It’s G. K. Chesterton’s fault. One of the first Christian books I read as a new believer was Orthodoxy. I’m still not entirely certain what motivated me to pick this book up—I could have chosen any number of other titles—but this was the one. I devoured it, leaving nary a page unmarked. My mind was on fire as I read each sentence. I didn’t understand most of what I read (Chesterton tends not to make it easy for his readers), but I didn’t care. Whatever else you could say about what he wrote, he was excited. Passionate. He believed what he wrote, and I wanted more.1
It’s J. I. Packer’s fault. A friend told me I needed to read his book Knowing God, that it would change my life. It took me months to read, each page a rich meal. The words of a man who knew much about God and also knew God intimately. Who wanted his readers to know that “the width of our knowledge about [God] is no gauge of the depth of our knowledge of him.”2
It’s C. S. Lewis’ fault. Mere Christianity was in my hands, a book I didn’t know existed until a friend recommended I read it. Lewis, in my mind, was the author of a wonderful children’s book I read as an eight-year-old. But this was no fairytale. It was the work of a man whose delight was found in working his way “through a tough bit of theology.”3 A man captivated by big questions, even bigger ideas, and a God simply too glorious for him to fully comprehend.
Chesterton, Packer, and Lewis. These are three of the men to blame for creating in me a hunger for something I never knew I even wanted. A wonderful gift that has sustained me throughout some of the most difficult times of my adult life: a deep love of theology, a love not fixed merely on gaining knowledge about God for the sake of accumulating knowledge but knowing God to glorify Him.
Studying the Bible is Studying Theology
But what do I mean by theology? At the most basic level, theology means “words about God.”4 So by theology, I simply mean what you understand and believe about God. Yes, it involves digging deep into difficult and sometimes obscure subjects, but theology is not a purely academic pursuit reserved for seminary classrooms. Theology matters in every area of life. It is practical.
And that word—practical—is really important. It is a reminder that theology is something lived out. Chesterton, Packer, and Lewis all understood this, just as the authors of Scripture did. And this is probably why I think John Frame offers one of the most helpful definitions of theology I’ve ever seen: “the application of God’s Word by persons to all areas of life.”5 Think about that:
- “The application of God’s Word.” Theology is not something we add to the Bible. We don’t carry theological beliefs to God’s Word. Instead, theology is what we draw from the Bible as we seek to live faithfully as believers.
- “By persons.” Each one of us is responsible for applying the Bible to life. We are all theologians, as many have said before.
- “To all areas of life.” Just as we are all theologians, everything is theological. There is no area of life left unaffected by what we believe about God.
Two Groups, Two Struggles
I know many people who would struggle with this definition of theology from two perspectives:
- Skeptics. Some people doubt theology’s value altogether. They haven’t seen how our doctrine shapes devotion. From their vantage point, doctrine seems to divide more than it causes us to delight in God.
- The already convinced. In contrast to skeptics, these people believe doctrine has value. They relish knowing more about God. For them, the issue isn’t in the knowing. Their struggle—and in the interests of full disclosure, my struggle—is not to stop at pursuing knowledge of God (which itself is a good thing) but to delight in that knowledge and the application of it. In seeing our doctrine move from the head to the heart, and from the heart to the hands.
Doctrine Shapes Our Devotion
This is why, even as we focus on telling the big story of Scripture, we are committed to teaching theology through the The Gospel Project:
We want skeptics to be introduced to 99 of the most important truths of the Christian faith. Kids, students, and adults need to to examine these doctrines and reflect on what they already believe about each of them—to spend time in God’s Word, see where these truths find their foundation and consider how each might help them grow in their love for Christ.
We want the convinced to see how every essential truth of the faith draws us to Christ, whether it’s the creation of the cosmos, the nature of the Bible, or the promise of the new creation to come. We want you to know about God in a way that stirs your affections—helping you move what you know about God to how you feel about God and how you live for God.
Ultimately, our hope is that every student of the Word, from the youngest in the church to the eldest member, will find that that theology draws them “further up and further in[to]”6 the Christian life.
Theology—applying God’s Word to all areas of life—is used by the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ moment by moment. Theology binds us together with other believers in a community of faith that spans time and space. Theology challenges us to keep spreading the good news of the gospel until there’s no one left to hear it.
That’s what what we get from studying doctrine. Doctrine shapes our devotion. And when we get that, it really does change everything.
Notes
- This article is adapted from the introduction to Devotional Doctrine, a free ebook by Aaron Armstrong.
- J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: IVP, 2011) [eBook].
- C. S. Lewis, “Introduction,” in St. Athanasius On the Incarnation, trans. and ed. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1944), 8.
- J. A. Medders and Brandon D. Smith, Rooted: Theology for Growing Christians (Rainer Publishing, 2016), 22.
- John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1987), 76.
- C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York: HarperCollins, 1984), 206.
Barbara McFadin says
Is there a store near me where I can actually look at your material? I teach our youth, but am a senior citizen, so I’m not real techie! My zip code is 75451. There used to be a midway in Longview, Tx, but they have closed.