Love the Lord with all your heart or mind? – Doctrinal devotion (part 2)
C.S. Lewis writes the following in his introduction to On the Incarnation by Athanasius:
“For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand” (8).
The good thing about Lewis is that when you have something to say, you can just quote him and you end up sounding like you know what you’re talking about (except for the part about “a pipe in their teeth,” of course 
).
In light of Lewis’s quote, I would like to propose that the most profitable use of our time can be spent in times of “doctrinal devotion.” Many of today’s latest Christian books and songs tend to emphasize what we feel about God more than understanding who He is. We end up getting a good idea of how we feel (did we really need help with that?), but a poor idea of Who it is that we’re attempting to honor. It seems like common sense that we must first understand who God is before we can get to how we should rightly live before Him, but we can’t be so sure in an age ruled by pragmatism and common-sense theology.
Therefore, let us devote ourselves to biblical doctrine – not cold scholarship so that we can drop words like “ecclesiology” instead of church and ”eschatology” instead of end times - but rather that we would use all the possible tools to understand who God is so that we might live appropriately. Let’s translate the Greek for His glory. Let’s do a structural analysis of a passage so that we can better love our neighbors. Let’s understand patristic thought on a theological controversy to shed light on our modern biases.
Like Chesterton famously quipped, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” I have found that when I wrestle with the text and begin to understand, by God’s grace, the magnitude of the truth being communicated, I cannot help but find these moments devotional. What He has revealed to us is exceptional – the problem is I’m lazy. When I have given the text my all, I have never been dissapointed in its impact on my life.
We can neither seperate the heart from the mind, nor what we believe from how we should live. Therefore, we passionately pursue understanding what we believe about God and why we should believe it so that we might live rightly before Him.
- Bryan
By the way, I was hoping we could work through what this looks like practically in the comments section. Mark and Andy, as well as anyone else who cares to comment, how do you use ”non-devotional” tools in a devotional manner?
I’ll start this little discussion with a few observations from my own life. I look for Bible helps that are less concerned with keeping my attention or making the Scriptures memorable but rather explain the text. This means I am drawn more to commentaries that explain the text in its original context (language, culture, etc.). The reason, I think, that much “devotional” material is so shallow in doctrine is that it is not convinced that an experience with God through His Word is really enough. There is a feeling that if a teenager, for example, is left alone with the Bible they will be bored away from the scriptures. Instead the writer of devotional material must be clever with creative illustrations and colorful pictures. These additions are not bad, but I imagine that if we equip people with the right tools to encounter God in His Word they will be so captivated by His presence every glossy devotional magazine will seem trite in comparison.
“The reason, I think, that much “devotional” material is so shallow in doctrine is that it is not convinced that an experience with God through His Word is really enough.”
I thought that’s really powerful – it does seem like much of this is a sufficiency of Scripture issue. Perhaps if we understood the magnitude of what we’ve been given through Scripture we’d do things differently!
This is something I reflect on constantly as a high school teacher: how do I help Biblical knowledge become something that is life-changing, and not just another academic class assignment. I’ve been slowly working through J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, and I think this quote has some bearing on the topic…
“How can we turn knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to praise and prayer to God.”
RMGIBBS -
Thanks for your comment. I think your Packer quote is definitely applicable and I’m really excited to hear you’re working through much of this as well. I think we’re always fighting to keep in mind that the study of Scripture is not an ordinary endeavor – whether we’re doing a “quiet time” or doing an academic assignment. It’s a challenge!
As far as practical steps that I use, if I’m teaching someone to read the Bible I’m trying to move someone away from the “what does this say about me”-first reading of the text to ask basic questions such as:
What does this text tell me about God?
What does this text tell me about humanity?
What does this text tell me about the gospel?
What is going on in the larger biblical story? (canonical context)
What is the main idea that this text is communicating?
I think in light of being able to answer basic questions like that, we then move and say, “in light of these truths, how should I then live?”
Something else I noticed as I work with people from my church. Most of the people I talk to read as much if not more non-Biblical devotional literature. I find it weird to read books about the Bible and not really know the Bible. While we were at camp with the students at our church one of the speakers asked how many of them could quote 5 verses from the Bible. While I’m bigger on understanding than memorization I was shocked at how few students couldn’t quote 5 verses! You should be able to more or less quote 20-ish verses from Genesis 1 alone!
As far as when I read the Bible, I ask many of the same questions that Brian asks (go figure). One thing I’ve been trying to do is mix in “reading” with my “study.” That is, use some time to study the minutiae of a text and use some time just to read large portions of scripture to get a feel for the themes and contours of the canon.
I think that’s a good approach – I try to emphasize the same with people. Studying passage (thought unit) by passage for depth, while at the same time reading several chapters at a time to keep in mind the larger narrative of Scripture.
[...] Jesus, reading, religion, theology by Bryan Barley We’ve been talking some over at Unlikely Christians about loving the Lord with heart and mind. Feel free to offer your thoughts if you have any on the [...]
Doctrine or Devotion? « aGCb // the gospel, biblical theology, missions, SEC football said this on July 1, 2009 at 9:20 pm |
[...] blog, Gospel, Jesus, recommendations, religion, writing by Bryan Barley In case anyone missed it, my most recent essay over at Unlikely Christians is up, continuing a discussion of “doctrinal devotion,” or, [...]
Some Recent Writing « aGCb // the gospel, biblical theology, missions, SEC football said this on July 13, 2009 at 10:45 am |
Bryan,
Thank you for this series. There is at least one problem that I have found associated with “doctrinal books”, especially when it comes to seminary students (since that is currently one of my environments). Many times, people study these doctrinal books, and accept what is said (or don’t accept) based on the author without spending the time to study Scripture and think about the concepts themselves. This is just as dangerous and just as unhelpful in our understanding and obedience to God as not reading the doctrinal books in the first place. In fact, in many “sermons” I have found that people tend to quote their favorite author(s) more than Scripture. This is not good doctrinal study… this is lazy doctrinal study.
-Alan
Alan –
I think what you just wrote is incredibly perceptive and probably deserves its own post in this series. There is nothing like being able to study the Scriptures ourselves in such a way that frees us from parroting the ideas of others.