I found this in the introduction (page 1) of Rowan Greer's "Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the Early Church"
Tell me what you think:
"(In studying the Fathers of the church) what has increasingly impressed itself on me is that a constant dialogue was maintained between theology and the life of the church. Even those who elaborated a technical theology were also preachers in the Church , and their aim was to articulate and to shape the experience of ordinary Christians. In general terms, this dialogue seems to me one that has been lost in the Church and that very much needs to be restored. In the acadamy the seperate disciplines of history, biblical studies, theology, and liturgy have tended to make theology not only a school discipline but one discipline among others. In the parish church what I have found is a broad loss of theological awareness and a tendency to focus upon the moral demands of Christianity rather than upon the promises of the Gospel. What seems to me to have been a unity in the early Church has become fragmented in our own time. The reading and study of Scripture, the liturgy, preaching, and the arts have tended to go seperate ways. Theology and life have been divided from one another. "
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2 comments:
Ben,
Studying the Apostolic Fathers is a very good discipline for any Church, and I am glad you are receiving wisdom from them. Clearly you are correct that Theology has fallen into disuse in the modern Church. How can it be re-introduced given the anti-intellectual bias that exists in most of the American Church?
Hey Brother,
Thanks for stopping in. I think the "re-introduction" of theology must come with a rearranging in our minds of what theology is. Since the enlightenment, theology has been seen as strictly an academic endeavor; for professors and students, writing systematic theology books, and breaking it up into compartments. What Greer is trying say, and I think I agree, is this is not how we are supposed to approach theology. Rather, like the church fathers, theology should be something that is intimately connected with the living of daily life. Our theology is lived out in practical ways in our lives, and our lives enlighten and strengthen our theology. We have lost the emphasis on praxis. I am interested in what the application of this should look like. I find myself, typing, and reading about theology, and many times not living it out. Shame on me.
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