Saturday 31 May 2008

Millstones and theology for kids

Just finished Thielicke's "A Little Exercise for Young Theologians", which is aptly named, and very helpful. As with most translations from German, it's not the snappiest read, but it is short, and should be read by every student of theology, whether one enrolled in a university degree, or simply discovering the wonders of theology in books.

It also made me smile as I thought of one tonic to take against the side-effects of studying theology as sinners: teach Sunday School. Give children's talks. Pride just doesn't have a place when you're trying to communicate eternal divinely-revealed truths to children in such a way that they'll see Jesus and know what it means to trust Him. These small people make you very aware of the short-comings of the technical vocabularly with which you could make grown people feel small. They make you very aware of the joy of the Father sending the Holy Spirit to open blind eyes to see the light of knowing God's glory in seeing Jesus. They make you humbled before Him as you plead for wisdom to answer huge theological questions from a 4 year old: wisdom from the Father who delights to hide these things from the wise and reveal them to children. Ah, theology is in the service of the church and Thielicke says the theologian should be pastored by the church. I'm inclined to think that being 'pastored' by the children is a good start...

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