Teaching theology: What's the microcosm?

According to Parker Palmer (1997), every discipline has its core, its gestalt, its internal logic. If this can be found, the entire discipline can be unlocked. This centre represents the very depth of the body of knowledge; discover and teach it, and the breadth will follow. Palmer writes (1997:123): "We honor both the discipline and our students by teaching them how to think like historians or biologists or literary critics rather than merely how to lip-sync the conclusions others have reached."

---

So what does it mean to think like a theologian? What is the gestalt, the internal logic, the "patterned way of relating to the great things at [theology's] core"? How do theologians think?

---

I'm sure that part of the answer is that theologians - good ones - are in conversation about the complex now in the light of Scripture and tradition. To be a good theologian is to be involved in conversation, relating the fear of God to the messiness of life. It means to read Scripture and life as intimately connected and mutually relevant. It must be to be able to speak into the tension between the holy and the obscene, the hope of eternity and the despair of the temporary. It must be to see Christ as before all things, and through whom all things hold together. It must be to wrestle with paradox and see it not as a compromise of reason but as a faithful and wonderful expression of revelation. It must be to clasp one's hand over one's mouth in astonishment.

Anselm defined theology as "faith seeking understanding". If Anselm is correct, we must teach students to seek and to understand, yes, in the infinitive! To be a good theologian is to be in conversation, in a coherent yet constant state of incompleteness. It is to wonder, and give that wonder expression for the benefit of others. If we can unlock this in our students, they will have the rite of passage for conversations with Christian tradition and 21st century life.

So, how do we make this a reality in theology 101?