Academic Theology Vs. Theology

I am a third of the way through a Master of Arts in Theology and I am still not exactly sure what academic theology is all about.  For my Introduction to Theology class this past year I had to write a paper on what theology is and why it is important. I tacitly avoided directly addressing the subject and instead compared theology to making love and explained how it is a playing with ideas and a coming to know God.  It worked well for my paper, and I think what I wrote is true when Theology is at its best, but I don't think academic theology is, capital T, Theology.

There is a clear wedge between theology that occurs in the church and theology that is done at the university.  I think this has to do with differing understandings of what theology is.  Recently I read On Liturgical Asceticism by David W. Fagerberg and it helped to clarify what theology really is for me.  In it he discusses theology as what happens in the liturgy.  Prayer is Theology, it is the working out of your understanding of God with God.  Likewise the Eucharist is Theology because it is the actions that show what your understanding of God is and it is where you come as close to face to face with God as possible. Fagerberg lays it out nicely, in a way James K.A. Smith would agree with, when he writes:

Theology is a unique kind of knowing that depends upon a character restored in baptism and cultivated in an ascetical life. (24)

Theology is not merely a cerebral activity, it is the activity of drawing near to God.  Our drawing near to God is not only done through knowledge, but through character development and it is the liturgy shapes our character.

Theology explained this way is not the same as academic theology.  If Theology, as explained above, is something that is done by a person, then academic theology is a reflection on this first order action.  Academic theology is one step removed from Theology.

There is nothing wrong with academic theology then, it is a different beast from Theology, not one that everyone needs to engage in, but not wrong in and of itself.  It is like reading about Shakespeare as opposed to acting out the plays.  Except with theology every Christian engages in the liturgy so every Christian is a Theologian, not everyone is a Shakespearian actor.  Every Christian needs to do Theology, only the foolish ones need to do Academic Theology.

An Experience of God in a Song

For a while now the song I'm Scared by Burton Cummings has been in my head.  The song is about Cummings going into a church while in New York and being overcome with emotion. He doesn't know why he is overcome, but he is, and it terrifies him.  This causes him to confess to the Lord that he's "Never been much on religion", but given what he is experiencing he wants to "Hear the call".

According to Wikipedia the song charted at #43 in Canada, which isn't bad.  It still gets a fair amount of air play in Winnipeg (It was released in 1976), but since Cummings is from Winnipeg that might not be a great indication of the lasting impact of the song.  Musically it is an important song as it helped bring about his leaving the Guess Who.  The story, as I understand it, is that he wanted them to record the song, they said no, so he left to record it on his own.  Obviously there would have been more going on there, but it is interesting that the song was important enough to him, to in some way, give impetus to leave the band he had so much success with.

I like the song because I think it is an honest expression of a real religious experience Cummings had.  We often think of religious experiences as those things that happen to a few chosen people; the clouds part, light shines down, and their life is changed forever.  I don't doubt such things do happen, but more often then naught I think Cummings experience is the norm.  An ordinary person is overwhelmed.  They cannot explain why, but it leaves them shaking, scared, because they understand something about the Lord that they did not before.  They are left in awe of the experience, and the One who brought it about.

It is this kind of experience that I think scripture is getting at when in Proverbs 9:10 it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."  These experiences give a new knowledge of God, you see Him in a new way because of them.  It is terrifying, it makes you fear God.

Fear is an interesting word.  Cummings doesn't use it directly in his song, but he speaks of being afraid and terrified.  The idea of fearing God seems outdated today but that is because we misunderstand what fear is.  When we think of fear we think of something that brings physical harm on us, we don't think of an awe of something, a respect for what something can do.  When scripture speaks of the fear of the Lord it's meaning is usually much closer to the awe and respect we feel when we see a lightening storm approaching then what causes us to lock our doors before we go to bed.

I think Cummings gets this.  He speaks of not only being terrified by the experience, but also of being confused, and of now wanting a sign from God.  His world has suddenly expanded to include something he has never experienced before and he needs a grounding.  He looks to God for that grounding.  That is not the actions of someone who thinks God will harm him, but it is the actions of someone who recognizes a bit more of the truth of who God is.

One experience like this does not usually make a religious convert, but it also doesn't leave the person the same as they were before.  With Cummings it was a powerful enough experience that is lead to this song; an explanation for us of what his experience with God felt like. I would have no problem singing his story of it in church.