Prepositional Theology
"Prepositional Theology"
by Rev. Neal Neuenschwanderfirst appeared in "The Fisherman" September 2007
One benefit of helping our twelve year old with homework during the last school year has been the opportunity to review English grammar: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjuntions, interjections, etc. We've been making sentence trees with adjectives branching from nouns and adverbs branching from verbs and all sorts of other graphic "leaves." Some of this I remember. Some of it I forgot. Some of it I can't believe they're still teaching in 2007! (Oops! Don't tell Andrew I said that). But all of this grammar has given me a new appreciation of language and the way we use language to express ideas.
When I was in seminary, the most important ideas were expressed in "Propositional Theology:" A proposition was advanced (e.g., "God is working for our good"). Then, evidence would be presented from the Scripture (e.g., Exodus and Calvary) and the Christian Tradition (e.g., Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and modern sources). Then, problems would be examined (e.g., "what about all the suffering in the world"?) Then, a resolution would be achieved that supported the original proposition while addressing many of the questions that it raised ("God does not cause unnecessary suffering, but he uses it for our ultimate benefit in the world.").
This process of proposing and refining theological ideas is very helpful to a pastor and to many whom he serves. But, after reveiwing my English grammar with Andrew in the last few months, I decided that many of these "propositions" could be expressed even more simply with prepositions--words like "in , "of", "over", "on", "around", etc. These prepositions reveal condition, location, or time, and two of them, "if" and "when," are found all over our modern translations of the Bible: Here are some examples:
"When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -- Romans 5:8
"[When] we were slaves . . . in Egypt, the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand --Deut 6:21
"If you fully obey the Lord your God, then . . . you will be blessed." -- Deut 28:1,3
"[When Messiah comes], he will not judge by what his eyes see -- Isaiah 11:6
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor 5:17)
"[When] the Lord comes down, the dead in Christ will rise first." (1 Thesss 4:16)
Sometimes, these prepositions are stated explicitly, and sometimes they are implied, but mountains of theology are based upon the simple concepts of "if" and "when." Thus, I'm going to spend the next few weeks preaching on these concepts and the beliefs that they inspire. My hope is to encapsulate the essence of our faith in 6 verses (or 6 passages, at least). You'll have to decide how well I do. It's going to be a challenge, but I think it can be helpful to summarize the faith in fresh, new ways. And I think it can be fun as well.
I'll see you in church!
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Page Last Updated: Mon Aug 27, 2007