God and the Teaching of Theology

Steven Edward Harris’s God and the Teaching of Theology: Divine Pedagogy in 1 Corinthians 1–4 is a fascinating volume examining a particular biblical text (1 Corinthians 1–4). The book surveys the history of Christian thought focused on the doctrine of divine pedagogy as it pertains to the Christian life of teaching and learning, which is the business of every Christian, including professional theologians.  As a religious educator by profession, the present reviewer finds the book biblically and historically informed, theologically insightful, and practically enlightening for the life of teaching and learning. The doctrine of divine pedagogy, crystalized in the thesis of the book, “divine instruction is not immediate, but mediate” (11, 219, 234), is what the book is all about.  Still, the present reviewer asks, why is such a book on the doctrine necessary?  To this question, Harris states that examining the doctrine stems from the need to envision the divine economy of God’s revelation, which theologians retrieve by means of engaging the Bible and traditions (8). Pointing out the abstraction of the Bible’s relation to the divine economy, Harris argues that it is imperative for the doctrine of divine pedagogy to aim at “the recovery of God as the primary agent in theology” (9).

With this thesis in view, the book is composed of 6 chapters. In chapter 1, Harris shows how the economic Trinity is never an abstract statement, but a living description of how the triune God has revealed, is revealing, and will be revealing divine wisdom, the goal of which is human salvation. “God the Father wills that all humanity come to trust his Son and learn from him” (29), and the Son, through the incarnation, is the essence of God’s wisdom in that regard. Simultaneously, “the Spirit is the divine teacher through whom the risen and ascended Christ instructs his church in fulfillment of the Father’s will” (37). In chapter 2, Harris surveys the history of theological interpretation on God as the divine teacher in ecumenical and integrative manners, as the book explores important theologians in this regard across all the denominations of Christianity—Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant—ranging from such luminaries as John Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin.

The book, however, is not confined to examining God’s agency as the divine teacher. After elaborating on the character of divine wisdom in chapter 3, in the remainder of the book from chapters 4 through 6 Harris examines who the students and teachers are as they relate to God’s economic revelation of divine wisdom shown in Christ and communicated through the Spirit. Not only are the students of God to avoid “pride, envy, and ignorance, and their manifestations,” (119) as “the wisdom of God is hidden in mystery (1 Cor 2:7),” they should be receptive to the transformative work of the Spirit. Simultaneously, Harris shows how indispensable teachers are in communicating the wisdom of the triune God.  He elaborates on their position and authority as well as the method and judgment of their teaching: “Just as human teachers are nothing in themselves but rely on God’s empowerment to achieve their pedagogical aims, so too they must not rely on human wisdom in establishing the truth of their doctrine” (217).  As such, the source of wisdom is not in human teachers, but in God.

The promise and strength of Harris’s work are obvious in the following three aspects. First, it is integrative. Since he strongly pronounces the need to understand God as the teaching agent, Harris makes it clear that several branches of Christian doctrine, including the doctrines of trinity, salvation, scripture, tradition, and so on, could come together for the purpose of teaching Christians the wisdom of God, as Paul in 1 Corinthians 1–4 suggests. Not only that, but the book also makes use of all the theological inquiries from biblical studies to historical theology to systematic and practical theologies in order to demonstrate that theological endeavor deals with the work of God the divine teacher and the corresponding work of human teachers and learners.

Second, Harris shows the value of ecumenical engagement as it pertains to the topic of divine teaching. Drawing upon Lutherans, Catholics, and the Reformers, as well as such contemporary theologians as John Webster and Karl Rahner, Harris brings all of them together to show the unity of divine teaching running across the streams of denominational and theological differences.

Third, the book is practical in the sense that it delves into what constitutes divine wisdom as well as what the lives of those trained by divine wisdom look like. Characterizing certain vices to avoid and virtues to promote among those learning from God strongly suggests the promise of divine wisdom as it pertains to teaching and learning in terms of theological virtues, even amounting to theological virtue ethics. As a religious educator, the present reviewer sees most promise from the work in this regard, as the fields of Christian formation and religious education need a theological foundation that provides a robust moral and educational vision for the work of Christian theological teaching and learning. Overall, the present reviewer excitedly welcomes Harris’s work and is looking forward to seeing more fruitful engagement with the topic from Harris and other scholars.

Sang-il Kim is a PhD candidate in practical theology/religious education at the Boston University School of Theology.

Sang-il Kim

Date Of Review:

March 31, 2022