The moral task of theology

Welcome to The Theology Whisperer, a series of short blog posts on theology and theological education. Does theology have a moral or ethical function? Should it have such a function? If, as the Puritan divine William Perkins put it, theology is the science of living blessedly forever, then theology is linked to discipleship and the …

The constructive task of theology (cont.)

Welcome to The Theology Whisperer, a series of short blog posts on theology and theological education.   This post builds on my previous post on the scope of constructive theology. How should we go about the task of constructive theology? How can we build bridges, and avoid pitfalls and traps for young (or old) players? …

The constructive task of theology

Welcome to The Theology Whisperer, a series of short blog posts on theology and theological education. In previous posts I outlined the descriptive and critical tasks of theology; in this post (and the next), I want to look at theology’s constructive task. By this I mean theological work characterised not only by good biblical interpretation …

What would George do? (Part 6)

G. H. Morling on suffering and divine providence In previous posts (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), I outlined aspects of the thought of Australian Baptist theologian G. H. Morling on the causes and purposes of suffering. In this and the next post, I discuss Morling’s thought on suffering as it relates to divine providence. …

What would George do? (Part 5)

G. H. Morling on further purposes of suffering   Not all suffering in our world can be assigned a purpose; nor, arguably, should it be. One problem in searching for purposive explanations of suffering, in contrast to causative purposes, is that so much is left to the imagination. For example, we may identify clear evidence-based …