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Let God’s Truth Shape How You See Everything Else

C. S. Lewis is famously quoted as saying, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” He was claiming something about the nature of Christian theology, that it’s more than thinking about God and the church and other “spiritual” things. Christian theology is thinking about the world and everything in it—in God’s way. In context, Lewis was making a point about studying theology instead of other disciplines.

Here’s the full quote from his essay titled “Is Theology Poetry?” Lewis writes:
“The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world; the dreaming world is judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason I am certain that in passing from the scientific points of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

At GWC, we teach theology because we value theological knowledge. But, like Lewis, we recognise theology’s broader value

At GWC, we teach theology because we value theological knowledge. But, like Lewis, we recognise theology’s broader value. We’re convinced that understanding the world theologically gives a basis for science because the God who created the universe made it understandable. We think concepts like beauty and art have a relationship to the aesthetics of God’s creating work. It is Christian theology that tells us that God made all people in his image, worthy of dignity, respect, and honour. And so it is theology that underpins human rights and our understanding of culture. And since our idea of the ‘good life’ is shaped by our understanding of what is good, theological truth also underwrites ethics and political philosophy.

Sometimes people think that studying theology means being impractical and abstract. However, the opposite is true. Knowing God better means understanding his world, our lives, and people using theological tools. Since we’re in Africa, it means understanding God’s purpose in redeeming African cultures and valuing what God is doing here. Theology properly appropriated entails worship and witness that is both faithful to God and culturally sensitive. It means being shaped into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, in both our understanding and in our behaviour.

There’s no theology that’s not practical. And people who study theology, but work in other disciplines, understand the foundational truths that underpin their ‘secular’ work better as well. All truth is God’s truth.

by Dr Nathan Lovell (Director of Research, GWC)

GWC Newsletters
May 2023

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