Overcoming Bias in our Theology

Each of us is encumbered by a certain degree of bias and subjectivity. No theologian can keep from bringing these experiences, biases, and circumstances into their understanding of theology. Yet what should be the authoritative ground and meaning for theologizing, the interpretive key to understanding God's work in the world?

The answer, at first, seems rather obvious: the Holy Bible as revealed to us by God through His prophets and apostles. However the answer is not as obvious as it seems. This is because how I approach the Bible is different than how someone in South Africa approaches it or even someone down the hall from me in the dorm. Even though my dorm-mate and I may both be Reformed in our theological line of thought, and be born-again by the grace of Christ, how I read John 3:16 and how he reads the same passage can produce different results.

I think a large part of these differences in our understanding of theology are the associates we gather throughout he course of living our lives. To use a rather simple illustration, if I read that God is my father, and I do not have a healthy or loving relationship with my father, then my understanding of God’s fatherhood will be warped by my father’s fatherhood. Therefore I may think that “deep down,” God really loves me, but He is not always paying attention to me, nor always mindful of my needs, or necessarily want the best for me. God may want what is best for me but not what I want.

The key to this particular dilemma is that God knows what I need far better than even I do. Thus what He wants for me actually is best for me and not just the stodgy contrivance of someone who loves me but is out-of-touch with reality as I see and experience it.

Taking this example further, is there any way, by interacting more with Scripture, that my understanding of appropriate, healthy, life-giving fatherly love can be corrected and refined? The answer is, again, Scripture. One of the things that has come up in my theology classes here at seminary is that we must interpret Scripture with itself. Therefore, what else does the Bible tell me about God’s love? John 3:16 is perhaps the ultimate statement of love Jesus makes in His earthly ministry – that He loved the world so much that whoever believes in Him need never die. Furthermore, when I read that Jesus the Son came from God the Father, that indeed the Father sent the Son to reconcile me back to Himself – I hopefully begin to understand how God’s fatherly love is different than that of my earthly father’s. God’s love is as Jesus explained in the story of the Prodigal Son – scandalous, boundless, filled with joy.

With this in mind, if I am not totally blinded with spite for the idea of all fathers in general because of whatever relationship I may have had with my own, I begin to come to a true understanding of God’s love for me. A love that draws all of us to the cross in humble repentance for the gracious, abundant life that we don’t deserve to a father we forsook a long time ago.

But what of someone who reads the same things, but is so blinded by his or her own experiences, feelings, or whatever, to allow it all to sink in? I remember once I had a conversation with a woman, online, and she was citing some verse in the Old Testament law that she found abhorrent because the perpetrator was not punished. However, as I pointed out to her, the very next verse did hold punishment for the perpetrator and it was not a light punishment either – although I regrettably forget the specific issue at hand. What I do remember is the utter credulity of the whole situation. This woman was ranting and raving in this online Christian chat room about how God was not just, God cared nothing for the victims of evil. The answer she sought was one verse away and she refused to pay heed. Which hinted to me that God’s supposed lack of justice was not her real gripe. Her real gripe was that she wanted to interpret God in her own way so that she could be justified in rejecting Him. Yet this woman is no different from any unrepentant sinner, nor of any Christian before we were saved – so I don’t say want to come across as condemnatory. I understand what she was doing because I used to do similar things myself.

With this experience in mind, let me back up on what I said about the Scripture being the ultimate authority. God is the ultimate authority, who speaks to us through the scriptures. But just reading the scriptures will not necessarily help us circumvent our own biases because unless we submit ourselves to God’s will, we will merely read out of the text what we want to – just as the woman I ran across did.