Theological diversity - part 1

Continuing on my discussion concerning diversity within the Church of God...

Previously I have examined the following realities of our diversity: ethnic and regional. Now, I want to tackle the one that is potentially most controversial: Our theological diversity.

Even to suggest that we are anything but theologically uniform can cause shivers to run through some died-in-the-wool Church of God adherents. The prospect of this being even remotely true provides more ammunition for those wanting us to beef up our arsenals with tighter doctrinal stances and explicit statements of beliefs.

Stick with me on this one. I will need a few posts to develop my argument, but hear me out before you send out the heresy police.

First, we must distinguish between doctrine and theology.

I am fairly certain that for the most part we share and express a common doctrinal basis. But, it's in the realm of theology that we really diverge. Is this merely a matter of semantics? I think not.

Doctrine literally means "teaching" and describes the core basic beliefs that we hold. Even though we have resisted (and in my opinion we should continue to resist) sacralizing these biblical convictions into a formal creed, there is a general agreement that runs fairly consistent across our movement.

But, theology builds on doctrine and reflects our interpretations and applications of these beliefs, and our worldviews behind them. It is not merely an ivory-tower, academic preoccupation. We all engage in it as we integrate faith into our lives. And, in the church preaching itself is our most common theological exercise. Certainly there is overlap between theology and doctrine, but it is the confusion of these two disciplines that results in misunderstandings among us, and which is why we do not readily acknowledge our theological diversity. We'll pick up on that in part 2.