:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

I’m going to made a statement based on tons of anecdotal evidence—both my own and what I hear from others. I’m pretty sure it’s true.

Large numbers of church-going conservative to moderate evangelicals (especially the conservatives) would flip their lids if they really knew what the professors in many leading seminaries and Christian colleges/universities believe.

Some schools are more diverse than others, permitting a wider range of views, and for my purposes here, I’m focusing on those with greater theological diversity. And believe me, when I’ve mentioned what I learned in seminary, I’ve had to help a few friends put their lids back on…

Perhaps you aren’t easily rattled, which is great, but we need to look at what our leading Bible scholars are saying and then how their teachings reach us in the pew. It may help us relax a bit when new Christian theology “scandals” hit if we learn where some of our theological trends come from and how we learn about them.

An example? Let’s start with a tame one.

A leading Old Testament scholar at my seminary, who worked on little-known projects such as the NIV and NLT translations of the Bible, taught the following in his class:

• The days in Genesis were most likely long, indeterminate periods of time. Least likely? 24 hour days.
• God’s image is fully reflected in the creation of man AND woman—together.

The implications drawn from these two points are striking. They would rattle the interpretations and practices of many Christians who put a lot of faith in the world being created in 24-hour days and who teach that women are somehow below men—especially when it comes to teaching men.

The Diversity of Evangelical Scholars

It gets a little stickier in many seminaries and universities. How does salvation work? Well there are a couple prominent schools of thought that range from paying a debt to God to buying us back from Satan—both have biblical support among other views.

How was the Bible written and edited? Wait, did I just say the Bible was edited? And don’t get me started on who wrote which book when. I mean, Isaiah can’t be scripture if it had two different authors, writing in two different settings, can it???

Hell? Well, it’s not easy for some scholars to say something for certain about hell since Jesus spoke so much about Gehenna, a literal place in his day that we translate as hell. Are there consequences for rejecting God? Absolutely. However, the exact details of the punishment are not a matter of consensus among evangelical scholars. 

I could go on with debates about the impact of culture on our theology, the problems of American nationalism in the church, or different views on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. There is a lot of diversity among our leading scholars, but we don’t always glimpse that from the pew.

How Christian Authors Use Theology

Which brings me to my other point. You see, we have a lot of theologians who pioneer ideas or challenge the status quo of our theology, but not all of them are able to communicate effectively to wide audiences like a Max Lucado or dare I mention a certain pastor in Michigan… And then Brian McLaren is another good example of a Christian author who reads a lot of theology books by conservative scholars, but he also mixes in liberal scholars.

So we have quite a few theologians in our seminaries and universities who are immersed in the Bible, theology books, and church history who have limited access to the folks in the pews—the folks who would have a heart attack if they knew what their scholars are teaching. There are exceptions (say NT Wright for one), but by and large, our scholars are rarely the ones who carry new ideas to the church.

That falls to writers.

There are a number of Christian writers who take the existing theology that’s already out there and make it accessible for the average Christian. That’s what Brian McLaren did in  A New Kind of Christian. McLaren took the theology that had impacted his own life powerfully and wove a simple narrative with two friends having a spiritual conversation. He didn’t think a lot of that stuff up on his own for the most part, though he certainly included his own spin or innovations at times.

So when we’re concerned that a popular writer is introducing new ideas that will somehow corrupt Christianity, there’s a good chance those ideas are being pulled from some scholars who have already been teaching them to college students and pastors. Their ideas are already being considered among many learned Christians, but have not made a splash in the popular Christian market.

The good news is that the Gospel is still being preached and the many students and pastors who interact with these supposedly “dangerous” ideas are fully committed to following Jesus.

In many cases we have Christian scholars who are deeply committed to the scriptures and to Jesus who find that some of our “traditional” views aren’t quite on the mark. This presents an interesting quandary. There’s the traditional line by which “faithful Christians” have been defined for a particular belief. However, being a faithful Christian demands a commitment to the teachings of scripture.

What happens when a commitment to the teachings of scripture lead a scholar to believe something a little different from the traditionally “faithful Christian interpretation”? It’s not an enviable position.

However, there are many Christian scholars who have tweaked their conceptions of salvation, hell, theology and culture, and the nature of the Bible’s composition after carefully studying the scriptures. We often don’t know about their views widely until a talented Christian writer/communication takes the work of these scholars and presents them in a book for popular audiences who wouldn’t persevere through a 300-word theology book with tiny font and footnotes that sprout like weeds.

I write all of this because we often hear that this or that author is spreading a teaching that will somehow destroy the church. While we should certainly be careful about what we teach, often enough today’s raging theological controversy was yesterday’s tame class discussion at a Bible-believing, Jesus following university or seminary where everyone left class, checked their text messages, and then promptly ate lunch.