A New Start to Theology

Theology always starts with people trying to making sense of the prevailing worldview. The Hebrew people, in the centuries before Jesus, started their theology in the worldview which they had inherited from people who had lived centuries before “the Hebrews” came into existence.  It was a worldview of gods and mythical stories about how humanity came into existence, and stories that attempted to explain death, suffering and evil.

The Hebrew people developed their understanding of a Supreme Heavenly God from these foundations and also from the need to shape their own unique identity. So they gave us “The Hebrew Bible”.

The early Christians, being Jews, naturally built their understanding of “salvation” and Jesus’ role in it, in light of the Hebrew Scriptures and its understanding of God. As Christianity developed, it added to this understanding the notion of humanity disconnected from the heavenly God. 

 Consequently, all of Christianity’s doctrinal statements about Jesus' role in human affairs dealt with how he was able to re-establish connection with God and win access to God’s heavenly dwelling place.

In the 21st century, theology should start over again. It should start with the effort to make sense of the prevailing worldview.  It is no longer a worldview dominated by gods and mythical stories about how humanity came into existence.

If we held in abeyance all the theological ideas developed in that old worldview and used the contemporary worldview as the starting point for theological reflection, what might emerge as we contemplate the reality of a universe with billions of galaxies?

If we want to believe in a Mysterious reality we call God, what does scientific data suggest about where this Mystery is, and about how this Mysterious reality operates throughout the universe?

If we let the data speak for itself, I cannot imagine that we would draw from it the  notion of a localized deity overseeing the universe. Rather, the data would more likely lead us to acknowledge that this Mystery is present and active everywhere .

The good news to be drawn from this starting point is that there can be no disconnection from this Mystery! Disconnection makes no sense.  What data could possibly lead us to seriously entertain notions of disconnection from the Mystery that charges and holds in existence everything that exists!

What data about the origin of planet Earth and how life developed here could possibly lead us to take seriously any story of a “fall” from a state of paradise when humans emerged! There is no such data.

The new, contemporary, starting point for theology would lead us firstly to the good news of a Presence active everywhere.  It would lead us to deep appreciation of this Presence manifesting in human form on this wonderful planet. It would provide us with a story that includes everyone, regardless of race, culture or religious beliefs.

This start to theology would turn upside down Christianity’s proclaimed need for a “savior” to reconnect with an overseeing deity, to win forgiveness from this god  for our sins,  to “save the world”, and to become the focal point for the future unfolding of the whole universe.

What, then, of Jesus?  If we follow this starting point, as I propose to do in future blogs, we can discover what Jesus really was about and why his message is so affirming, empowering, challenging and important today.