Does Theology Matter?
October 29th, 2011 § 3 Comments
Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Castle Church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517. This event created controversy between Luther (a Catholic priest) and the Pope over all kinds of theology and practices. Luther was excommunicated in 1520, and the reformation, which led to the protestant tradition, began. Sunday, 10.30.11, is Reformation Sunday.
Does theology, literally “God talk”, matter? Do your thoughts on God work themselves out in daily life? Can your beliefs change the direction of your life and the lives of those around you?
The medieval Catholic Church had a practice of accepting payment for forgiveness (I’m way oversimplifying here). Martin Luther, having reread the Book of Romans, came to the conclusion that forgiveness came by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for God’s glory alone as told in scripture alone. Major theological differences. That belief radically changed Luther’s life, the church, nations and governments, and my life forever.
So, does theology matter to you?
Are you disqualified from answering if you have a degree in theology?
I think theology matters a great bit. I think you might b oversimplifying theology by calling it ‘God talk’
I think your example alone shows how our theology could impact our daily lives. Interesting, b/c I’m on this Donald Miller fever right now and I found a podcast he did about the ‘Relational Gospel’ as he calls it. How theology is good and sound and necessary but it should always point to a relationship found in Jesus.
I love the question, I think sometimes in our culture, we’ve begun to allow theology to take not only a back seat but a ride in the trunk.
Worshipcity, you’re right that “God talk” is an oversimplification of what theology is as a whole. But it’s a literal translation of the word. For the sake of space on a blog I didn’t want to spend time defining the word, but wanted to make your GREAT point that what we believe about God has to impact of lives/ relationships with Jesus and other people or else its not theology. Theology that isn’t practical, relational, and missional isn’t theology at all.