Fallen Into Knowledge

Since I this blog a higher word to picture ratio than I like, here is a picture.

Those of us in Portland experienced a beautiful day today - we experienced the sun.  I ate my lunch while sitting on the porch in shirtsleeves, went on a bike ride, and enjoyed the tree pictured above which went from no flowers to lots of flowers in a day.

While reading the book of Acts today, I was thinking about how the Bible never comes to us systematized. The Bible is full of theology, for sure, but that theology is rarely, if ever, abstracted from a particular set of circumstances. The may speeches given by Paul and others in Acts triggered this line of thought; in each case these speeches function as theological justifications for are certian set of actions - like Peter explaining the apostles’ speaking in tongues.
I guess what I am driving at is that there is nothing in the Bible that approaches “systematic theology.” Theology, in the bible is occasional - theological reflection is instigated by a certain occasion.
Tomorrow I begin reading Paul’s letters to various churches - a chunk of scripture that Protestant theologians and pastors have heavily relied on during the last couple of centuries. We have often used these texts as a starting point for developing an abstract theology. Capital “T” truth: truth that is universal, de-particularized - and I am beginning to think, therefore foreign to the language of the Bible.

{edit: Right after posting this, I happened upon a post entitiled “Ten propositions on being a theologian” on another blog, which says what I would like to have said, had I sufficient grasp on language - or my mind. Read that instead.}