Angry Theologians Talk Back

Angry Theologians Talk Back

A controversy over the angry theologian is kicking up some dust. Should we get angry at angry theologians?

Why are there so many angry theologians?

Ronni Kurtz is angry about angry theologians. Really angry? Well, maybe not overly so. Here’s what Kurtz says in a Christianity Today article, “Why are there so many angry theologians?”

“Maybe you’ve seen theology weaponized as an instrument of pride. In this malpractice of theology, the accumulation of knowledge amounts to ever-inflating egos and the search for truth is but a grasp for self-importance. When the streams of arrogance flow from the source of ill-used theology, the goal becomes the applause of our neighbors instead of the good of our neighbors.”

Evangelical Patheos theologian Roger Olson read this article. He didn’t like it.

“An understandable problem with Professor Kurtz’s column is the lack of identification of any angry theologian. But I don’t doubt that many theologians are angry at or about something. The question is, is such anger justified? Are there cases of justified anger among theologians?”

Roger reminds us that even Jesus got angry at the money changers in the temple (Matthew 21:12). Angry enought to upset their cash registers. So, Roger asks: might there be times when an angry theologian is justified? Does Roger himself ever get angry? You betcha.

“I am angry whenever I encounter a Christian cult that promotes heresy and uses spiritual abuse to recruit and keep members….In a world filled with Christia heretics, cultists, liberal theologians who deny Jesus’s deity and resurrection, fundamentalish ministers and leaders who knowingly misrepresent me and other evangelical Christians…I think anger is justified.”

Note how anger gets justified here.

Why might a public theologian get angry?

I’m not a particularly angry theologian. But, being a progressive Christian and a public theologian, I understand why I get uncontrollably angry when…

…our planet’s fecundity continues to deteriorate while profiteers derail sound ecological practices

…children fall into pools of their own blood during school shootings while profiteers tell us that guns don’t kill people

…migrant families arriving on the U.S. border spend cold nights under cardboard boxes on the street

…vicious racist and antisemetic rhetoric continues to pollute social media

…political leaders baptize their megalomania with religious symbols

…prosperity gospel peddlers sell the gospel of divine grace by appealing to the most concupiscent of motives

…annoying pop-ups block my computer screen when I’m concentrating

A theologian’s anger is prompted, I think, when otherwise good people stand by and do nothing in the face of a grave injustice. This indicates that the theologian’s mind is attuned to eternal justice. Or, attuned to the gospel of divine grace that can so easily be ignored, discarded, or denigrated.

The problem of justifying an angry theologian

I agree with Roger Olson that a theologian’s anger might be justifiable. Well, at least it feels justifiable.

In my Patheos column, I’ve sought over the last couple of years to tease out the nuances of one dimension of human sin, namely, our propensity for self-justification and scapegoating. We do not sin in our heart when we pursue justice, to be sure. But a problem arises when we try to own that justice, when we ascribe that justice to ourselves rather than to God the author of justice. That’s when self-justification kicks in.

Scapegoating kicks in when we draw a line between good and evil and place ourselves on the good side of that line. Then, frequently, we place someone else on the evil side of the line. The evil one on the evil side of our imaginary line becomes the scapegoat. The tricky thing about the gospel, of course, is that in Jesus Christ God places himself on the evil side of the line that we draw. Ouch!

Recognizing this human temptation, I take pause during those moments of outrage over a grave injustice. I have to quiz myself. Am I the angry theologian engaging in self-justification and scapegoating? Ouch again.

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:4) Jesus tells us how difficult it is to see a speck in someone else’s eye while we’ve got a log in our own eye. I shudder.

But, why shudder? Finally, it is all Donald Trump’s fault. Right! Or is it the fault of Christian nationalism? Or the Republican Party? Or Biden? Or Putin? Or…?

Conclusion

Roger Olson is confrontational.

“My question to Professor Kurtz is this: Isn’t being angry part of a theologian’s job—when he or she is confronted with rank heresy that is bold and powerful?”

Yes, an angry theologian’s job includes rendering careful judgments regarding injustice in the wider society or failure to embrace the gospel within our church communities. If we would attach any caution here, I think it might be this: we should check in the mirror occasionally to see if there might be a log in our own eye.

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For Patheos, Ted Peters posts articles and notices in the field of Public Theology. He  is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. His single volume systematic theology, God—The World’s Future, is now in the 3^rd edition. He has also authored God as Trinity plus Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society as well as Sin Boldly: Justifying Faith for Fragile and Broken Souls. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

Watch for his new 2023 book, The Voice of Public Theology, to be published by ATF Press.

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