A New Theology

10 Failings of Theological Scholarship in the Modern World

That above Time magazine cover is from 1966. Time magazine’s religion editor, John T. Elson, wrote the 5,000-word cover story titled “Toward a Hidden God” for the April 8, 1966 Easter issue, which asked the question, “Is God Dead?”

The article evokes the “God is dead” statement made by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882. Nietzsche wrote, “The belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable.” In the wake of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Nietzsche asserted that both science and reason sufficiently answered life’s greatest questions without the need for the religious notion of “God”.

The Time magazine article also mentions a group of radical theologians who were proposing to “… carry on and write a theology without theos, without God.”

Wait. What?!? How do you do theology without God??? Theology IS the study of God. That would be like making a peanut butter sandwich without the peanut butter. Right? All you’d have is two pieces of bread. Take “God” (theos) out of theology, and you have nothingology!

Or.

Maybe nothing is actually something and could still be called theology. Sounds weird, I know. But not only do I believe that nothing is actually something and could be called theology, but I assert that unless theology makes this pivot it may become obsolete as a pathway for understanding ultimate reality.

My Theological Road Trip

I never questioned the theology I learned in divinity school until my faith crisis as a megachurch pastor 25 years ago. Even then, my questioning was more practical. Despite the outward signs of church success, my seminary-approved biblical teaching wasn’t making a dent in the brokenness and dysfunction of people’s lives, including my own. Ultimately, I walked away from my Christian faith and ministerial career to figure out what went wrong.