A Theologian’s Manifesto

Miroslav Volf continues to open up doors to bigger and bigger discussions, this time with Matthew Croasmun. The title of their new short, but action-packed, book is For the Life of the World, and the subtitle packs their punch: Theology That Makes a Difference.

Their big claim: “academic theology ought to be, but today largely isn’t, about what matters the most — the true life in the presence of God.” Theologians are not concerned enough with ultimate questions and the world’s destiny (p. 3). Why? It became enamored with respect in a scientific community with methods and questions that do not matter enough.

Whether the scholarship we did every day mattered the same way was less clear. Those of us who were doctoral students at the time were being trained to become knowledge-workers rather than wisdom-seekers. Theology that gave life could only be whispered in the margins. True life in academia seemed to require, if not misdirection, at least indirection—and the fact that most of us were aiming at theology only indirectly (through biblical studies or history or philosophy) suggests we had already learned our lessons w
ell. … Respectable theology was something quite separate from true life.

Their claim, then, is this:

is an intellectual endeavor, theology matters because it is about what matters the most for human life. Theology worth its name is about what we ought to desire above all things for ourselves and for the world, about what we should desire in all the things that we desire (whether our desire is effective economic systems and just political orders, livable cities and deep friendships, possessions or lack thereof, healthy bodies and joyous progeny, or even those bell-bottom jeans and Indian gauze shirts) Theology matters because it is about the true life of the world.

This book is a call to those of us who see ourselves as theologians—academic theologians, church theologians, lay theologians, accidental theologians, any kind of theologian—to dare to believe that “God’s home” is the ultimate goal of human striving and the ultimate object of human rejoicing and therefore to make God’s home and the world’s journey to it the main focus of our most rigorous thinking and honest truth-seeking.

But this is not religion per se but Christian theology they have mind:

Christian theology has lost its way because it has neglected its purpose. We believe the purpose of theology is to discern, articulate, and commend visions of flourishing life in light of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ. The flourishing of human beings and all God’s creatures in the presence of God is God’s foremost concern for creation and should therefore be the central purpose of theology. With this manifesto we aim to return theology to itself so it can better serve communities of Christian conviction and participate in truth-seeking cultural conversation about nourishing life for all.

Join me, folks, in reading this book. Anyone who ties theology to human flourishing has my attention.