Ask A Theologian: How Do You Develop Your Own Theology? (Continued)

Follow-Up Question: You often mention something about developing your own theology. What are some steps one can take to do that?

Response:

In the previous response, I focused on how we “do theology” in often unconscious ways: by gut reactions, emotional responses, and the like. There is a “God” who resides in each of us at a deep emotional level, mixed in with our life experiences and upbringing. Becoming more attentive to this “God in the gut” is one part of developing one’s theology. This week, I’ll address another aspect of developing our own theologies: the communities with which we keep company. Specifically, the community to which we turn to interpret what is going on in the world.

Some of you may immediately think of the church. That is certainly one important place of interpretation for those of us who attend church. Our pastors generate interpretations of the Bible and of our world every time they preach, compose a prayer, or select a hymn. Many of us were raised to believe that the Bible was the interpreter’s key to life. But we were not as often told that the community with which you read the Bible is immensely important. A church community is a house of interpretation; actually, in a church the size of Boston Avenue, I’m sure the church provides a roof for multiple houses of interpretation, for there are multiple communities within the church community, per se. But a community’s interpretations are certainly shaped by its leaders. It might be an interesting podcast sometime for clergy leaders to talk about their primary theological influences, especially when it comes to interpreting the Bible in worship and educational settings. That comment is not meant to put anyone on the spot! But knowing who has influenced the way a leader thinks or, in this case, interprets “the church’s book,” would seem to provide insights for each of us as we become attentive to developing our own theological perspectives.

For us church-goers and watchers, the church is a significant community of interpretation. That said, a majority of Americans do not go to church. And most of us who do attend church and are active in its life also spend more hours each week attending to ads, podcasts, educational programs, movies and TV shows, news feeds, social media streams, and music than we do in church. Many more hours. I wonder how each of these information streams in-forms how we see the world. Country music expresses and shapes the worldview of many Americans. Our social media feeds are tailored to “fit” how we already see the world. If one gets news from Fox and another from MSNBC and another from TikTok, it is relatively safe to assume the interpreted world of each will look very different from one another. And those different interpretations most likely shape how one approaches fundamental theological and ethical questions such as who we are to each other, what we owe to each other, and how each of us interprets what is our role in the world, what humankind ought to be and do. If you bring one or more of those questions with you the next time you “read” a news source, you may be surprised how often such questions are being addressed.

It is good to pay attention to whom and to what we are attending, to pay attention to the communities with which and through which we are interpreting “what is going on” in the world. By paying attention, we may discover more about who is shaping how and what we see, including how we see ourselves in relationship to the source of life.