“Theology.”
The term was historically the sum of it's parts:
"Theo-" - from the Greek word 'Theos' for ‘God,’
and "-ology" - from the Greek word 'Logos' or 'meaning' which implied the study of something.
Theology meant 'studying God' and studying the ways we can discern him. This included natural theology (nature), philosophy, and the study of God's Word - the Old and New Testaments.
If, however, you were to find yourself a student at a typical seminary today, you would discover that "it's just not that simple" and there are endless divisions and subdivisions within theology which war with one another for prominence and prestige. There's systematic theology, biblical theology, historical theology and on and on.
One transgressor of common sense theology is 'Biblical Theology.'
Biblical Theology once meant "the theology of the Bible," but after the hyper-specialization of evangelicalism in the 20th century, it now means something closer to "a thematic study of the bible" such as: "a study of salvation in Romans."
Hyper-Specilization: Who Cares?
This concern of mine seems unimportant until you trace the consequences.
When "theology" (in terms of "Knowing God") becomes the stuff of the 'experts' and Ph.D.'s, it shifts the confidence of the average Christian from a boots-on-the-ground practical Christian life to the academy.
God becomes "unknowable" to the average Christian because every theological manual is *merely* an introduction.
Meanwhile in the average congregation, the people adopt a kind of folk mythological idea of God who heals the hurts, and merely wants to be your loving sky-daddy.
Rabbinic Christianity
This distance between populist Christendom, and the Academic stuff epitomizes the problems of Rabbinic Judaism in the days of Jesus.
On the one hand, the intellectual Christian struggles to say anything without referencing "Rabbi Karl Barth who referenced Luther who referenced St. Paul" and the populist Christian can't say anything meaningful about the text itself except "at my church we teach God loves us unconditionally."
“…teaching as doctrines the commandments of men…”
Both thinking and ‘unlearned’ Christians default to the tradition handed to them, or better said as 'teaching as doctrines the commands of men.'
When thinking Christianity becomes the study of other mortal's writings only, and populist Christianity becomes a collection of comfortable slogans about God, Christianity has lost the knowledge of God.
We can no longer think originally or freshly about the text of Scripture. We merely have a tradition handed to us by other mortals. We no longer image the New Covenant ideal: “they will all be taught by God.”
Lettered and Unlettered Christendom Fall Together
Enter stage left, the promise of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2: a mystery of lawlessness masquerading as Christianity. It deceives its worshiper into believing they are accepted by God without a genuine relationship with him by way of counterfeit spiritual phenomena.
So this phenomena has leavened the lump of Christendom - thinking and folk varieties alike - and the 7,000 knees who have not bowed to Baal are quite hidden - even from one another.
Return to True Theology
We need a return to theology proper:
Simply studying God.
Jesus' greatest sermons came while telling us things we should already notice about ‘lilies of the field’ and ‘sparrows of the air’ (natural theology).
Much of our categories we take for granted about God, “omnipresent (present everywhere), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing)” were already known to the Grecian philosophers before the apostles arrived (philosophy).
The highest form of theology arises from the writings of fishermen and tax collector Apostles and camel-skin-wearing Prophets (biblical revelation).
Our Bible is the common man's production.
Yet, the Bible is sophisticated enough to wrestle (and pin down) the problems of the modern, post-modern, and post-post-modern world.
As the Humanists of The Renaissance said, "back to the text!"
S.D.G.
Nate.