The formation and reception of believer-theologians

Today my blog post "The formation and reception of believer-theologians" appeared on the ABPnews Blog published by Associated Baptist Press (click on hyperlinked title). I'll be able to post the full text here on Ecclesial Theology later this week; in the meantime, here's a snippet:

But on the other hand….

My college philosophy professor Wallace Roark taught me that cultivating the capacity to “think on the other hand”—to Think Like an Octopus—is the key to becoming a good thinker.

“But on the other hand” is also the necessary segue from my previous ABPnews Blog post on “The Theologian-hood of all believers,” which concluded with this paragraph:

That sort of life together happens most fully when congregations promote and embrace the theologian-hood of all believers. Churches do that by forming all believers in the convictions and practices of Christian faithfulness they need if they are to fulfill their vocation as the church’s theologians, and churches do that by being willing to listen to the voices of all believers whenever they speak as the church’s theologians.

It is true that, as Karl Barth observed, “In the Church there really are no non-theologians.”

But on the other hand.... (read the rest of the blog post on the ABPnews Blog).