by Thomas Jay Oord
May 19, 2011
The latest of edition of the magazine Fast Company features today’s 100 most creative business people. The magazine’s stories of these innovators has me thinking about creativity in Christian theology.
What counts as creative is at least partly subjective, of course. But I noticed common themes among those featured in Fast Company. Most creative people listed are problem solvers, obstacle overcomers, or innovators.
The magazine's list has fascinating people. Ranked first is the general director of Al Jazeera. Number two is a designer at Apple. Interestingly, Conan O’Brien made the top ten.
There’s Nothing New Under the Sun?
All of this has me wondering what it would be like to construct a list of the 100 most creative theological thinkers today. I know of no magazine who publishes publish such a list. But I'm sure it would be interesting!
Of course, some Christians think theology done well is not creative at all. Good theology, from this perspective, simply retells stories and truths handed down from yesteryear. For Christians with this perspective, either the Bible or the Christian tradition offers everything of theological importance. There is nothing new under the sun.
Others think creative endeavors in theology imply that God has changed in some way. Because they think God is in all ways unchanging, creative theology is at worst heretical and at best misguided. An unchanging God requires unchanging theology.
I personally think good theology takes into account insights from yesteryear and Scripture. But I don’t think appreciating the past eliminates the possibility of new and creative theological insights. Traditional wisdom is crucial; but contemporary imagination plays an important role in Christian theology.
Something New Under the Sun
We need creative theology today as much or more than ever. In fact, I think the most important creative advances today may actually be occurring in theology not business!
The common Christian conviction that we can never fully understand God plays a role in explaining why creative theology is important today. Unless we think a person or group in the past comprehended God entirely, there is always room to “grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ.”
In addition, Christians face a host of unanswered or poorly answered questions. Take the problem of evil, for instance. Most Christians have either no answer or a poor answer to why an almighty and all-loving God fails to prevent genuine evil. There’s plenty of need for creative theological thinking on that issue.
Theology is necessarily tied to our views of the world, including science. Our views of the human person, initial and ongoing creation, and social structures are always influenced by research and theories in the sciences. While theology need not be a slave to changing scientific ideas, creative theology can help Christians reconcile time-honored truths with contemporary scientific research. There’s work to be done here too.
Or take the questions of religious pluralism. While people of differing faiths have always interacted to some degree, many Christians today interact with nonChristians more often and more deeply. We need creative theological answers questions this new situation raise.
New Research Programs in Theology
Fast Company inspires me to consider the kind of creative theology we need most today. In some of my recent work, I’ve attempted to offer satisfying answers to some questions. But I’m thinking now about what I should do next.
In a changing world with changing people and changing ideas, some things do stay the same. But as long as we know in part, there will be plenty of room for creative theological endeavor.
Please continue to -
Part 2.
by R.E.Slater
September 1, 2012
Thank you for this helpful post. I have been one of those people you mention who equate the mystery of God with reason to stay set in traditional ways of looking at things theologically. However, it really is true that we need to continue to be pressing forward in our approaches to theology. Certainly, we have done so in the pursuit of science, race relations, economics, and public policy, etc. It makes good sense that we ought to be doing the same in theology.
ReplyDeleteYour example of exploring the need for a creative theology for the problem of evil was challenging, but I found your reference to a creative theology in addressing religious pluralism to be equaling helpful. As a youngster in this country, I related almost exclusively to other “Christians” through much of my life. The most divergent group was those of the Catholic persuasion of Christianity. Today, I live in a place (Hawaii) where we have very high percentages of at least a dozen faiths, including some I have never encountered before in large numbers. The point is that we have to do a better job of figuring out theological models to interacting with these groups that is honoring to our own faith but also respectful and consistent with the values of our culture and Biblical integrity. It seems to me that the desire to do so can be accomplished without compromising our core beliefs and deference to those who have gone before and provided the theological foundation on which we stand.
As always, a good, thought provoking, and helpful post. (Edward Hill)
Creative theology . . . to me this means coming up with new ways on how to think about God. That is overwhelming. First we know that there is nothing new under the sun then given that there has been somewhere between 5 billion and 5 thousand years since creation of time where people could be thinking about how to think about God. I'm not sure if "creative theology" is the best term.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it (as of right now, I’m sure it will change) theology is similar to fashion. For a few years a certain way of dress or a way of thinking is very popular. This trend is guided by world events: wars, economy, modernity, postmodernity. The trend then goes out of fashion maybe because the majority does not like how many animals were killed in the making of a product, how much it costs or how much the workers who made the product are getting paid. Sooner or later, after a few changes have occurred the trend will come back.
During times of peace certain theologies claim pacifism and free-will. Then a terrorist attack occurs and 80% of the pacifists change their minds. The God given free-will is then changed to placing the blame on God because He, after all, was the one who gave us free-will!
Maybe "consistent theology" would be a better term.
One the topic of evil, what are the ways to have creative thinking? What does creative theology even mean?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with your statement about theology being tied to our views of the world. The obstacles I face in life either second guess my own theology or make it stronger. Was that what you were meaning?
How could creative theology evangelize to those who do not know Jesus?
While I don't presume to answer for Thomas Oord himself, I would give this webblog here as example of creative theology... especially as pertaining to re-opening the Scriptures afresh in new light-and-meaning to today's questions-and-turmoils. While Christian tradition is understood and appreciated, it should never be allowed to hold contemporary theology hostage. And while God has been taught as the unchangeable One, we do now observe that He is also the changeable One through Open Theology and Process Thought we are calling Relational Theism.
ReplyDeleteNot only has science and religious pluralism been discussed here, but so too has been added other discussions on - what postmodernism brings to the area of opportunity for the message of the Gospel and for ensuing local and global ministries; the necessary expansion of evangelical Christianity into the many forms of emergent Christianity now occurring; the meaning of Scriptural authority and its relevance for us today; the importance of narrative theology (the story-form of biblical theology) in place of systematic theology; the importance of the church and cruciform ministry to believer and nonbeliever alike - both within-and-without church fellowships and organizations; the errors and fallacies of Evangelical folk religion and biblioatry; the affects of the 19th century's Enlightenment as well as that of the 20th century's Modernity in relationship to postmodernity's progress towards the Age of Authentication; of the inter-relationship between theology and philosophy; of the centrality of Jesus and the Kingdom of God; how Jesus' Gospel message is displacing evangelicalism's message of Pauline justification through the "New Perspective of Paul" that is occurring in a re-examination of the Gospel teachings of Jesus to the religious Jewish bodies of His day; of the relevancy of God's love over the more restrictive semantic barriers of truth (or, what we imagine "truth" to be in our cultural subcontexts); and so forth.
These discussions, and many more, have been written about (as evidenced in the sidebars along the right-hand column of this webblog) and will give to the reader a multitude of examples by what is meant by writing out a "creative theology" as versus a static and dead theology which lives and breathes the dust of the past. A creative theology is not static, but living, reforming, recreative, relevant. It re-fuses (or joins together) past Christian theology (though not necessarily past Christian traditions, be they Protestant, Jewish or otherwise intended, unless it is Messianic first and foremost). So that God's Word is a living revelation, and not a restrictive, codified, legalistic religion; that authoritatively speaks about Jesus to today's postmodern societies and cultures in terms that can be grasped and felt. And when the time comes when a new philosophical era should arise, then the re-approbation of Scripture must be made once again into those societies and culture's global contexts. For God (and His revelation) continually expands and grows with the worlds of men. If not, we have but made God a dead idol by the works of our hands and lips through dead traditions, and disconnected, meaningless confessional teachings.
Creative Theology but points down the road and says "Think about this" and does not say "We have thought all the thoughts we can think about God and can no longer think of God in any further future context". We don't necessarily seek answers so much as seek better questions. We attempt to not limit ourselves by limiting God. And this is done by not limiting God's Word and His current activity among us amid real-time life events. We allow God to be bigger than our concepts of Him. And use past church history as but a guide to enhance God's message to mankind of love, salvation, hope and faith. In this way theology stays fresh. Relevant. Creative. I hope this helps.