On 14 August a letter organised by the Christian think tank Theos was published in Times Higher Education. The letter expressed concern in regards to the steep decline within the variety of Theology and Religious studies courses on offer in Higher Education institutions in England and Wales.
This letter, which has achieved a good amount of publicity and could be read in full here, has seventy-five signatories, representing different academic institutions and different religious faiths. The most outstanding of the signatories is the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
I actually have spent the entire of my life since I first went as much as Oxford as an undergraduate in 1981 studying, teaching and writing theology, and I share the signatories’ concern in regards to the decline in the supply of courses in theology. However, If I had been asked to sign the open letter I might have declined to accomplish that. In this text I shall explain why that is the case.
The basic thrust of this letter is that theology and spiritual studies have a twofold social profit. First, courses in theology and spiritual studies equip ‘the residents of tomorrow’ with the tools needed to navigate a future which looks ‘increasingly complex, diverse and pluralistic’ and by which people might want to find a way to ‘wrestle with moral, ethical and spiritual challenges and concepts well.’ Secondly, courses in theology and spiritual studies equip students with skills for each ‘service-oriented careers’ and other types of employment.
The reason I might have declined to sign this letter is since it seems to me that there are two serious problems with the argument which it puts forward.
The first problem is that the letter fails to point out that the social profit potentially delivered by departments of theology and spiritual studies couldn’t be delivered equally effectively by other departments throughout the higher education sector, corresponding to departments of philosophy, ethics, history, politics, sociology, literature, or law. Nor does it show that there’s a need that may only be met by the teaching of theology and spiritual studies and, thus, that cash ought to be spent on such teaching when money for higher education is in brief supply.
The second and more fundamental problem is that the letter leaves God out of the image entirely. God doesn’t get any mention in any respect. From the standpoint of traditional Christian theology, which means the letter totally misses the purpose of why theology matters.
As Alister McGrath accurately notes in his book, Christian Theology An Introduction, the study of theology has traditionally been understood as ‘discourse about God’ (which is the meaning of the Greek word ‘theologia’ from which the English word ‘theology’ is derived).
As McGrath goes on to jot down: ‘Theology was understood as systematic evaluation of the character, purposes and activity of God. At its heart lay the assumption that it was an try and, nevertheless inadequate, to discuss a divine being, distinct from humans.
‘Although theology was initially understood to mean the doctrine of God, the term developed a subtly recent meaning within the twelfth and thirteenth centuries because the University of Paris began to develop. A reputation needed to be found for the systematic study of the Christian faith at university level.
‘Under the influence of Parisian writers corresponding to Peter Abelard and Gilbert de la Porree, the Latin word theologia got here to mean the discipline of sacred learning embracing the totality of Christian doctrine, not merely the doctrine of God.’
To put it one other way, theology has traditionally meant the study of who God is, namely God the Father, God, the Son and God the Holy Spirit, what God has done, is doing and can do, and the way human beings could be properly related to God.
Furthermore, because that is the first means by which we learn about God, theology has been based upon the teaching of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and the witness borne to this teaching by the orthodox Christian theological tradition summarised within the Creeds and other confessional statements produced by the assorted different Christian churches.
In our modern, and largely secular, Western Society the query that inevitably arises is why it matters that theology understood on this sense ought to be studied. The easy answer is since the knowledge of God, which theology provides, is of significant importance to all human beings.
Why that is the case is helpfully summarised by Bobby Jamieson in his excellent recent study of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, Everything is Never Enough. Jamieson explains that Ecclesiastes, written by someone called ‘the teacher’ (in Hebrew Qohelet) could be understood as presenting the human path to happiness as being like a 3 storey constructing.
He writes: ‘Each level of Ecclesiastes’ three storey constructing reveals an important a part of the trail to happiness. On the bottom floor, as we discovered in the primary a part of this book, Qohelet bangs his head on the immanent [this worldly] frame. He finds and laments the bounds of the whole lot that guarantees happiness here below. Only by realising that each earthly good is finite and fleeting are you able to begin to enjoy any of them rightly …
‘As we saw within the book’s second part, the view from Ecclesiastes’ second storey shows that life itself is a present, and so is every good thing in it … Happiness comes from receiving the gift and recognising the giver.
‘The view from Ecclesiastes’ third storey looks clear past the immanent frame. Up there Qohelet directs your gaze up and away from the bounds of this world and your life. Because God alone is the transcendent framer, you must revere him and live for him. Because God alone gave you life, he’s the ultimate authority on what it means to live well.
‘Happiness comes from knowing God, submitting to God, and living for God. One day, for all who trust in Jesus, happiness will come from living not only for God but with God in a world perfectly remade by God.’
What Jamieson writes here is an excellent summary not only of the message of Ecclesiastes, but of the normal Christian worldview. If one accepts this worldview then it becomes clear exactly why theology, understood because the study of God’s being and motion and learn how to relate properly to him, is of significant importance.
As Augustine observed in his book, The City of God, ‘all men desire happiness.’ They are correct to accomplish that, because God gave his human creatures the gift of life that they is likely to be completely satisfied. However, true and lasting happiness can only be achieved, as Jamieson notes, not though clinging on to the products that this world provides, but through ‘knowing God, submitting to God, and living for God.’ Living in this fashion is just possible for many who put their trust in God the Son, Jesus Christ, and for many who do that there’s the promise of living happily with God ceaselessly on the earth to come back.
It is because Christian theology, and only Christian theology, tells us this, that the study of Christian theology is of more importance than some other field of study. It is why theology was traditionally seen because the ‘Queen of the sciences.’
All other subjects that students in higher education study could be seen as potentially contributing to human happiness by improving the lives of the scholars and of wider society in quite a lot of other ways. It is because they do that that they’re value studying. However, only theology can inform you in regards to the true and lasting happiness that comes from a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, which is in the long run the one type of happiness that really matters.
 On 14 August a letter organised by the Christian think tank Theos was published in Times Higher Education. The letter expressed concern in regards...){kind=link}