The Week in Review

Challenges of Christian Theology
Written by Minister Jewel D. Williams

When individuals see the word theology, it may invoke the thought of biblical truths only available to a select group of people, not necessarily something that should concern the average man or women. However, every person has some belief about God, either that he exists and is worthy of ones obedience or that he does not exist, or some belief in between. Theology is relevant for all men as it helps individuals to understand God’s revelation of himself to mankind. Christian theology faces challenges as it tries to express biblical truth in a systematic way. A few challenges facing Christian theology today are ignorance of the word by believers, cultural influences, and unbelief in the accuracy of the Bible. How Christian theology combats these negative effects ensures the stability of the believer’s walk before the Lord.

In order to understand the challenges that theology faces, one must first comprehend the purpose of theology. In the book, Christian Theology: An Introduction, the author, Alister E. McGrath defines theology in this way, “The word ‘theology’ is easily broken down into two Greek words: theos (God) and logos (word). ‘Theology’ is thus discourse about God, in much the same way as ‘biology’ is discourse about life (Greek: bios). If there is only one God, and if that God happens to be the ‘God of the Christians’ (to borrow a phrase from the second-century writer Tertullian), then the nature and scope of theology are relatively well defined: theology is reflection upon the God whom Christians worship and adore.” (137). McGrath makes an observation that Christianity was introduced to a polytheistic world, where the belief in many gods was commonplace.

So theology had to distinguish the God of the Christians from the gods of the world. This is still true for today. Today, theology has to help individuals discern biblical truth against cults, and false doctrines. McGrath states, “Part of the task of the earliest Christian writers appears to have been to distinguish the Christian god from other gods in the religious marketplace…Theology was thus understood as systematic analysis of the nature, purposes, and activity of God. At its heart lay the belief that it was an attempt, however inadequate, to speak about a divine being, distinct from humans” (137-138).

Theology then, must attempt to speak about the truth of God for current generation, so that individuals can be equipped to stand against the detrimental influences of their time. Ignorance of the word of God by believers is one of those challenges that theology must address. Part of this ignorance is in the lack of study by the believer.

On the website, http://www.ichthys.com/readbible.htm, the author Dr. Robert D. Luginbill in an article titled, Read Your Bible: Protection against Cults – A Basic Christian Right and Responsibility states, “If we are to follow Christ and His teachings, we must learn about Him and about them. Our indoctrination or ‘discipleship’ in the truth must thus come from two sources: 1) reading the Bible for ourselves, and 2) accepting the authority of legitimate, prepared Bible teachers. But even (and perhaps especially) in regard to this second source for learning about Christ and His teaching, all correct teaching is ultimately and fundamentally derived from the Bible.
But how are we, as believers, to evaluate the correctness of what we are taught unless we make it a daily habit to go to the source of truth itself, for ourselves?” (3). The individual believer may feel intimidated by such words as doctrine, theology and the like because they seem to indicate one must have a “degree” to be able to understand such things. This may cause individuals to simply wait for others to tell them what is correct, instead of trying to test thoughts, or ideas against biblical truth. Part of this problem is due to poor instruction of both the individual believer and the teachers responsible for teaching the doctrine. This has caused individuals to see the Bible as irrelevant for today’s situations.

In the book, The Future of Christian Education – Educating Congregations, the author Charles R. Foster states, “For many young and older people the Bible has become irrelevant to their quest for meaning and purpose. The problem, however, is not the irrelevance of the Bible. It is the irrelevance of the ways we teach from the Bible…Part of the responsibility for the diminishment of hope must be traced to flaws in the educational ministries of our congregations. Church education no longer provides an adequate structure for communicating hope” (25, 120). Theology must be able to present the truth in a way that the average person can understand and incorporate into every day life. Theology also must be usable for the educating of teachers (Pastors, preachers, ministers, CE workers) who are given the responsibility of teaching the members of the body (come back next week for the next installment).