Yesterday Morning
Yesterday morning, I took my ESV, a notebook, and a couple of pens to Starbucks to do some reading and studying of scripture over a nice hot cup of caramel apple cider. I cracked open Galatians, which is a book that I have worked on before. I started by reading verse by verse to make sure that I understood everything that I read.
There were a few verses here and there that threw me a curve. I would write them down in my notebook, then read and reread the chapter in context until I could figure out what Paul was trying to say in his epistle. I would then continue reading until the next thing came up. At the end of Chapter 1, I then wrote down the major premises of that chapter, and then I went on.
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A funny thing happened when I was reading chapter 2:
Here’s a whole section that took me better than 90 minutes to get through, because it was so thick with theological language. It is certainly not an easy passage of scripture to get through.
Sure, I know what it the passage means as a whole. It means that we are justified by faith alone and not by works of the law. However, the meaning in the individual verses that Paul puts here aluded me, and so it took a long time to understand them. Still, I know there’s more there than what I was able to take from them.
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Here’s my question: What Bible to people read who are afraid of theology? A certain CCM band once had a line in a song that said, “I don’t need theology to know that God loves me” What Bible are these guys reading? The Bible is packed with some pretty thick areas of theology.
Has anyone read the books of Romans or Hebrews lately? Maybe Christians are just reading and re-reading Psalm 23 because their attention spans aren’t quite long enough to make it through the book of Mark on one sitting.
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Or is this the case: Are Christians reading these books in crappy little Bible studies that ask, “What does this verse mean to me?” You can pitch any kind of theology that you want if you are seeking a personal message from scripture to yourself.
Why am I on this rant, it’s because the theological background of most Christians is nil. They wouldn’t know the Koran from the Bible unless they saw the title. That’s if they took the time to read the title.
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The collective clergy of Christianity in the US isn’t helping much. For the most part, they are there to improve the self-esteem of the congregation and to make them Purpose Driven®.
Theology is for the seminarian and for the Theology Geek. It’s not for the person in the pew. Phooey. I could go on, but I won’t I don’t want to get into any trouble.