This is how theology is done

For an assignment this week for my MA in Pastoral Theology (more of that later...) we were asked to write a short piece to end with the sentence "This is how theology is done". This is my offering.

How do we do theology?

There are four main sources from which we derive our theologies, and any good theology will need to be informed and consonant with all four of these sources. These four starting points incorporate the traditional Anglican triad, plus one.

First, our theology must accord with Scripture: the word of God through which God has revealed himself to us and to his people. Because we have a Canon of Scripture it is not sufficient to pick out individual verses to support our theology, rather our theology must be consonant with a hermeneutic view of Scripture, that is, allowing the whole of Scripture to enable our interpretation of each part. We must also understand Scripture as part of God’s revelation of himself within the Christological context, that is to say that God’s fullest and ultimate revelation of himself has been made in the person of Jesus Christ. We need also to read Scripture within its given context so that our understanding is enriched by our knowledge of the writer(s), the intended audience and the cultural context in which it was written. Finally, we need to have a doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture as it is only from such a point of view that Scripture is of any use to us.

Second, our theology needs to correspond with Tradition. Within the heading of Tradition I would want to encompass doctrine, liturgy and sacraments, the Church and the Saints. By this we engage with the heritage which was commissioned by Christ to his Apostles and has been delivered, by tradition, through time, to us. Our theologies must engage with and be endorsed by the orthodox and “approved” theologies of the past (doctrine), the worship and practices of the Church, including those which were commanded by Christ (liturgy and sacraments), the historical and universal testimony of the people of God (Church and Saints). Our understanding of the Spirit of God operating through Tradition is what commits us to this view.

Third, we need to ensure that our theology accords with our Experience. The theologies we engage in and endorse must be consonant with our experience and process of making sense of the world. They must be theologies of personal integrity whereby we can “own” them fully; we cannot make liars of ourselves or bastards of our theology. Our theology will resonate deeply with our experience of God’s revelation to us and therefore with our spiritual life and our prayer: our participation in the life of God.

Fourth, and finally, we must engage our theology with Reason. Our theologies will need to be things of logic so that we can think them through, and they need to accord with theo-logic so that we can understand more of God by means of them (ie. to be theological). They must have an internal coherence that enables us to make sense of them and to make sense of the world by means of them.

Over and above these four starting points there are two criteria which I would maintain are the ultimate principles, the roots and the framework for all our theology because it is by these that we understand what God himself is like: the Trinity, and the person of Jesus Christ.

So, within the context of the Trinity and the person of Christ, we engage deeply with Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason. This is how theology is done.