Our Worldview

 

Eastside Church of the Cross is a Church where we seek to be Theologians of the Cross.  Hence our name.  The following discussion may help in understanding what we mean by “Theologian of the Cross.”

 

One can classify two basic ways of looking at the world and thinking about God.  The two ways are what we shall call two “theologies” (two ways of drawing conclusions about God or thinking about God). 

 

Each person lives out one of these theologies, as everyone has a theology.  Everyone is a “theologian” in as much as they have theories or thoughts about divine realities.  Given that, it has been proposed that there are two kinds of theologians — two theologies, two worldviews. 

 

Of the two kinds of theologians, the authentic kind is the one that thinks about God as God has actually revealed himself.  To think about something else, and call it “God” is not to be a real theologian after all (as it is not really the study “God” but is the study of an imagined notion).  Theology, properly understood, is the study of God, and not the study of invented versions of God.  For the sake of argument, however, we shall use the word theologian to refer to both valid and invalid theologians.  To use the language of Marin Luther, a theologian is either a Theologian of the Cross or a Theologian of Glory.

 

The two theologians  are contrasted well in Luther’s 1518 Heidelberg Disputation (see thesis 19-22 are listed below).  This work has profoundly impacted Eastside Church of the Cross with one of the best treatments given by Gerhard Forde in his book, On Being a Theologian of the Cross.  Read especially pp. 69-102 for a compelling defense of Luther’s Disputation and points 19-22:

 

19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened.

 

20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.

 

21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the things what it actually is.

 

22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded and hardened.

 

 

 

 

 

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Eastside Church of the Cross