Of theological maturity

You can tell a lot about a person’s theological maturity by how he or she responds to unfamiliar ideas. Calm, gracious, appreciative, analytical listening is the mark of theological depth; what is desired is full understanding, a due weighing of complexities and implications, before a careful response is given (Prov 18:13). The immature are not so, but are known by their hasty alarm, by a hermeneutic of suspicion that insists on shibboleths and spooks at buzzwords, by a dismissive rush to dogmatic judgment. I’m thinking of myself in early seminary years, and blushingly crave to think I have grown up a bit since then.

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