Goodbye John, Hello Jimmy and a Treasure Chest of Theology

I have been writing and posting on the Gospel of John for the last year. Today I set out in a new direction, focusing on theology and other topics rather than exclusively posting on the explication of biblical passages.

Theology puts into words the heartbeat of the Christian faith, helping us to understand who God is and who we are. According to Alistair McGrath, theology is like a treasure chest. "Without theology, Christian churches are simply custodians of memories and habits that might once have been meaningful, but now seem outdated and pointless to outsiders--and to some insiders." In this new blog series, I want to open this treasure chest and look at the jewels of Christianity to increase our understanding of God and our relationship to him.

One of the great theologians of the Church, Augustine of Hippo, wrote in Confessions, "You [God] have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you." He sets this idea of our restless state along side that of the God who comes in search of us in history in the person of Jesus. God does not leave us out there to hang, letting us desire things that will lead us astray into unhappiness and despair, but like the shepherd in the Parable of the Lost Sheep, God comes after us! We desire him and he desires us.

Now that is theology! Pulled apart, "theology" is "theo" (God) and "ology" (words about). Theology is words about God--humanity's attempt to describe God so we can know him and ourselves. It is no pointless, meaningless exercise in Christian doctrine and/or dogma, but a purposeful attempt through a loving, thoughtful engagement with Scripture to pursue more deeply a relationship with God that speaks eternal divine truths into our contemporary lives.

When Jimmy Carter could not speak at his wife's funeral in late 2023, his daughter, Amy, read one of his love letters to Rosalynn at her funeral. She brought the reality of his devotion for her that he had communicated some seven decades earlier into a movingly meaningful reality. That is what good theology does. It makes alive the love God has for us that we can love him more. Good theology is not boring or mundane, but it brings heavenly spiritual reality to our earthy lives.

This is what I hope to do for you and for me.