Pursuing Theos not Logos

The last few days were, for me, a bit of a geeky dream. My church enjoyed some time with a man named Rikk Watts who is a professor of New Testament Studies at Regent College, Vancouver. Not only is he a highly intelligent academic with some amazing things to teach aspiring theologians like myself, he’s a wonderfully personable, enthusiastic, warm hearted and generous human being. A couple of hours in his company leaves you feeling more alive and more joyful. Since my late teens he’d been a major inspiration to me as a thinker, but this weekend I had the privilege of hosting him during his stay. And it. Was. Awesome!

But in amongst the food, wine, walks and laughter, came a major challenge and one that will be ringing in my ears for quite some time to come. 

I’ve often heard Rikk refer to himself as a “historian, not a theologian” but this weekend I had a chance to hear more about the heart and thinking behind this statement. For Rikk, theology (theo-logos, literally meaning God-words) is too often turned into an academic endeavour. Too often theologians can become preoccupied with categories, and doctrines and systematised ideas. Too often theologians can impose their own preconceived notions of God onto their reading of the Bible in order to prove themselves right and assert their academic prowess. Too often theologians distort or even forget altogether that God is a being, a person to be known, and instead (albeit unintentionally) turn him into a concept that needs to be figured out and explained. 

To put it bluntly, as Rikk did on more than several occasions, we can easily end up idolising theology, our talk of God, over and above God himself.

Ouch. I’ve certainly been guilty of this.

So instead Rikk considers himself a historian - one who studies the story of God (and other people’s stories about encountering Him), in order to not just know more about God, but to better know God himself. He has little time for conversations about abstracts - debating concepts such as the trinity or the atonement (two things I’ve spent a lot of time discussing in recent months!) - as such conversations rarely result in us knowing God better. Rather, he is passionate about getting to know the person of God through the eyes of those who have encountered him and what God says about himself.

One particular, highly tweetable phrase from Rikk epitomises his way of thinking:

“When YHWH introduced himself to Moses he said ‘I am who I am… don’t guess.’”

 In other words don’t try and assume what God is like, rather relate to him; listen to him, ask him questions, observe how he acts and learn who he is that way.

Rikk’s conviction about this comes in part from his understanding that there were two major opposing worldviews in the ancient world: Hellenism and Judaism. Athens versus Jerusalem: 

Athens was obsessed with finding and articulating the perfect, unchanging truths that describe existence and the cosmos. They pursued overarching ideas to formulate meta-principles. For Athens all experiences could be explained by ideas. For example, the physical world is corruptible, dying, imperfect which is why death happens. Death should be embraced as a means of escaping the damaged physical word.

Jerusalem was concerned with learning through experience (“don’t guess”) which left room for changing, flexible ideas and understanding. They pursued corroborating experiences to formulate a meta-narrative. For Jerusalem ideas were developed through experiences. For example, God creates and heals and therefore the human body and physical form matter to Him so the physical word and our bodies should be looked after.

To put these differences in context: Plato, one of the great masters of Hellenistic thinking, would argue that every glass of wine is just a poor reflection that could never live up to the eternal ideal of a glass of wine. Taken to its logical conclusion this means that every glass of wine is essentially a disappointment - not as good as it should be. However Jewish thinking suggests that each glass of wine is particular and unique and there is no ideal of a perfect glass of wine to live up to, it simply is what it is and can be experienced and enjoyed on its own terms. Yes some wines are better than others (like the Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir Rikk very generously gifted me!) but the joy of experience is that you can discover which ones you like and which ones you don’t without ever being disappointed by the notion that your favourite wine is a poor imitation of an abstract ideal!

So: Two highly opposing ideas, developed in two very different ways from two highly opposed worldviews.

Rikk believes that while the modern world, with all its experimentation, growth and advancements has embraced more Jewish style thinking, often theological institutions continue to be Hellenistic - still more concerned with articulating great eternal definitive, abstract truths and ideas, than with wrestling through the experiences of God’s people in order to understand who God is. Its not, by the way, that we should be anti-intellectual or anti-study; intellect and study are two very important things! But we should be wary of idolising ideas over and above learning through living. Because the danger with simply living in a world of principles and ideas is that we don’t just miss God, but we miss out on life too.

We should be wary of idolising ideas over and above learning through living because we might not just miss God, we might miss out on life too.

And that’s the thing that makes Rikk such a pleasure to spend time with. He’s just so alive! He makes the most of every meal, every conversation, every opportunity to try something new or bless someone. He savours life in a way that helps everyone else around him feel more alive. A moment shared with Rikk feels like a moment extremely well spent. And when he discusses God or teaches from the Bible he does so in a way that doesn’t just help you feel smarter (which you do), but so much more importantly you find yourself feeling closer to God, more in awe of Him and like you know him better.

I had an amazing weekend with Rikk, but the takeaway for me by far is that that’s the kind of person I want to be. And that’s certainly the kind of theologian I want to be too. I never want my God-talk to be about neat ideas and academic guess-work, rather I pray that it always leads me to know God more deeply and draws others into closer relationship with Him too.