"Evangelicals have benefited enormously from the faithful and creative labors of many theologians. I certainly acknowledge that for myself. But there are other less acknowledged sides to the story of theology:
- its inability to connect with everyday concerns;
- its use to patronize and disdain others;
- its role in propping up an elitist system of leadership;
- its deadening effects on young theological students;
- its promotion of pedantry and destructive debate;
- its second-hand character that minimizes genuine creative and new perspective;
- the ways it imposes law in the name of protecting grace;
- the ways it preempts and gags conversations that might otherwise break new ground in integrating faith and life.
There is great value in laying a foundation of beliefs. But the methods and disposition of theology have failed to deliver its promise of a richer personal knowledge of God. Theology and church have by and large abducted the conversations that rightfully stand at the heart of the gathering."
Mark Strom:Reframing Paul: Conversations in Grace & Community (IVP, 2000), p. 125
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