bad theology?

Andy Baker-Alexis was here last week and brought me a copy of School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism. I wrote about an article on this new movement before. Maybe we can get a conversation going about the book.

One thing caught my eye already. In a chapter about sharing our resources, there's this comment: "I am convinced that most of the terribly distrubing things which are happening in our world in the name of Christ and Christianity are primarily the result not of malicious people, but of bad theology (at least, I want to believe that)."

Thinkers always want to believe that what we really need is just a better philosophy or theology. People are eager to hear that, too. "It's not our fault, we didn't know, we're just doing what we were told." But Jesus didn't blame bad theology for the evils of this world:

"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." (Lk 6.43-45)

Evil comes from within each one of us, from our heart, and that's what needs to change. Thinkers are not going to save the world with a new theology. Each of us needs, by God's grace, to change ourself; then we'll see a difference.