Status Updates From Theological Method: An Intr...

As a theological teacher, I tell my students, 'Whether you are writing an essay or a thesis, the trick is to say what you are going to say in the introduction, then say it, and at the end say that you have said it.'

Faithful thinking ought not be divorced from faithful living. We are not mere brains on a stick. We are relational beings. Again, faithful thought must not be decoupled from a faithful life. As Grenz and Olson rightly argue, 'Good theology is never content to remain on the theoretical level; it always affects life.'

Doing theology is an exercise in wisdom. . . . Wisdom is an activity, but more than that, an activity informed by a right attitude of reverence toward God. . . . John Webster admirably reminds us, "As the exercise of holy reason, Christian theology is a venture undertaken in prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit." May the Spirit of God overrule and direct our steps in the doing of theology.

An even greater than Socrates is Jesus. He too knew the power of the right question.

History knows several masters of the question. In Western thought, Socrates (d. 399 BC) is often considered the quintessential question asker. . . . The unexamined life is not worth living, he argued. An examined life is a questioning life. Socrates was clear in his method. . . . What is piety? What is justice? What is beauty? These and other questions he asked, and ultimately it cost him his life.

Rupertus Meldenius (1582-1651): "In the essential, unity, and in the non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charity."

In theology, wisdom is reasoning employed as the servant of Scripture and not as the master of Scripture.

Virtues play a role in doing theology, and humility is key. The humble theologian is open to correction and further reform of thought and life. Again, the Reformation slogan semper reformanda (always reforming) in the light of God’s word is sound. The unteachable theologian is an oxymoron.

Given the fall, the believer should always be disappointed by destructive human behavior, but never surprised.