Monday, November 10, 2008

What ever happen to theological reflections


After my first degree in theology, I left the walls of the seminary both satisfied and with a deep hunger. I left satisfied because the act of theological process and reflections gave me some apparatus for further reflections and-some forms of engaging with the Bible in a way that further enlightens me on the truth of God´s word. My hunger conversely was intensified by the seemingly deep gap I realized between the extensive and inexhaustible work within the walls of the theological academia and the shallow approach to nourishing of faith from the pulpit to the pew. To my great dismay, it seemed our efforts in much of our theological training seem to fall flat at the threshold of both the seminary and local church doors, because little is left as to how much our theological researches, deep reflections of theologies we have can be said to have penetrated the immediate local church and society we have been called to serve, for heaven´s sake. It is with this deep hunger that I have tried to make both a personal commitment and make pleas with gifted people to join in raising awareness and a charge for a reconsideration of the efficacy of our theology in this time and age. Just walking around the shelves of my undergraduate Seminary brings me to great number of theses written at both the undergraduate and graduate levels that have been students’ attempts to address some of the issues the church needs to address. But having worked in the church for a period of three years, observing the style of leadership in the church and also the challenges faced at the local church, I am always asking the question: where have all those researches gone? (Have we asked the right questions? Have we found the right answers, and have we applied them in the right way?).

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