Response To Grenz And Olson's Who Needs Theology?

Response to Grenz and Olson’s Who Needs Theology?

Kimberly Dvorak

A literal translation of the word “theology” could be “words about God,” so then anyone who thinks about, or expresses their thoughts about God would be doing theology (1). In this context, even people who don’t believe in any deity could be considered to do theology, because they are still expressing a thought about God: that he doesn’t exist. The study of theology though, is most often done by those who believe in some form of deity, and only Christians are truly capable of doing Christian theology. Why is that? It is because in order to think about, study, and understand the triune God who is revealed in the Bible, one must approach the subject, God, with faith. Without

This is important so that we can communicate effectively, and so we can organize our conclusions in a way that makes sense. While Christian Theology is any Christian conversation, systematic theology should be defined more narrowly. Dr. Kreider states that systematic theology can be defined as, “humans responding in a systematic way to revelation (especially in Scripture), expressing the truth about the triune God in language informed by culture and the Christian tradition” (2). This definition includes the word, “systematic” which means that instead of just thinking about God, systematic theology should include an effort to organize our understanding of God’s revelation, and ensure that each part fits into a cohesive whole. We also take into account the understanding of theology expressed by Christians in the past, and Christians in our community today, so we minimize the risk of twisting the scriptures out of ignorance (3, 2 Peter 3:14-18). And, we must express what we know about God appropriately for the cultural context we are in, because our purpose in studying theology should include benefiting others, and good theology will be of little practical benefit if no one can understand it

Do we need such an extensive system of academic organization in order to know more about God? Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson answer with a resounding “Yes!” in their book: Who Needs Theology?

Grenz and Olson begin by defining theology and discussing what it means be a theologian. For the purpose of their book they define Christian theology as “faith seeking understanding,” and a theologian as anyone who thinks about God. From this they make the case that all Christians are doing Christian theology, and then they go on to illustrate the differences between the different methods of theologizing practiced by different Christians, and they describe what good theology should look like (1).

At the beginning of Who Needs Theology? the authors counter the idea that studying theology is dangerous and unhelpful. I found their illustration that compared lay theology to cooking and professional theology to professional chemistry to be humorous and helpful, though I felt like the tone could be taken as a bit anti-anti-intellectual, but their point is well argued that the help or advice of professionals is often a welcome asset for lay people, and should be the same with theology (1, p.