The Trials of Theology
I’m not going to write a full review of this one. Let me just say that it’s a must-read for seminary students. It has contributions from theologians of the past such as Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as from the present such as D. A. Carson and Carl Trueman. It speaks well to the spiritual challenges that they face as they spend their days in the classroom and in research and writing. At the same time, it’s also a helpful book for ministers. After all, even after you graduate from seminary, you continue to always be a student. I think the last paragraph sums the book up well:
Students do well to remember that the goal of our theological study is not to figure out God, but rather, to arrive at awestruck incredulity and joyful confidence in God. It is to be blown away in wide-eyed, transfixed adoration. To miss that is to miss everything and to fail to glorify God in our studies. The aim is not finally an accurate eloquence, but to become lost for words, in the praise and wonder of God. (191)
AMEN.
