One of the many issues that I have struggled with since my seminary days, and since I became engaged in ministry on a professional basis, was whether biblical theology should be done from the "bottom up" or from the "top down?" Coming out of a Pentecostal background where little or no formal training was required for ordination to the Gospel ministry, I was surrounded by people who believed that the only thing required for effective ministry was for one to be called by God. As I completed my studies at a Bible institute (the minimum required training for many Pentecostal churches), and then went on to purse college and graduate-level theological education, I would constantly hear that "much study is affliction of the flesh," and that advanced education would erode the spirituality of the candidate for ministry. After having undergone advanced training, I almost got caught up in thinking that only thoroughly trained persons would qualify for ministry and to do biblical theology. However, during my training, I was exposed to Liberation Theology, a way of doing biblical interpretation and theological reflection from the standpoint of oppressed and socially marginalized people. My training led me to be exposed that theology can be done by professionally trained "experts" who possess all types of academic and professional degrees, but that by and large, the majority of them work out their theology independently of suffering people. This type of theology is usually done from the comfort of an office in an academic institution or a library. Liberation Theology, on the other hand, emerges from the struggle of people in the so-called Third World, and of Slavetown, U.S.A. who are making every attempt to "make ends meet," and to survive with dignity.
Having been exposed to theology from both socio-economic standpoints, I continue to struggle with the question of whether is it "top down," or "bottom up?" My training and professional experience in the fields of ministry, higher education, and social work press me to believe that it is "top down." But my work and solidarity with people of limited education, and people who for the most part are engaged in menial type jobs as defined by society, and by people who struggle with limited income and inferior housing conditions, etc. lead me to believe that biblical theology should be "bottom up." While I am truly grateful for the degree of formal education that I have in the fields of religion and theology (by the grace of God), I am also grateful for the opportunity to have worked with people from whom I have learned a lot in terms of humility as well as true spirituality of dependence on God. As I prepare to teach an introductory course in theology at our church this week, I remember having taught theology in certificate-level programs at various seminaries, where the students for the most part, have been either lay folks or ordained ministers whose theological training was very limited. I also remember facilitating programs of theological studies within the prison system with the residents, some of whom have gone on to advanced studies and into the profession of the ministry upon their release.
In closing, I would invite you to accept the challenge of imagining agricultural, industrial, and blue-collar workers doing biblical interpretation and theological reflection from their social location. Then from there, find a way to bring together those who do it from the standpoint of comfort with those whose theological reflections emerge from their existential reality of suffering and struggle.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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