The "Joke" of Biblical Theology

I’ll be candid with you.

When I first started at Talbot School of Theology I thought the discipline of Biblical Theology was a joke. Now, before you judge me as too shallow, let me explain.

Biblical Theology always came across to me as a “light” version of theology that evangelicals could get away with because they held so ardently to the sufficiency of Scripture. I figured the thinking would go something like this: If Scripture is capable of meeting “every need of the human soul,” then why would you need anything else to supplement it?

Something like this mentality started bothering me about midway through my college years. It was about that time that I started taking philosophy classes and I discovered the panoply of tools that philosophy had to offer. How do we know things? What is the nature of reality? What are helpful/logical methods of parsing out difficult issues? I found so many intriguing answers to these questions in the writings of people like Augustine, Aquinas, Locke, Descartes, and Kant. I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would want to downplay what these gentleman had to say.

Well, let me be clear. I’m not saying that everything these (and other philosophers) had to say was kittens and rainbows.  No doubt – they had some crazy ideas! But, I did notice that many of the evangelical theologians I was exposed to preferred to stay “safe” within the confines of Biblical language and ideas. Sure they might throw Augustine or Aquinas a bone here or there, but they certainly balked at the idea of adopting their comprehensive systems of thought.

Apparently, at that point in my intellectual journey, I wasn’t quite sure how to attain reflective equilibrium and I decided to outright reject the deliverances of Biblical Theology as uninformed and simplistic. Surely these theologians couldn’t have anything relevant to say if they remained sequestered within the confines of “Biblicism.” Right?

Well, as I see it now, I’m not so sure. I think I was more likely a fool when I made that decision instead of an enlightened neophyte.

My change of heart started with a class I took this semester. It was a theology class – a biblical theology class under the guise of a systematics course. Imagine my dismay when in the first class the professor detailed the biblical-theological approach he was going to take towards the material. I was so depressed that I went home and told Judy that I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the semester. All I could think was, “Oh great, another closed-minded theologian who I’m going to disagree with on just about everything.”

Well, God was gracious to me and helped me see how foolish I was for thinking I was so wise. As the semester progressed, I began to realize just how beautiful the Scriptures are. I began to see the complexities of God’s self-revelation and how much I’ve shut myself off from by pursuing theological reflection apart from rigorous biblical knowledge. I’m fairly confident my professor could quote relevant Scripture for just about any theological question I raised.

So what does this mean? Well, it doesn’t mean that I’ve adapted my core beliefs to comport with my professor’s. No, I couldn’t do that right now. I’m still a child of philosophy – adopted later in life, but nonetheless a child – and I don’t think I could ever give that away. I believe in its usefulness far too much.

However, I have been re-encouraged to devote myself to developing a deep knowledge of Scripture. If for no other reason, than that I gain additional, standardizing information for my personal theological reflection. I think too often I’ve fallen prey to uninformed critique of Scripture without full knowledge of what it has to say. I hope to remedy that in the future.

So, I’m grateful. I’m grateful that God decided to take me on a journey this semester towards actually recovering the Scriptures as a source for the theology I produce. Not that I ever doubted it was a source or even the norming norm. I more doubted a simplistic, systematizing approach applied when using it as a source.

I’m also excited to see how God’s gracious hand continues to guide my intellectual journey. I think this experience has taught me (again!) to approach knowledge humbly. I don’t have an objective perspective from which I acquire knowledge. I’m finite, foolish, and foolhardy. But God is good towards me and I’m grateful for his loving-kindness.