10 things you probably didn't know about studying theology
1. You will be amazed at how little you know. People have been writing Christian theology for 2,000 years, and there is a huge amount of material out there. No one can know everything.
2. Some of what you thought you knew will turn out to be wrong. When you study theology, you can't just assume what you've always been taught was right: you have to go back to the Bible and to the writings of wiser people than you, and prove it. Sometimes you won't be able to.
3. That can be really hard. Many people who study theology go through some sort of faith crisis as they realise there are many different approaches to a question they thought was settled. Stick with it; God is faithful.
4. You still need to pray. Textbooks are wonderful and fascinating, but unless you are an atheist with a purely intellectual interest in the subject, thinking about stuff is only part of your discipleship.
5. You still need to go to church, too. Theology doesn't happen in a vacuum; you are still part of a community. If something you're learning in the classroom doesn't 'work' with real people in an ordinary congregation, it probably isn't all that useful.
6. You'll need to specialise (see '1'). It's easy to become a magpie, reading bits and pieces from across different eras and disciplines. But real growth comes when you find your passion and immerse yourself in long, slow, deep reading about one thing.
7. Humility is really important. Theology is not just an academic discipline, like history or literature. The best theologians don't try to be clever, they try to be faithful and listen to God.
8. It will expand your faith. Theology is about trying to understand more about how God works in human history, and how we can find ways of talking about him that make sense in today's world. It is exhilarating.
9. It is for everyone. When you are talking about a Bible passage in your housegroup, you are doing theology. When we talk about 'theologians', we mean people who have devoted a substantial part of their lives to this. But all Christians are students of God.
10. Books aren't everything. God is encountered in people, in relationships, in the natural world, in all of human life. If you want to be a better theologian, you will need to be a better and more rounded person, too.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
