This Is What Theology Looks Like

In the early and middle parts of the twentieth century, there were numerous professional theologians who graced the covers of national magazines. Their voices were regularly sought out to discuss the condition and future of society because they were seen as public voices who spoke not only wisdom, but carried with them the voice of large communities. It is one of the reasons that in the wake of the death of the Rev. Billy Graham that all of the retrospectives highlight his relationships with presidents. These men, and they were mostly if not all men, were considered intellectual participants in our national dialogue.

Today, many tend to mourn what they perceive as a lack of public theology. There is a recognition that the Church has ceded the ground in our public discourse and that theology is no longer done in public. Theologians are barred from the room where the conversation of our society is taking place, and we are all the poorer for it. You will never see another Reinhold Niebuhr on the cover of Time Magazine, and you will never find another MLK leading a national movement for justice. It would seem that theology is dead, as far as our national discourse is concerned. 

This is not true, however.

Theology is not just an academic discipline, though there are people, like myself, who have academic degrees in it.

Theology is what we do when we talk about God. 

Anyone can do that, even if they don’t know the fancy terms.

While we could also discuss that there are public voices for theology, like Russell Moore, Robert Jeffress, and Franklin Graham, there are others doing theology in public on a daily basis that I would like to address in this post. Yesterday, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Wayne LaPierre Jr., executive vice-president of the NRA, did theology from the podium. Most probably do not consider it theology, but that is exactly what it was. He may not have talked about God’s providence, the condition of humanity, or his conception of Christology, his words were nothing other than theological.

During his speech, Mr. LaPierre, said that the right to own a firearm was not created by humans, but ordained by God and part of our American birthright.

That is a theological statement.

Such words imply that not only God’s preference for firearms, but a national preference of America over other countries. 

To unpack a bit, the theological perspective of Mr. LaPierre is that God likes guns, and God wants you to have a gun. This not an implication of his words, but instead a direct application. He isn’t trying to rhetorically insert a theological perspective into his speech, but evoke a religious response concerning the right to own a firearm. That is what theology does. Spoken in public, it calls us towards the work of God in the world. And in that light, Wayne LaPierre is doing theology in public.

Theologies, though, are not prescriptions for how we are to work in the world, though they are often used as such. Theologies, because there are many, are actually descriptions of how we believe God is working in the world. They were created by human beings, and they represent the perspectives of their creators. Finite, fallible human beings have always attempted to understand their infinite God, and when they try to explain that in public, it becomes theology. When we think theology comes down from heaven is when we begin to have some problems.

Theology in public is powerful. Mr. LaPierre knows that.

We know it is powerful because every political speech ends with some version of, “God bless you, and God bless the United States.” If Mr. LaPierre did not believe that people would respond to references to God, he would not have included them in his speech. But we must contend with the fact that there is more than one theology in our public sphere. Some of those theologies directly rebut the position of the NRA.

Mr. LaPierre is expressing a theology that lacks in Biblical interaction. 

When Jesus was to be arrested, Peter attempted to defend him with his sword. After cutting off a Temple guard’s ear, Jesus tells him, “He who lives by the sword will die by it.”

The Old Testament prophets had a hope for a world reconciled to God where the people would, “beat their swords into plow shares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

It should be noted that Scripture often shifts our focus towards talking about the end times, or eschatology. Some will instantly think, “We will never have that world of plow shares and pruning hooks until Jesus returns.” I’m not going to re-litigate a theological discussion I have written about before. What I will say, however, is that we need to recognize that theology is being done in public.

Wayne LaPierre did it yesterday. 

Someone is going to do it tomorrow.

What we need is more theology in public and private. We need to see that none of these theologies should be lifted up to the same level of importance as God…or to the Bible. We made those theologies, just like we made those guns. We can change those theologies. While there are, of course, conversations to be had concerning orthodoxy, we are not trapped into a theology.

Theology is not monolithic.

Theology is for everyone.