I love theology in small doses. I’m not cut out for theological study at a deep level but I do love it in small doses, and I pay attention to it. It’s how my brain works. So when we started attending our Episcopal church I was alert to the theology but I couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t fit it into the categories I was used to. That bothered me! The liturgy presents the outline of the biblical story; it offers the Nicene creed, but it doesn’t dwell on a particular theology of atonement or salvation.
I came to the Episcopal church having explored and been attracted to first Calvinistic and then Lutheran ways of connecting the theological and biblical dots. Those were ports in a storm for me, and I looked for the comforting outlines of monergism, etc in my new environment. But for the most part it was as if I had come to a place where “all that” was taken for granted and here the categories were different.
Today I came across a blog post that makes sense of the difference–and it is not an Episcopalian blogger; in fact he’s an evangelical. I have followed his blog for a long time and even corresponded with him once.
On Tweaking the Soterian Gospel
(Soterian, by the way, is a theological term that refers to salvation.)
The Gospel Today
I’m convinced he’s onto it. In these two posts he works out the difference between my former theological dot-connecting, and where I’m at now. It’s very interesting to see it in black and white.
