“A spiritual theologian is going to go beyond an abstract description to address how this really works in life. . . . There is a great temptation in the church and academy to just accept biblical imperatives (‘Put off anger!’) and imagine that if we just get excited and shout it into our souls, it will happen.”- Kyle Strobel and John Coe
“And not holding fast to the Head, whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”- Colossians 2:19 (ESV)
Today, Kyle Strobel and John Coe move on to the third path to help you choose your own path forward.
Path 3: A call for spiritual theology. Here Kyle and John pause to consider the nature of spiritual theology. And what the calling of spiritual theology entails. After Jonathan Edwards, Kyle notes, spirituality started to emerge as a field of its own. Divorced from our theological beliefs. As a result, when that happened, the authors contend, both disciplines suffered.
Therefore, the authors argue, theology often digresses into a discipline seeking knowledge — apart from the presence of God. And, in contrast, spirituality loses its mooring from its theological roots. That leaves it worldly and broken. So, when spiritual theology addresses the lived reality of life with God, that means our actual life with God must be brought into our theology.
Hence, Kyle and John stress, when we do spiritual theology, we want to:
- attend carefully to what Scripture says about sanctification, growth, and maturation.
- understand the content of our faith, attending to what it means to be in Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.
- also consider our sin and brokenness.
- unfold our worry and consider what’s going on in our souls as well as others so that we can help shepherd God’s people.
Today’s question: What do you think of how the authors describe a spiritual theologian? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The weight of ministry expectations”