Pilgrim Theology

The longest of our January 2020 releases is Steven Duby’s God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics and the Task of Christian Theology. A book on who God is, written by a Professor of Theology, might not sound like an obvious read for Christian living. But as Christopher Holmes puts it in his endorsement, “He writes with a pastor’s heart, showing with great insight the importance of God in himself in the life of the disciple and for a pilgrim theology. We have much to learn, following Duby’s lead, from this neglected but altogether crucial teaching”. God in Himself considers what it might mean to know God, and Duby closes his book with a challenge:

 “Contemporary preoccupation (even in the church and in academic programs preparatory for church ministry) with ‘mission statements’, ‘measurable outcomes’, and the like needs to be relativized by the joy of knowing God. It needs to be relatavised by a strong sense of the fact that the greatest thing a minister of the gospel or a professor of theology can do for others is to communicate faithfully about the rich wisdom and goodness and holiness and love of the triune God – and their free and gracious exercise”.

 As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “we live by faith, not by sight”, and the Reformed tradition has long spoken of a ‘theologia viatorum’ or ‘theology of pilgrims’. As followers of Jesus, we walk along The Way, seeing our Perfect Saviour through our imperfect eyes. Duby writes that “the theology of pilgrims includes both natural theology and supernatural theology (or ‘revealed’ theology in the stricter sense. These are not two different species of pilgrim theology but two distinct modes of it”. In God in Himself, Duby walks with us as fellow pilgrims, digging into some of the theological depths that may scare some readers, but end up revealing more of God, and pointing the reader ever more unto Christ.

Pilgrim Theology is not, however, an invitation to intellectual speculation or an excuse to show off our learning and fancy words! Duby writes that “pilgrim theology should not be undertaken without participation in the worship of the church. Public worship is vital to the spiritual and intellectual health of the theologian because it calls us out of our own mental strivings”. Some churches, deliberately or coincidentally, have vision statements with some variation of ‘Knowing Jesus and making him known”. Perhaps a Pilgrim Theology would add a third part: the word ‘together’. This pilgrim theology is an invitation to know God, and know the beautiful community that God is calling together from every tribe and tongue and nation.

God in Himself is not a short book – it is a demanding and technical invitation into knowing God better. We hope it will be a useful tool for you in your journey with Jesus, and would also recommend some other books to help you think through what it means to truly know God this year. We are all theologians, and every Christian is invited to be a pilgrim theologian, walking along the way, falling more in love with Jesus as we dwell ever deeper in the Word of God.

God in Himself is the latest entry into the Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture Series. For a more accessible introduction, you might enjoy Peter Sanlon's Simply God.