Reactive Theology

When encountering strange doctrine for the first time, we naturally react negatively. See my post on that here: Coffee Enema and Reaction to Strange Doctrine. What can happen, if we’re not careful, is our theological worldview will be shaped by our reactions.

Many individuals, including ourselves during our early faith journeys, have experienced this tendency. People unknowingly set themselves up for a reactive approach to theology. For instance, consider the statement, ‘Calvin was a murderer.’ This claim can lead many to irrational thinking, causing them to prefer eternal damnation over worshiping the same God as Calvin. In some cases, individuals may even convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy due to their aversion to Reformed Soteriology. Our emotional reactions often drive us to adopt extreme positions, and sometimes as a form of protest.

Many reject Eternal Security because of the rotten fruits of those professing to be Christians holding to Easy-Believism. Not happy with this, they go to the other extreme end of “Hell-fire preaching,” instead of carefully handling God’s words to see what it really teaches about Eternal Security.

Here’s an article worth reading:

Paul’s right-use-not-nonuse maxim can help us with other theological reflections as well. In fact, I know few biblical truths and practices that can be held rightly without some attention to this principle. When one biblical teaching is misused, we should not deny that teaching altogether but rather find related texts and biblical principles that provide balance and contour to our understanding. We must ask what a Bible text teaches and then also ask what else the Bible teaches that can inform our understanding of that passage and define its scope, boundaries, application, and importance.

This is God’s safeguard against reactive pendulum theology, the pervasive tendency to swing our doctrine back and forth in reaction to perceived theological and methodological excesses. Too much of our theology today is reactionary, born out of a fear of excess or abuse rather than out of Scripture-informed and Spirit-filled wisdom, discernment, and care. We’ve overcompensated for misuse by rejecting beliefs and practices instead of reforming them. The trouble with a reactive pendulum is that it can swing like a recklessly misused and misguided hammer in the opposite direction.^[1]