Review of Current Religious Thought: December 22, 1961

One of the crucial problems that confronts the Church today and always is the relationship between theology and Church. Theology has always had a profound influence upon the Church. From the lecturn of the academy by way of the pulpit of the Church, all sorts of theological ideas have shaped the life of congregations. Religious liberalism arose first in theology and then by way of the preachers entered the life stream of the family of God. I recall the case of a Dutch professor who became convinced that the universe was shut up in a cause-effect system of natural law which was unbreakable. In such a world, he insisted, miracles were impossible. Hence, he told his students that, if they were to be honest men, they would frankly tell the congregations they served that Jesus Christ did not arise from the dead. Theology and Church.…

It is understandable, then, that we encounter the notion here and there that theology in the scientific sense can only be a hindrance to the faith of the Church. Theology is a subtle stumbling block, it is said, to the simple believer. Besides, theology always threatens to rule over the Church. Germany, as we all know, is the scene of much discussion about the demythologizing program spurred by Rudolph Bultmann. The New Testament, claims Bultmann, is dominated by a mythical view of the world in which the stories of the incarnation, the ascension, the resurrection, and the return of Jesus Christ are at home. But even as we all reject the mythical world view of the Bible, we must reject these stories that go with it. Who cannot see that this discussion is far more than an academic game. The heart of God’s Church is involved here.

Once again, then, is not scientific theology a danger which the Church would do well to avoid?

If we concluded that the Church would be well served to set itself apart from theology we would be making a great error. There is an undeniable and perhaps unavoidable relationship between the Church and scientific theological work. Consider, for, example, the fact that we have the Bible available to all only because scientific theologians have been busy translating it from original languages. In the light of only this single instance, the Church has reason to thank God for theology.

But, one may ask, does not theology make the matters of faith needlessly difficult and complicated? Is not the heavy theological discussion of our day in conflict with the words of Jesus: “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25)? The New English Bible has it: “for hiding these things from the learned and wise and revealing them to the simple.”

Well, is theology a threat to the simplicity of faith? Is it the aim of theology to discover a deeper knowledge than simple faith? We must be careful at this point, for if this is so, theology runs the risk of pretension and pride. It would then apparently know more than the simple faith and stand closer to the Kingdom than faith stands. Theologians would be the elite, and simple Christians would be second-class citizens of the Kingdom. Happily this notion of theology’s task is a false one.

Theology’s task is not to reason out the mysteries of faith. True, there have been theologians who have gone this way and have created a kind of special gnostic elite for their kind who then stood a rung above the mass of simple believers. But there is another path for theology. It is the path of service. Theology does not stand above simple faith; it only seeks seriously to study the Word of God in order to serve the congregation.

In service lies the only right relationship for theology to sustain the Church. Theology was never meant to rule the mind of the Church. It was always meant to serve it. For my way of thinking, theology never seeks a knowledge of the things of faith that transcends the faith of the common people. Theology never seeks to unravel mysteries. The Gospel does not become a matter of science for the theologians while it remains a matter of simple belief for others.

There are scholars who devote their entire lives to the Scriptures only to criticize them. The scientific knowledge of such scholars has, of course, nothing to do with simple faith. But genuine Christian theology is always occupied with the task of bringing the treasures of the message of God’s Word to light. One need only look casually at the Great Bible Word Book edited by G. Kittel to see that such a work is the fruit only of enormous theological study. Of this scientific activity, great good has come. For the work here mentioned has to do with the meaning of the words of the New Testament, and from it the message of the Bible can be made cleaerer. This can only serve the Church.

He who supposes that study is not essential will fall sooner or later—and sooner than he realizes—into mere repetition. And when the preacher merely repeats, he has stopped getting at the depths of the Word in his preaching. A great and pious theologian once said: the preacher who does not study is not converted. What he meant was that the preacher has got to keep listening to the Word and one listens well only through persistent and intensive study.

The need for theological study stems from the nature of the Word of God. The Word comes indeed as the Vox Dei, but it comes only through the Vox humana. Hence, it beckons the preacher and the theologian to constant study so that these words which came as the Word in human languages now very ancient can become meaningful and fresh in the present. Thus, we must be critical of every theology which does not really listen humbly to the Scriptures and which sets itself a step higher than the people in the pew. But we ought to be thankful for every theology that has not stopped listening and that seeks, through its listening, to serve the Church.

This theology will have great respect for the mysteries of the faith. Just as thousands of humble men have labored in faith so that the words of the Bible could be translated into the languages of the world, so the theologians of the Church will seek in their way to serve. Theology stands beside the Church to serve it by keeping the true light shining and deflecting the false shadows that have fallen and that shall fall over the Church in the form of faith-crippling heresies.

The Church must prize theology and not reject it. But theology must deserve its place of humble service by keeping its relations with the Church correct. Both theology and Church must listen to the Word and pray to the Lord as theology serves the Church and the Church serves the world.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.