Theology as Discipleship by Keith L. Johnson

Author:Keith L. Johnson [Johnson, Keith L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830880171
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

- five -

HEARING THE WORD OF GOD

Near the beginning of The Confessions, Augustine reflects on the way he learned how to speak as a child. He notes that this skill did not come through formal instruction but by observing and listening to the people around him. When someone called an object by a name, he remembered that word and used it for that same object. He paid attention when particular facial expressions and tones were linked with certain words and phrases, and he made connections between people’s gestures and their sentences. “In this way,” he says, “I gradually built up a collection of words, observing them as they were used in their proper places in different sentences and hearing them frequently. I came to understand which things they signified, and by schooling my own mouth to utter them I declared my wishes by using the same signs.”1 In other words, Augustine learned how to speak by hearing the speech of others while living in community with them. He did not repeat everything they said in exactly the same way they said it. Instead, he learned the meaning of their words and adopted their patterns of speech so that he could communicate his own ideas through his own speech.

In a similar way, theologians learn how to speak about God by observing and listening. While we often say new things, we do not say whatever we want. We pay attention to how words and phrases are used so that we can learn their proper meaning. Grammar is important to us. We adopt specific rules of speaking so we can communicate clearly while avoiding confusion and misunderstanding. The difference is that, unlike the young Augustine, we are learning to speak about God rather than created realities. Because God is distinct from every creature, we cannot rely solely upon what other people say about him. We have to listen to God’s own speech. As theologians, we learn to speak by observing and listening to God as he lives his divine life together with us within the context of salvation history. We do so in community with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as well as with other Christians who also live in and through them.

Scripture plays a central role in this process. As we saw in the previous chapter, the Bible is not merely a repository of facts about God’s past deeds that we are called to excavate, investigate and then organize into applicable theological knowledge. It is the chief creaturely instrument through which God speaks. He uses it to reveal himself to us, judge our sin, call us to repentance and propel us into a fuller participation in his life and plan. This participation includes the transformation of our minds and the refinement of our language so that we can think and speak about God correctly. Scripture serves as the instrument by which we refine our ideas and words and measure our usage of them. We think and speak rightly about God when what we say corresponds to what he has spoken in this text.

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