Theology at its most basic is words about God, taken from the Greek theos (God) and logos (word). Speaking and thinking about God, in an informed way, is something we can all do and were encouraged to do when Fleming Rutledge spoke at Upper House in Madison last week.
Rutledge, in 1977, was one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. After serving in parish ministry in the New York area for 22 years, she is now an acclaimed writer and lecturer. And a theologian. But not an academic theologian, she said, noting that theology is used in various ways, and in previous centuries was even called the Queen of Sciences.
“Theology is speaking of God according to the way God has spoken of himself, not as we wish he had spoken,” she said. “Any Christian can be a theologian, and we need a whole lot more theologians.”
In Virginia, where she grew up, she knew many theologians, who quoted Scripture often, many of them were her Black neighbors. “Being able to see how God is behind the stories of the Bible is the beginning of being a theologian,” she said. “God is the essential actor of the Bible, from its beginning to its conclusion.”
“Our language about God has changed in recent decades,” she continued. “We can talk about love and justice and peace all we want, but if human beings are the change agent it won’t work. We are supposed to be God’s hands on earth.”
To become theologians in a world that greatly needs more theologians, Rutledge concluded, we need to note how Jesus reproached the theologically deficient religious leaders of his day (as recorded in Matthew 22:29 and Mark 12:24): ” “You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
Rutledge says that if we understand that God powerfully reveals himself in Scripture we are ready to do theology. “I spent eight decades wondering about the trustworthiness of the biblical witness,” she concluded. “I stake my life on it. To think theologically is to give oneself up to the witness that the testimony is true. The Spirit is living in your hearts and your lives today.”
Â