Some thoughts from some of the greats…

I’ve just finished a short little college assignment about how to approach the study of theology. I’ve actually really found it a great little reminder about some of the temptations of the study and of the vocation I’m purusing. So since it was quite a short essay and I couldn’t fit in all the quotes I really enjoyed, I thought I’d share them with you!

“People think they can know everything by simply listening to a sermon. Zwingli also made the mistake of thinking that he knew everything, that theology is an easy art. But I know that I have yet to comprehend the Lord’s Prayer. No one can be learned without practice.” Martin Luther’s Experience Alone Makes the Theologian

“The devil is a greater scholar than you and a nimbler disputant.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Grace of God and Student Frailty

“One bright benison which private prayer brings down upon the ministry is an indescribable and inimitable something, better understood than named; it is a dew from the Lord, a divine presence which you will recognise at once when I say it is an ‘unction from the Holy One’. What is it? I wonder how long we might beat our brains before we could plainly put into words what is meant by preaching with unction… the mystery of the spiritual anointing.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Grace of God and Student Frailty

“Sometime we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. ‘What!’ is the appropriate response, ‘than ten hours over your books, on your knees?’” B. B. Warfield, The Religious Life of the Theologial Student

“Always keep before your mind the greatness of your calling, that is to say, these two things: the immensity of the task before you, the infinitude of the resources at your disposal.” B. B. Warfield, The Religious Life of the Theologial Student

“Only by his qualification as a learner can he show himself qualified to become a teacher.” Karl Barth, The Intellectual Task Set for the Theologian

“True theologians don’t rely on know-it-all dogmatism, but solely on the forgiveness of sins.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, What Should the Student of Theology Do Today?

“The reality is that God’s transcendence demands that we admit that our discourse about God is at best approximate. Our interpretation may be accurate, but if we grasped the full perspective it would literally blow our minds.” Brian Rosner, Lost for Words (in The Trials of Theology)

“Theologians must never forget that the task of theology is to know the unknowable and to describe the indescribable. Students do well to remember that the goal of our theological study is not to figure out God, but rather, awestruck incredulity and joyful confidence in God. It is to be blown away in wide-eyed transfixed adoration. The aim is not accurate eloquence, but a loss for words. To miss this is to miss everything and to fail to glorify God in our studies.” Brian Rosner, Lost for Words (in The Trials of Theology)