4. Hallowed …or Hollowed?

Is it not obvious that theology has hollowed out humanity’s holiest words? Through constant qualifications and loopy interpretive moves, we lose all clarity as to what someone from anywhere might mean by utterances such as God, faith, spirit, and even—or perhaps especially—Jesus or Christ. I can never quite tell what people are signifying with these terms. Even after reading several monographs, in which these words are employed hundreds of times by the same author, we will usually find surprises, contradictions, or unhelpful appeals to mystery. It’s usually the case with even the greatest of theologians who have offered the most convincing of definitions through decades of writing that there is great variance between their earlier and later work. This has been much of the history of theology.  (Especially since Luther, or should I blame the printing press and modern medicine?)

Unfortunately, the price we pay for an excess of meanings is basic meaninglessness. People have justified all sorts of horrendous acts with the Bible. Why? How? Because the Christian canon has no clear meaning, especially after two millennia of people trying to fit their beliefs into Jesus’ mouth. People perceive in it often only what they wish to see. 

Though it may sound like I’ve set myself against all theologians, I often consider that maybe John Calvin was right about some things. One of those things is that the human heart is an idol factory. This is no small point of agreement between us. Although I might add that this is particularly true of Christian hearts. Much of Christian theology is inherently idolatrous. It presents ideas, mingling stories and traditions with geography, politics, and a whole host of time-bound assumptions as eternal propositional truths.

It is guilty of a very basic dishonesty, that God might be known.

One symptom of this is that God always seems to look a lot like whoever is speaking about God. As an old Greek poet once observed, Ethiopian gods are black while European gods are pale, and if cattle could create, they’d make idols of gods in their own image too. 

Theologians fumble Christianity’s most profound symbol: the icon. Where Christianity might’ve avoided idolatry, theology has said: “Christ is not just a symbol through which we imagine God. Our Christ is God.” 

5. Job’s Friends

So, lest my training as a theologian betray my aspiration to clarity, I will be direct as possible. There are four distinct observations about theology that bring me to my allegations of idolatry. Where theology escapes these traps, it may also genuinely evade idolatry.

First, it relies on multiple levels of ambiguity. This would not be so bad if theologians were honest about it—with themselves as much as their readers. Instead, they have developed all kinds of whacky ways to keep connecting their project directly to the almighty. These leaps of reason desperate for a foundation multiply the difficulties of getting a handle on Christianity’s most basic vocabulary. The effect of this vague web of curious terms is universally that theologians unwittingly project their own accidental intuitions into them without much of a problem. 

If Christian historians have peered down the long well of history to see their own reflection in the historical Jesus, theologians have fared no better with God.

That brings me to my second point. For so many god-talkers, God seems to be something like an idealized version of themselves. Whether it is the invincibility and power of an omnipotent Sovereign or the boundless compassion of an all-loving Creator, people seem to believe in the gods that look most like who they wish they were. This means that theology has quite a great deal to tell us about ourselves but probably nothing to teach us about God.

Third, where theology is authoritarian, there is sure to be idols nearby. Dogma — or that which a given authority or tradition requires one to believe to participate in the rituals and rewards of religion — isn’t a word thrown around too much in evangelical circles. However, it is still an active part of the formula. Believers are made to conform their thoughts and experiences to boundaries set by authority figures. Is God afraid that if people are allowed to make up their own minds, they’d believe in a different God, or maybe no God at all? Sounds like an idol to me.

Lastly, theology is by and large a defense mechanism. Though it is almost impossible to see as an insider, “faith seeking understanding” is the logic of someone walling themselves in from the inside. Theology is almost nothing if it is not defensive rationalization of prior commitments. It is hardly done outside of direct denominational affiliations and objectives. It takes the form of explanation of (or meditation on) what we are already supposed to believe.

In the poem that begins my section on theology, I picture the theologian as a construction worker building what at first might be imagined to be a castle — after Teresa of Avila, another heretic who loved her God—but the analogy might work better as a beloved prison. Castles are supposed to keep out intruders; if this is theology’s task, Christian theology has failed miserably, it has included the failures of many other religions. But if it is considered as a prison, theology has done remarkably well. The places that need the most fortifying show the greatest weaknesses, these are not the entrances but the exits. Theology doesn’t usually kill people (anymore), but it still damns them for eternity…and the worst punishments are usually reserved for apostates.

Thank god no theologian has ever been a match for Job.

Theologians and preachers are Job’s friends,

They’d have the innocent admit he sinned.

“For no individual does our System bend

God does not kill the righteous man’s kin.”

So still they bless and condemn,

Yet  they do not know God from Satan.

In spirit with my words on the Bible, I’m convinced that by including the prophets in the Christian canon, theologians have effectively invited a dangerous Trojan horse into the Church. Unwittingly, theology reveals itself as a house built on sand, a questionable set of structures resting on shaky foundations, though theologians have not slowed construction at all. If Christian theologians insist on the privileges of life on a beach, we should not be surprised when nature itself threatens their castles….

Theology is where ideology goes to get baptized, where the gods are born; it is the idol factory. Theology itself is Christianity’s original sin.