Simplify, Simplify

We all have a theology, a body and system of belief toward God. Even atheists' disbelief orients them toward Him. There are as many theologies as there are human beings; but I think there's wisdom in looking at them the way a famous jazzman looked at music: "there's only good music, and bad music." Theology too is either done well, or done badly.

Theology should be easy. Most subjects of study are constantly changing, with new fashions of thought, and new discoveries. Even history, which we might expect to remain static, is subject to continuing revision and correction. But God is unchanging. What He is today is what He has always been, and will always be. The truth about God will always be true. He's not a moving target.

Theology should be easy to do well. It consists of only two parts, God and our understanding of Him. He's the unchanging I AM THAT I AM. Our lives, in contrast, are characterized by continual change: but that's a necessary fact of good theology. Our movement in time and circumstance allows us to see God in new dimensions. It also challenges us to be honest observers, and realize where the movement lies between One standing on the bank and those roiling through the rapids.

Theology only has two parts; God, and ourself perceiving Him. The difficulty of good theology is that it requires absolute truthfulness toward both. We have to be rigorously honest about the relationship of the two; that God is God, and I'm not. It's a simple affirmation of reality, and everyone admits the theology of the first point. Our problem is with the theology of the second.

Medical students are said to detect in themselves the symptoms of every disease they study. When we turn our life to understanding God, we likewise become aware of His working in ourselves...and uncomfortably aware of all the falseness there His presence spotlights. It's an unbearable awareness, for which there are only two remedies: remove the filthy rags with which we furnish our innermost life, or shut out the harsh light that reveals them.

Our problem with God is that He requires us to look at ourselves with the Truth that He Is. We have to be honest about our self-centeredness, pride, self-will, self-justification: to call our most prized attributes what they are, sin. God being God challenges our autonomy at its root: our comfortable delusions of self-sufficiency must go, or Truth will. It's a very high, very PERSONAL, price we're often not willing to pay.

Perhaps I find theology easy because I fail worse than most at being God. I can't deceive even myself (always my surest dupe) on that score. Painfully aware (by God's mercy) how far I miss the mark, I don't dare miss HIM. Hope and life exist only in God's living Presence: whatever it costs to know Him is worth the price.

There's only good music and bad music, good theology and bad theology. Good theology is easy. But it forces on us the determinative MORAL question, the choice between bad and good. The practical question in choosing good theology is whether we will pay what it costs...our autonomy.