It’s true; I love theology. Not the “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin” kind of theology, but the deeply engaged, carefully considered, life-affirming theology that so many people through history have engaged with. Of course, many of them (like me) were accused of heresy; non-thinking or orthodox-driven people often shun intellectual/emotional investigations of God. Wonder frightens them – uncertainty shakes them – new ideas are a danger to everything they believe in. These folks always make me sad because they think they know what to believe about God based on their history or tradition or school of thought; they only see, as Paul said, “through a mirror dimly”. They know only in part.
Most people I know think of theology as boring or meaningless, like some kind of God-centered philosophical navel-gazing experiment that leads nowhere. These are the people I like to talk to the most; they are theologians themselves without really understanding the truth about their relationships with God. In fact, any person who believes in God is a theologian. Every person who endeavors to encounter the Almighty in some way or another is forced to come to a point of belief. And while it is true that some theologies are simpler than others, every person who wants to know about God can evolve. Every person can go deeper.
This is why we should always be learning about God, no matter how old we get or how wise we think are. Nobody has all the answers, and nobody I know has had their answers confirmed by the source. Theology isn’t the answer; it’s the question! This is one reason why fundamentalists are so dangerous to the world; they believe their answers are the only answers. They believe anyone who disagrees with them is a fool or a heretic or demonic. I like to be right, and I spend a lot of time on that journey, but I also have been wrong. Many times. This week. The search for truth is a fool’s errand, but the search for understanding should be at our core.
For the first year or so of the pandemic, I was doing a weekly 7-minute program called “The Wednesday Word”. I would invite people to send me their deep theological questions and I would research and do my best to give a deeply considered answer. After a while, people stopped sending me questions, and I am not the kind of person to make them up on my own. I would like to restart that ministry; I would like to know what your deep questions about God are. I would like to ponder these mysteries together. What have you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask? Your name does not have to be used; all I need is your questions. Let’s love theology together. Ask away.
Prayer – Holy God, it is a real truth that the more we know, the more we know we don’t know. Guide is towards understanding and let us bathe in the wonder of You. Help us to grow into Your hopes and dreams. Amen.
Today’s art is a Mayan head of the Rain God from the 10th/11th century C.E.