The other day I came across a statement, “Theology never saved anyone, only Jesus will.”  Okay, on the surface, this might seem accurate but what is it saying?  For starters, theology in recent days has fallen upon hard times.  Jesus good.  Theology bad.  Undoubtedly, a flawed theology can be an impediment to growing in Christ.  I think of a friend who once said, “I grew up in church all my life hearing about the ‘victorious life.’  I never learnt until theological college that men and women of God in biblical times endured struggles and failures.” It is not that that they were preaching from a different Bible, mind you, but that their particular theological position became the glasses by which they viewed the Scriptures, allowing them to see (and not see) what they wanted.  Conversely, dismissing theology all too together is no more desirable.  Let’s remember that our theological understanding enables us to distinguish the biblical Jesus from a new age master.  We all carry with us unseen “theological” glasses by which we view God.  The question is, what shapes our theological lens?  We live in an age of diminishing theological discernment. This inclination led the late Francis Schaeffer to comment that a person espousing faith in Jesus no longer guarantees any biblical grounding.  So how did the “queen of the sciences” become the whipping boy?

Hundreds of years ago, the practice of theological study was risky business.  One wrong conclusion and you could find yourself wandering the Libyan desert.  And yet, it remained an honourable discipline.  Then, during the Enlightenment, the Western world became enamoured with rationality.  To which, matters of logic and scientific explanation were deemed “objective”, public truths, something all people could agree upon.  Matters of faith and morality were relegated as  “subjective”, private truths, to be interpreted on a personal and individual basis; thus, rendering theologians irrelevant.  Today, in a postmodern era, the focus is an experiential encounter with God.  We approach God from the individual’s own perspective, focusing on connection through the heart and by-passing the head.  However, our experiences alone can lead us to any conceivable belief. While spiritually is “in” and theological truth remains “out”,  Jesus spoke of true worshippers, coupling the need for “spirit and truth”.  Without faith it is impossible to please God and yet, faith without theological discernment and biblical boundaries may bear closer resemblance to Luke Skywalker than the gospel of Luke.  In a postmodern world, will our personal experiences predominantly shape our understanding of God or will biblical reflection give meaning to a lifetime of experiences?  How we answer this will determine a great deal about our churches.