Sunday, July 31, 2022
Sunday Reflection: Personal Theology
Every once in a while, I like to set out my personal theology. It's good for me in a few ways: It forces me to revisit what I believe and to think about accountability to those beliefs. And when I do this exercise, I notice that my theology shifts over time.
I'm not a creedalist. I don't say oaths and creeds or accept them. Matthew 5 makes it pretty clear that we are not supposed to swear to things, after all. That means that I'll never say "My personal theology is the Nicene Creed!" or anything like that. It wouldn't be true. And it probably isn't true for a lot of people who say that. It makes for an awkward moment in church when I fall quiet during that part of the service. Creeds don't change; my theology does.
So, here is what I believe:
1) My first rule, and the most important, is that there is a God and it isn't me. That sounds almost ridiculously simple, but it changes everything. If there is a God and it isn't me, that means that there is an awful lot I don't know and am not capable of understanding. That confession of ignorance is humbling and transformative.
2) I believe that Christ transformed the moral world from one based on rules to one based on principles. That may seem odd for a lawyer, but think about my work with clemency-- a project that relies on principles to subvert rules. Most clearly, Jesus directed this when he gave us the two great commandments in a response to the question of which of the Mosaic laws was most important.
3) Those two commandments-- love your God and love your neighbor-- are what I try to use to structure my actions. I fail, often, but living out those two commandments is my goal.
4) Also, I reject the construct that directs that loving your God means that you have to condemn your neighbor. "Love your neighbor as yourself" really steers away from that. And my neighbor includes those who are despised by society: Jesus makes that clear in the story of the Good Samaritan, which was a response to the question "Who is my neighbor?"
5) The Bible reveals who Jesus was and is to me. I worship Jesus, not the Bible; so I care a LOT about what Jesus says to do and almost nothing about what Paul or the authors of the Old Testament say to do. Those others provide important context, deep truths and epic storytelling at times, but Jesus is singular and not every word in the Bible is of equal import. I don't think God wrote the book, or that it only contains literal truths-- and the book itself does not make that claim. But the most important truths of all to me are there.
And that's pretty much it.
For now.
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Very much appreciate this framework. Particularly the Jesus v Paul thoughts, I mean, modern American Christianity in a nutshell?
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