letters to surfers

Most Theologians consider "Scripture", "Tradition", "Experience" and "Reason" as sources for Theology. How do these four "sources" work in your "Model theology"?

Answer by Robert Brow August 1999   (Web site - www.brow.on.ca)


If we think of model theology as a means of understanding the explanations given by people of different religions, then every religion or ideology has its Scriptures (Muslims have the Qur'an, Nazis had Mein Kampf, Marxists had Das Capital, the Scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism are different from Buddha's original Hinayana).

In Christian theology (using our model of Trinitarian Theism) tradition is the fossilized fruit of the best of our thinkers in the past. I believe tradition, however good, must always be checked and reevaluated by study of the Bible.  Experience keeps forcing us to re-evaluate (or confirm us in) the theological model and the traditions we have lived by in the past.

Reason is the use of logic to understand and explain the inner structure of a model. Logic can be used to see how another model works, and so help us contrast it with our own. But logic only works within a logical system - it cannot prove that another model is wrong by some superior logic.

For example logic could question the inner structure of say the Taoism of Lao Tzu. We can also compare the result of living that way with learning to love by the Holy Spirit. But there is no way we can use Logic to prove that Creative Love Theism (the model I live by) is right and Taoism if wrong. They are certainly very different in their outworking.


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