Storyteller's World

That was the great line I was thinking of the other day, from Star Trek of blessed memory, of course. It became quite a running gag in the course of successive series, and was recycled in a huge variety of guises, coming full circle and culminating I suppose in the priceless moment in Star Trek Voyager when Robert Picardo's character utters the line, "I'm a hologram, not a doctor!"

So this came to mind when I saw maggi dawn's post about how we need specialist theologians. I'm with maggi on this one all the way, against the resenters and detractors of theology and theologians. But in my incurably parochial way, I fell a-thinking about where the ordinary, run-of-the-mill parish clergy like me fit into this picture. We may or may not feel we are 'trained theologians'. No doubt someone once tried to train us. No doubt we practise our trade (art? craft? mastery? mystery?) in our little corner of the world, as best we can, but probably without the skill, the resources and backup, or the opportunities to read and study and discuss, that maggi is able to draw on.

The nearest analogy I could think of was the medical one. Here in the parish we are like your local theological GP, having to know a bit about everything and dabble in the whole spectrum, while the Church also needs its consultants in theology, who probably know a lot more about everything than your average GP, but will also have specialised in a particular area. Even your GP may be better at throats than prostates (and who can blame her/him?), so I guess the parish clergy also have their particular strengths and interests. I like to think I'm stronger at telling the Story, than telling people what to do with their lives. But for other people, it's listening, or loving young people.

In the end I think the important thing for a theologian is to look at the whole of life with curiosity and wonder, through God-coloured glasses, and then think and talk about what they're able to see.

A wise theologian long ago put it in the words, 'The theologian is one who knows how to pray.' And I don't think we can say it better than that. Fortunately that's a calling which is open to all Christians, be they what the world thinks of as the theological equivalent of consultant, GP, or layperson.