Theology and Spirituality

Hello friends,

Recently, I’ve had to describe my Christian walk and in both instances, I highlighted the importance of the dual nature of theology and spirituality. In many people, the balance is different and shifts with each circumstance, but there is great importance in each.

Without theology, our faith is wishy-washy and has no firm foundation. We need it to have firm beliefs to stand by. However, without spirituality, our theology is also meaningless. Spirituality is the emotional connection and relationship with God.

We can know a lot about Him, but if there is no relationship with Him, the facts and words are meaningless to us.

It’s a tricky balance. In our modern world, I’ve seen both extremes and imbalances on a wide scale. The most common example I’ve seen are the individuals who try to have a relationship with God, but can’t hold their ground when confronted by an atheist with biblical knowledge. Now I am not saying this is a horrible thing or that we should have the entire Bible memorized. What I am saying is that we should gather enough knowledge of our belief for us to be able to make a counterpoint. If something like this happens to you and you can’t, that’s ok, but use it as a learning opportunity to seek more answers.

My goal with the next two blogs is not to attack anyone. As I’ve said before, both aspects are important. My goal is merely to highlight issues that might be the cause of either side of the imbalance.

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

I hope you find this exploration as interesting as I do. This is the first blog in a three-part series. My next blog on the topic will be posted a month from now and it will be discussing the importance of theology more in depth. A month after that, the third and final blog will be posted on spirituality.

With love,

Ann Livers