One of the surprising things I pick up in seminary is that there is special thingy called "biblical theology". I wonder, "So, what then is unbiblical theology??"
Apparently, biblical studies seek to understand what each book in the Bible is saying on its own terms... i.e. what does James say abt justification? What's John saying about the Holy Spirit?
(without trying too quick to impose on it teachings from other biblical texts like Paul's or Luke's Acts)
So the emphasis is heavily on hermeneutics or the science/art of interpretation... word-study... understanding the historical background... word diagrams...
The scariest thing you can do is to miss the original intended meaning of the biblical authors!
In contrast, before biblical studies came into vogue, people were talking about systematic theology, which fell out of favor with a lot of Christian leaders in Malaysia.
Systematic theology asks some questions like "What does the Bible teach abt economics or politics?" and then searches the whole Bible for any texts that relate to it.
Then you arrange these texts in order (or system?) so that it gives a coherent message tto the topic. "Aha! This is the Bible's answer to your question on economics/politics..."
So people who go for biblical theology tend to see systematic theology as in risk of imposing on the Bible some questions or issues that the authors weren't interested to address in the first place!
Personally, I'm by nature a 'systematic theology' person... I wanna know what is the practical pay-off - how the Bible speaks to the burning issues of our day? It seems that it's possible to study the Bible deeply yet in a narrow way that does not address the world's needs.
We know what the Bible meant for the original readers but have no clue to what it means for us today. (That's where the newspaper comes in!)
But I've also seen folks who are strong in philosophy, psychology and socio-political issues... but with a very weak foundation in biblical interpretations.
The danger in that is, we'd be easily swayed by the latest fads that happen to be in fashion today and lose sight of a biblical perspective...
Or worse, we lack the necessary skills to discern whether our interpretation is derived from the bible or imposed by our assumptions. What we think is biblical is actually an artificial view *imported* into the text for support.
How then shall we think?
At the end of the day, we need both sound biblical AND systematic theology. We need the skills to evaluate interpretations to 'export' the biblical meaning - what did it mean then? We also need the skills to organise them in a coherent manner that address 21st century issues - what does it mean today?
So, Karl Barth was probably right when he said that we should read the Bible on one hand and the newspaper with the other.
Apparently, biblical studies seek to understand what each book in the Bible is saying on its own terms... i.e. what does James say abt justification? What's John saying about the Holy Spirit?
(without trying too quick to impose on it teachings from other biblical texts like Paul's or Luke's Acts)
So the emphasis is heavily on hermeneutics or the science/art of interpretation... word-study... understanding the historical background... word diagrams...
The scariest thing you can do is to miss the original intended meaning of the biblical authors!
In contrast, before biblical studies came into vogue, people were talking about systematic theology, which fell out of favor with a lot of Christian leaders in Malaysia.
Systematic theology asks some questions like "What does the Bible teach abt economics or politics?" and then searches the whole Bible for any texts that relate to it.
Then you arrange these texts in order (or system?) so that it gives a coherent message tto the topic. "Aha! This is the Bible's answer to your question on economics/politics..."
So people who go for biblical theology tend to see systematic theology as in risk of imposing on the Bible some questions or issues that the authors weren't interested to address in the first place!
Personally, I'm by nature a 'systematic theology' person... I wanna know what is the practical pay-off - how the Bible speaks to the burning issues of our day? It seems that it's possible to study the Bible deeply yet in a narrow way that does not address the world's needs.
We know what the Bible meant for the original readers but have no clue to what it means for us today. (That's where the newspaper comes in!)
But I've also seen folks who are strong in philosophy, psychology and socio-political issues... but with a very weak foundation in biblical interpretations.
The danger in that is, we'd be easily swayed by the latest fads that happen to be in fashion today and lose sight of a biblical perspective...
Or worse, we lack the necessary skills to discern whether our interpretation is derived from the bible or imposed by our assumptions. What we think is biblical is actually an artificial view *imported* into the text for support.
How then shall we think?
At the end of the day, we need both sound biblical AND systematic theology. We need the skills to evaluate interpretations to 'export' the biblical meaning - what did it mean then? We also need the skills to organise them in a coherent manner that address 21st century issues - what does it mean today?
So, Karl Barth was probably right when he said that we should read the Bible on one hand and the newspaper with the other.
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