According to Albert Schweitzer, the quest for the historical Jesus ends with the questers looking down a well and seeing their own reflections. Could the same be said of a search for the historical Satan? With few exceptions, we have tended to see Satan in the face of the other.
Pat Robertson had a ready explanation for the Haiti earthquake—he said that it was an expression of divine wrath at a centuries-old pact with the devil. Robertson's explanation may offend many of us, but attempts at offering a theodicy have a long pedigree.
As a church pastor I've been known to change things, but in contrast to
some of my colleagues I'm pretty cautious. Yesterday at our Missional
Learning Track (Disciples General Assembly), my friend Christian Piatt
described his congregational setting as "divinely inspired anarchy."
I'm not sure I can say that for me or my church.
Books
The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology
Edited by Ian A. McFarland, David A. S. Fergusson, Karen Kilby and Iain R. Torrance
To be a Christian is to be a theologian, because by definition all Christians, lay or clergy, engage in God-talk. The only question is whether this conversation is well informed.
