Evolving Theology

04/08/24 • 28 min

In today’s episode, we explore theology, using Dorthee Soelle’s definition, “an invitation to think deeply about God.” Everyone has a theology, even if they don’t realize it. We want you to feel empowered to take ownership over your personal theology.
Throughout our discussion, we dig into the differences between orthodoxy and theology. We also look at personal stories that kickstarted the development of our own theology.
— Theology is ever evolving, even in the Bible
— God is safe
— God’s heart is freedom for the oppressed and garden like intimacy
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Resources
Dorothee Soelle - Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology
Kat Armas - Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence and Strength
Marty Solomon - Asking Better Questions of the Bible
Brennan Manning - Ragamuffin Gospel
Donald Miller - Blue Like Jazz

Rob Bell - Velvet Elvis
Jeremy Meyers - Types of Theology (Blog: Redeeming God)

The Bible Project

Bema Discipleship

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Bible References

Genesis 18: 1-15
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Important Take-Aways

- The heart of an evolving theology is deconstruction and reconstruction
- We can embrace empowered theology
- God is always experiential
- Our current moment demands that theology is in the hands of everyone
- It’s okay to have questions but not answers
- The Bible is an important source for wisdom
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Support the show

This podcast is a production of Worship Lab, and recorded in Brooklyn New York. Our executive producer is Armistead Booker. Our technical director and engineer is Gareth Manwaring. And our sound designer is Oleksandr Stepanov. Music by penguinmusic - *Better Day* from Pixabay.

Share your ideas with us! You can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Support the show

Share your ideas with us! You can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Previous Episode

Mother Hen

In this episode, we explore how we implicitly interact with our theology and how using different metaphors can give us a renewed access point with God. Sometimes we have to use our hard and painful moments to sense God’s nearness. This is a valid and important experience to note and be curious about in your life! That’s because God is so very near to our suffering, as we talked about in Episode 01. However, there is a case to be made for why and how we can also access God’s nearness in the best moments. Elisa shares a personal story about one of those moments today.
Throughout our discussion, we specifically look passages of scripture that depict God as a mother. We also talk about what it means to see God as a father in an ancient context. Lastly we talk about the two accounts of human creation (in Genesis 1 and 2) and what it means to prioritize the first.
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Bible References

Luke 13:34 (NIV): Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
Isaiah 42: 14-16 (NIV): For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hillsand dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
Isaiah 49:15 (NIV): Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Isaiah 66:13 (NIV): As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.
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Related Resources

Megan K. DeFranza - Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female and Intersex in the image of God
Henri J.M. Nouwen - In the Name of Jesus: Reflections of Christian Leadership

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Support the show

Share your ideas with us! You can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Next Episode

Alternative Narratives

The Bible offers an alternative or sometimes even opposing narratives to our post-modern culture context. While the world offers us value systems based on consumerism, nationalism, capitalism, and celebrity, the Bible is quite literally Gospel, which is from the Greek for “good news.”
In today’s episode, we compare and contrast these narratives and examine what Gospel means in our current context, with the help of Gabriel Fackre’s framework for narrative theology, which we will be unpacking over the next few episodes.
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Key Takeaways

— Jesus is a narrative writer
— Jesus declares and establishes the kingdom
— The kingdom is here and now
— Contextual narratives are evolving
— Our understanding of the Gospel is also evolving
— We become the good news for each other
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Resources

Kōsuke Koyama: Water Buffalo Theology
Howard Thurman: Jesus and the Disinherited
Gabriel Fackre: Narrative Theology
Netflix: The Trapped 13
The Bible Project: The Sermon on the Mount
Bema Podcast: Episode 93 - Blessed
Dallas Willard: The Divine Conspiracy
Systematic vs Narrative Theology
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Bible References

Mathew 5
Mark 7: 24–30
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Support the show

Share your ideas with us! You can email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

The Exile Project - Evolving Theology

Transcript

Hi, everyone. I'm Elisa. And I'm Patricia. Welcome to the Exile Project. We are so glad you're here. Yesterday I had a very weird sort of specific. Mental breakdown that just involved me getting more and more books and reading really random portions of them to at least time. And bizarrely, this episode where we want to try to talk about just theology and define some terms, has proven to be like a bit difficult too to just do that. Yeah, I think it brings up it brings up for me this feeling of