It is sometimes said that the most difficult part of doing something is the beginning. Let's see how I do with that. I will start with an introduction. My name is Mark, and I have recently completed my masters degree in theological studies in Winnipeg. Sadly, I am still working away at that masters thesis on Immanuel Kant that I wanted to have done by now.
Garrett and I long thought about finding ways that we could encourage and stimulate theological thought within our own church denomination. The ECCC has been my little home my whole life, it is the only church I have known, whether it be from my humble beginnings in Saskatchewan, to my year at Covenant Bible College (now defunct) in Strathmore, Alberta, to my theological studies here in Manitoba. The Covenant has been both teacher and mother to me, and because of that church has always taken on the role of a big family to me.
I can't say that I really knew what theology was for most of my life. I had seen and heard the word in conversations, in books, on the internet, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was or why it was important. Theology just wasn't something explicitly talked about in church as far as I can remember. Obviously, what was spoken of in church and sunday school was theological, I just never really attached the label to those things. My first memory of the word was in my high school Christian ethics class when we took one of those Christian personality/spiritual gifts tests that tried to suggest career options based on one's temperament and spiritual gifts. Despite my best attempts to cheat the test, my hopes to be the artist with a future in being a rockstar didn't happen. Instead, I was judged as a "perceiver" who's ideal career was a theologian. I had little clue what that meant and I don't think I made much of it. I wanted to play music and that was the only thing that really made sense to me at the time.
The fall after high school graduation I decided to enter Covenant Bible College where we had to take an introduction to theology course titled, "Foundations of Faith." The text we read was Created for Community by the late Stanley Grenz (a book I recently repurchased!). I can't say I remember much of the course, and whenever I read my final integrative paper, or my "Statement of Faith," I am tempted to never read it again and ensure that no one else will. It was also during this year that my youthful love of music began to change into more of a fun thing to do with friends as opposed to a career.
Sparks were kindled when I soon found myself purchasing a copy of Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. While I can't say I fully understood what I had read I had become interested in thought, in ideas, in making sense of my life as a Christian on a more thoughtful level than I had before. After many conversations with friends and teachers at CBC I felt confident that I wanted to go college and learn more. At the time I was interested in philosophy, mostly because I was drawn to philosophy of religion and apologetics, but things would soon change.
I enrolled in Providence University College as a biblical studies major, with a philosophy minor. I jumped head first into three philosophy classes, one bible class, and a theology class. It was this kind of stuff that I cut my teeth on, but it was theology that sparked my curiosity most, due in part to the professor teaching. Soon I was trying to fill my degree with as many theology classes as I could take. I read the church fathers, the medievals, and the reformers, but it wasn't until a class on theology of religions that I became convinced that theology was where I wanted to commit my time and mind. I still recall the moment the scales fell from my eyes was after reading Karl Barth's, On Religion: The Revelation of God as the Sublimation of Religion.
I finished my biblical studies degree and eventually enrolled in a masters program in theology at Canadian Mennonite University. During this time I was exposed to a wide array of voices, traditions, ideas, arguments. It was also during this time that I was challenged to explore my own tradition and learn not only how it has influenced how I think about faith, but also to learn to engage with it through everything I had learned up to that point. I ended my education with a deep appreciation for the Covenant Church.
However, I always wondered why it seemed the Covenant Church wasn't terribly concerned with theology. It often seemed that the Covenant church was embarrassingly loose in its theology. Upon telling one of my professor's that my denomination didn't have much to say on the most basic points of systematic theology he looked at me and jokingly asked, "So, what are you guys, a bunch of liberals?" Not quite, but the point was taken. Granted, the Covenant Church holds to a high view of the authority of Christ and the scriptures, placing the ECC within the long tradition of the one, holy, catholic, apostolic, and reformational church. At the same time, in a way similar to my professor's inquisitive prodding, I was puzzled with what seemed to be a wide and inclusive ecclesiology functioning to allow for a sparsity of theological content. It wasn't so much that I saw a lack of the spirit of charity relating to matters of doctrine, or anti-academic theology sentiments. Instead, I wondered why robust and constructive theological work seemed so neglected within my experience in the church.
But this does not have to be the case. In fact, I would argue that the inclusivity and openness to converse, argue, dispute, and seek truth that is built into our very idea of church as a fellowship of believers enables these activities to flourish, in such a way that they are representative of Christian love, rather than activities based on relations of competition, pride, arrogance, or tribalism. This blog, for me, is a site where people in the Covenant Church can engage with their tradition to think through theological questions. That raises another question, "What constitutes a theological question?" I think that is another blog for another day, but for now I want to simply open a space for conversation. It is my hope that this space will be one where truth will be our common master as we seek to understand.
Look forward to future blog posts! Enjoy!
Look forward to future blog posts! Enjoy!
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