For better or worse, everyone's a theologian, what kind are you?
Good Theology is Lived Theology
From 1971 to 1983, Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, became America’s most infamous icon of bigotry. Norman Lear, the producer of All in the Family, used Archie to create a caricature of what he perceived to be the typical white Christian Republican. The opening song to All in the Family lamented Archie’s desire for the “good old days” when men like him dominated the culture. In watching reruns of this show, I noticed Archie has an amazingly consistent system of theology rooted in half-truths and cultural norms.
Archie’s theology of race, sex, and justice were all corrupt and you can see some of my favorite Archie quotes in the footnote.1 In other areas such as sin, Archie’s theology wasn’t any better,
Read the story of Adam and Eve there. Adam and Eve, they had it pretty soft out in paradise. They had no problems. They didn’t even know they was naked. But Eve, she wasn’t satisfied with that. See. Then one day against direct orders she made poor Adam eat that apple. God got sore, he told them to get their clothes on and ‘get the hell outa’ here!’
Archie was a funny character who, for some people, depicted the root cause of social injustice in America. For men like Norman Lear and Rob Reiner (Michael “Meathead” Stivic), Archie was, and is, an accurate portrayal of Christian ignorance… and to some degree, they weren’t wrong.
Archie Bunker illustrates one simple truth, for better or for worse, everyone is a theologian and, if everyone is a theologian, the question is, ‘what kind of theologian are you?'
While Archie Bunker is just a character on an old TV sitcom, there are plenty of real-life examples of theology gone wrong. My recent episode of raZe the roof titled, Capturing Heretical Christianity, is just the latest example of bad theology in Christian apologetics.
Systematic theology is another discipline that has earned a bad reputation. Here are some problems I’ve observed over the years.
Bad Systematic Theology pushes Christians to study books written by professional theologians and discourages “average” Christians from reading the Bible and trusting in the plain reading of the text.
Bad Systematic Theology emphasizes academic precision over personal transformation, relationship with Jesus, and practical applications.
Bad Systematic Theology tries to harmonize the 66 books of the Bible using invented concepts.
Bad Systematic Theology creates division among Christians over the smallest difference in technical language.
But not all systematic theology is bad. Francis Schaeffer puts it this way,
Our forefathers used the term systematic theology to express their view that Christianity is not a series of isolated religious statements, but that it has a beginning and flows on to an end. Each part relates to each other part and to the whole, and to what stands first in the system. It is perfectly possible that such a systematic understanding of Christianity can become a dead thing, but let us not despise the word systematic as if it were automatically a corpse.2
Over the years I’ve tried to counter the bad kind of systematics with a Bible-centered theology grounded in the following commitments.
Biblical Theology looks at how God's revelation unfolds within its specific cultural and historical context.
Biblical Theology examines meaning in both the canonical and intertextual context.
Biblical Theology values the unique genres within each book and seeks to understand how these literary styles impact the meaning of each text.
Biblical Theology considers authorial intent and how the human writer intended the inspired text to be read.
The differences between systematic and biblical theology are important but even given the concerns I’ve raised above, we shouldn’t assume these two approaches are mutually exclusive. Despite the pitfalls of bad systematic theology, we should not dismiss it out of hand.
Good theology is both biblical and systematic. Biblical theology lends itself to a system of theology that is internally consistent.
Put simply, biblical theology is systematic in its methodology because it recognizes that every theological claim must in some way connect to the ultimate truth found in the person of God. Carl F. H. Henry makes this point well,
Christianity first entered the world in the name of the living God of truth to proclaim Jesus Christ to be the unique and final revelation of God’s truth and grace (John 1:18). Its theological method, predicated on the priority of divine revelation, rises not from a culture-bound conceptuality that has no significance beyond a particular historical era or cultural period.3
Therefore, to avoid becoming the next Archie Bunker and to effectively bridge the gap between biblical and systematic theology, here are the key markers of good theology:
Good Theology is grounded in good methodology. Good theology isn’t science, philosophy, anthropology, or any other ‘ology.’ Good theology trusts God’s self-revelation—both his book of Scripture and his book of nature—to tell us what’s true about reality.
Good theology is logical and rational, but reason doesn’t preclude mystery nor does it try to force the things we don’t comprehend into unnatural systems.4
Good Theology doesn’t strip a text from its context but seeks to understand how each text reflects the overall truth of God’s revelation.
Good Theology knows that every system is flawed and will challenge every system to prove its claims by reading Scripture consistently. Good theology is grounded in a good hermeneutic.
Good Theology shifts the culture whereas bad theology shifts with the culture.
Good Theology is transformative, it unites our reason with our feelings and our practice.
Good Theology is not the job of scholars, pastors, or academics alone. Good theology is the job of every Christian who is called by God to give an account of the hope within.
Good Theology doesn’t deconstruct our faith or isolate Christians into theological tribes. Good theology refines our thinking and reinforces the unity of our salvation sealed by the Spirit. “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:4–6).
Good Theology thrives under the providence of the Holy Spirit who is given to each of us by God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Good theology is lived theology.
In the coming months, I’ll make a new post in one specific area of theology. I invite all of my readers to test if what I write is good theology. If my posts pass the test, let me know how you’ve been transform and how you’ve been challenged to serve God in a new way.
Some of my favorite Archie quotes
Archie On Miracles
Michael:“There are no such thing as miracles.”
Archie: “Ah, what the hell do you know. To millions and billions of people miracles are all through the Bible there. What about your story of Noah and the whale there. What about Sampson? He takes the jawbone out of the grass and he kills the whole army of the Philippines…
It makes a guy stop and think when he has been the victim of a miracle.”
Archie On Heaven
“Who’d want to go to heaven if it was filled with flies and dogs. You might as well stay in New York.”
Archie On Women
Archie: “Come on Irene, it’s a well known fact—men are worth more than women.”
Irene: “Archie, have you been reading playboy?”
Archie: “No Irene! The Bible.”
Irene: “The Bible?”
Archie: “In the Bible it says, ‘God made man in his own image.’ He made women after from a rib—a cheaper cut.”
——-
Archie: “Ya see this here. The holy Bible, buddy. The Good Book. You know what it says in there? Is says that a woman should cleave into her husband. Right here in this house is where Edith’s cleavage belongs.”
Michael: “What is that? The Gospel according to Archie Bunker?”
Archie: “No buddy, First chapter of Generous.”
Archie On God’s Perfection
Archie: “I don’t wanna’ hear nuttin’ more about women’s problems. Jeez, you don’t hear men complainin’ about their problems, do ya’?”
Gloria: “That’s ‘cause men don’t have any problems compared to women.”
Archie: “And that’s God’s will, so forget it.”
Gloria: “You mean God’s mistake.”
Archie: “Hey! Hey! Hey! God don’t make no mistakes. That’s how he got to be God.”
Archie On Agnostics
Michael: “It’s very simple Mrs. Bunker; I’m an Agnostic.”
Edith: “Oh, you mean you want a Rabbi.”
Archie: “It’s worse than that Edith. I think it means he can’t have kids.”
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, vol. 1 (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), 93.
Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 214–215.
“Divine revelation is the source of all truth, the truth of Christianity included; reason is the instrument for recognizing it; Scripture is its verifying principle; logical consistency is a negative test for truth and coherence a subordinate test. The task of Christian theology is to exhibit the content of biblical revelation as an orderly whole.” Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, vol. 1, 215.