Sunday, August 17, 2025
Sunday Reflection: On Theology
I've spent a fair amount of time around theologians-- people who think about theology, one way or another, for a living. Sometimes I'm baffled by the complexity of their work, which often leads me to think "how do you know that?"
Sometimes people refer to "personal theology," but all theology is personal-- if no one believes it personally, it isn't really theology, is it? My own theology has evolved a lot over the years, often influenced by those experts in theology I have known (though often more influenced by their questions than by their answers).
My personal morality and religion is built around the constantly challenging teaches of Jesus. I really do focus pretty narrowly on the four Gospels and Jesus himself, and I suppose that is theological choice.
In a bigger way, though my theology is rooted in a single question, which is this: "I believe there is a God-- so what does that mean?"
Over the years, I have developed some answers to that question that may seem superficial but actually can be quite challenging:
-- There is a God, and it is not me.
-- Because there is a God and it is not me, there are going to be a huge number of things that I do not know or understand (but God does).
-- That the existence of God argues for the same thing Jesus did: Humility.
-- Though I am a very very very small part of God's Universe, that does not mean I am unimportant, as I am a part of that remarkable whole.
There will be more. But I am still a work in progress.
