Biblical Ruminations

I must confess to the dismay of many of my theologian friends that I have never cared too much for "systematic theology." If you take a glance at my library you will find that it is heavy on biblical studies and light on theology, particularly systematic theology. My problem with much systematic theology is its presupposition about revelation being propositional. And because of the assumption of the nature of revelation as propositional it is a small step forward to systematization. The reason I have a problem with systematization is that it assumes an exhausitive continuity in revelation that I do not think is there in our biblical witness. But I also prefer biblical studies over systematic theology for a more practical reason: I am a fan of all things historical. To put this another way, when I read works related to the field of biblical studies I feel more grounded in history. Yet when I read systematic theology it is more often than not an engagement in asbstract thinking which in turn causes me to feel divorced from history.

Nevetheless, theology is a necessary discipline. In fact my favorite statement, "God raised Jesus from the dead" is itself a theological indicative that I myself have tried to unpack in a theological manner (see this post in particular). For those of us who are believers whenever we read our Bible and reflect upon on it or when we present the gospel message we engage in a theological task. Thus I hope no one thinks I am dismissing theology altogether. My problem is that sometimes systematic theology goes further than it should, sometimes beyond the "Wholly Other" that it seeks to present.

But as this post by Chris Tilling nicely pointed out there has arisen a broad, unhealthy division between those rooted in biblical studies (Tilling uses the term "exegetes") and theologians. This gulf has caused both groups to make egregious errors in their respective disciplines. For this reason, I am committing to reading more theological works than I have in the past. Therefore, to my readers, do not be surprised if some of my future posts become a bit more "theological." However, the vast majority of my blog will still be devoted to the general field of biblical studies which brings me to a question that I would like to ask my regular readers.

Initially when I started this site I wanted to chiefly focus on issues concerning the resurrection, thus its title. The problem is that my own interests have always been much more broad (as my recent series has exhibited). Moreover, I realize that eventually I could exhaust material on which to blog about concerning the resurrection. This has occasioned the possibility of changing the name of my blog which I am definitely considering. But before I decide I would like to have some input from my regular readers as to whether or not this would be a good idea. (For one thing I realize it would mean those who are linked to me will have to change their link addressess and so I'm not sure if I want to cause that). If you do not wish to leave comments then feel free to e-mail me. I would appreciate any feedback you all are willing to offer.