Theologians

Martin Luther: The person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looms upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened... He deserves to be a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.

Karl Barth: A theologian who does not enjoy his work is no theologian at all.

Merriam-Webster: : a person who is an expert on theology


When you think of theology what do you think? I am finding an increasing number of people who when I ask them about their personal theology I am getting two common answers. "That's just the way I was raised" and "well my pastor says." You may not realize it, but you are a theologian. You are an expert on your own theology, on your own understanding about the nature of God.

Read the stories. Read a story. Think for yourself about the meaning and the implication. If you feel a desire to understand it more then ask questions. Do research on the time period.  Ask experts. But evaluate what you hear. Take nothing at a deep level. Evaluate what you hear and with a lot of prayer take up the meaning for yourself.

Don't know how to pray? Start with Jesus' instruction on prayer, commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, 

The power, and the glory, 

For ever and ever. 

Amen.