Theology is tricky.
Writing about it is even trickier.
I suppose this is true in writing about any subject. But when you write something down for public consumption it can be very hard to express what you mean, or to express it correctly. You never know how your audience will read it and where their mind will put inflections or even how they will view punctuation. Theology provides an even greater task of trying to figure out how to convey things to a pickier audience.
I have found while writing about forming theology (that’s right, not even theology itself, but just how to go about forming a good theology) I have to go back and constantly re-write things. The majority of my readers fall within two camps; they are either hyper-critical, or even more critical than those who are hyper-critical. I blame the anonymity of the Internet and people’s pride. This brings about a certain fear at times when it comes to writing about (or even talking about) theology and theological matters. It seems I have to mind my P’s and Q’s.
In one case, I have a certain amount of pride. I have spent a lot of time and money on learning about theology. I want to make sure my dollars and minutes were well spent. I fully acknowledged this as sin and I repent of it. On the other hand, this often comes from others who wish to demonstrate how much smarter (and holier) they are than me or other readers. They often forget our boasting is not supposed to be in ourselves (Gal. 6:14).
I am posting this for one reason. I am about to embark in a series of posts about building theology. Our tendency is to talk about how much we know and to allow all of our knowledge to stop at our heads. Many times this leads to pseudo intellects trolling my site. In other cases it leads to people who are content in making asses of themselves while trying to show how much they know. Humility sometimes becomes an afterthought. This is not the place for such people or attitudes. I want to teach people about Jesus. I want to give research advice and show great resources. This means I have no qualms with deleting the comments of those who believe they are more elect than others.
Don’t take what you learn on this site and let it stop at your head. Do not be afraid to ask questions or even to contest or add to something I am saying. Recommending corrections and suggestions are always welcome if they are done with humility.
Remember, even the great men of Scripture and church history often had questions at one time or another. They did not come out of the womb blessed with infinite wisdom.
Thanks for understanding.
-Don-
