Maggie's Farm

It was a good summary. Thanks for the reference. Actually, it was freer of the theological jargon than a lot of stuff I've slogged thru over the years...

I have to say, tho, that 20 years out of seminary it reminded me what was the hardest part of seminary, enduring contemporary theology. Call me pedestrian, but I went to seminary to learn how to preach and teach the Gospel, offer loving pastoral care to a congregation. Most of the theology that got debated and taught there had nothing to do with the Gospel. As this article points the same thing out

"To put it bluntly, liberal theology has broken beyond its academic base only when it speaks with spiritual conviction about God's holy and gracious presence, the way of Christ, and the transformative mission of Christianity. That is not how a great deal of liberal theology has spoken over the past generation, to the detriment of liberal theology as a whole. In the past a spiritually vital evangelical liberalism sustained religious communities that supported the entire liberal movement. What would the social gospel movement have been without its gospel-centered preaching and theology? What would the Civil Rights movement have been without its gospel-centered belief in the sacredness of personality and the divine good?

When the social gospelers spoke of the authority of Christian experience, they took for granted their own deep grounding in Bible study, family devotions, personal prayer, and worship. Today the loss of the transcendental, biblical voice in liberal theology is one important reason that much of it gets little notice. Liberals often show more concern about the postmodern status of their perspective than about the relationship of their perspective to gospel faith."

I am old-fashioned, believing that Christianity isn't taught, it's caught. So my teachers in theology were saintly relatives and teachers, companions in Bible study, devoted parish priests in the mountain villages I visited as a child in the Andes. Years later, I would thrill to the faithful heroism of the Jesuits in "The Mission." That's a faith worth both living and dying for!

When I was in seminary, process theology was what the cool people were into, and it was tantalizing. Then there was a lot of liberation theology that I could relate to having seen the viciousness of society in Latin America thru my childhood, and I was friends with Jesuits who foul Ratzinger persecuted and labelled Communists some of whom died because they loved barefoot peasants and tried to bring them the sacraments and teachings of Christ. But the American versions of liberation theology, the rabid feminism, gay rights screeching, WICCA whining for equal status, and general everyone-is-a-victim stuff nauseated me.

The article makes a good point about the separation of academic theology from the congregations.

I still consider myself theologically illiterate in the modern stuff. Because most of it is unreadable, and because there really are no greats in the field. We are in the middle of Munchkin Land right now.

Anyway, thanks again for the article reference.