Theology and Life

Recently, when I returned from a trip to Taipei, where I attended a theological lecture, I had a conversation with one of my colleagues, reflecting on the content and nature of the lecture.  One of the questions that I always ask after attending such informative and interesting events is ¨Okay, what is the so what of all this?  What is the big deal?  What does theology have to do with life?  What does theology have to do with people who are trying to get the proverbial ¨cheese off the trucks (survive with dignity)?¨

I´ve had my enjoyable share of questioning lecturers, raising questions and listening to others also raise challenging and pertinent questions.  I hear lecturers talk about abstractions, speculations, and how they believe theology applies or does not apply to life.  The lectures are not only informative and interesting, but also stimulating.  Nonetheless, at the end of the day, we are still left with the question of what does theology have to do with life?

Is theology a head game?  Does it, like other branches of human knowledge, constitute ¨mental gymnastics?¨  Is it what theologian James Cone calls ¨intellectual masturbation?¨  I dare to ask the question ¨what the hell is theology?¨

In my early years of my spiritual journey, I was somewhat obsessed with ¨theological purity,¨ if indeed such an animal does exist.  I was concerned with establishing ¨right doctrine,¨ and with having people subscribe to it.  I thought that if we could only assemble various passages of Scripture into a coherent system, that we would then have as a result, what some Christians call ¨sound doctrine.¨  I thought that we could come up with a set of beliefs that would be applicably ¨universal and valid in all times and in all places.¨

Was I in for a rude awakening.  The more I studied the Bible, Church History, and the traditions, I learned that classical theology had little, if anything at all, to do with life.  I learned that issues such as the Trinity, the doctrine of demons and spirits, the issue of ¨free will vs. predestination,¨ the chronological sequence of events preceding the Second Coming of Christ, the issues of the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, et. al., had nothing to do with people struggling with alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, etc.

So you ask me, then, what does theology have to do with life?  I personally come from the point of view that theology takes place where ¨shit happens,¨ where people are struggling like  hell to make sense out of life as they struggle to survive, and where injustice of all kinds prevails.  Yes, this is, indeed, where God is being manifested.  God is being revealed where people are in agony and raising the cry ¨Is there anyone out there hear us?¨  God is being manifested when and where people are putting their lives ¨on the line¨ in the struggle for human rights.  God´s presence is made known wherever and whenever people are active in dismantling structures of oppression and social injustice. God is known when people say ¨hell no!¨ to dehumanization in whatever form we encounter it.

What, then, shall we do with classical theology?  Shall we hang it on a shelf and make it moot?  Shall we put it ¨on hold¨ until these other matters are settled?  This writer (yours truly) is of the persuasion that our theology should be one of ¨orthopraxis¨ (integration between theory and practice), and not so much an ¨orthodoxy (correct doctrine divorced from life)."  God calls us to discover the ¨true doctrine¨ in the agony and cry of our sisters and brothers around the world who suffer from whatever their sufferings may be called.  It is not the doctrine of the academy, nor the doctrine of the institutional Church.  It is the theology of life.

In the Name of the Creator,  and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer.  Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona
Visiting Professor of Theology
Tainan Theological College/Seminary