servant and a critic of the preacher. When theologians ignore the task of the preacher, they end up mumbling about God and forgetting that they have a higher purpose than dishing out, in a slightly different form, the same ideas that already are popular in the modern world."

Marc Pearson
Christ Memorial Church
Poulsbo, Wash.

* I've just turned 70, and I regret I didn't make theology a greater part of my life during the 50 years I've been a Christian. Back in 1948 I wanted to learn all about the Bible, then try to reach people without Christ. I saw theology as a dry subject for people who live in a cloister—shut off from the real world. After college, including four years of Greek, I hurried off to do Bible translation work in Mexico. I had a lot of zeal, but many years later I burned out and didn't know where to turn.

I see now that theology is a valuable resource for the learning Christian, a foundation for our lives. I once despised the modernist, the liberal theologian, but I see now that I can learn from them—not from their errors, but where they sought to stretch my mind to seek truth.

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April 5 1999, Vol. 43, No. 4