theology is necessary
Sophia Deboick argues well for maintaining subjects (like theology) that don’t have an immediate utilitarian use :
While there is certainly a debate to be had about what university should be for, the value of knowledge for its own sake should be defended and maintained as a central principle in our universities. If we accept that theology is a “useless” subject because it has a nebulous practical application, that principle will be severely undermined, to the profound detriment of higher education in Britain.
5 Responses to “theology is necessary”
Comments
Pingbacks and Trackbacks
Reply
-
author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
-
Search
-
-
That “theology is useless” sounds like the sort of thing Tricky Dicky Dawkins and his daschunds (sorry, New Atheists) would say. The thing is, he wants to chase theology out of university, then interpret things the way he wants to.
That “theology is useless” sounds like the sort of thing Tricky Dicky Dawkins and his daschunds (sorry, New Atheists) would say. The thing is, he wants to chase theology out of university, then interpret sacred writings the way he wants to.
Sorry Maggi, thought I’d cancelled the first comment – could you possibly delete it?
it has a nebulous practical application
I don’t see how something which (hopefully) informs all I do can be seen as having a “nebulous” practical application.
But then, I’m a musician, and quite accustomed to doing work with no quantifiable value, or sometimes with no obvious practical application.