“He urged Bible-loving Christians to consider theological study and a ministry of teaching and writing. His model was that of the stream from which Christians drink. The stream is polluted by bad theology. Our task is to feed in good theology. ‘Trickle-down’ theories are risky, but I think this one works. I had been heading for parish ministry; from that day on I knew God was calling me to an academic, though still very much church-related, vocation.”

(Tom Wright here ; HT Chrisendom)

I certainly think bad theology is responsible for an astonishing amount of heartache and anguish, and that the ‘cure of souls’ is precisely about applying the medicine of the (genuine) gospel. Hence the ‘teaching and writing’ aspect, which grabs my guts. I can’t reconcile this with academia though. It’s not so much that bad theology is embedded in our prominent institutions (though that is true) it is that there is a structural problem – I’m not sure it is possible to do good theology apart from the eucharistic community, and the academies are NOT eucharistic communities. Hopefully there will form a place where that element of my vocation can emerge healthily. This blog has something to do with it, I believe…