Brotherly Wisdom

"The man who seeks to occupy himself with dogmatics and deliberately puts himself outside the Church would have to reckon with the fact that for him the object of dogmatics would be alien, and should not be surprised if after the first steps he could not find his bearings, or even did damage. Even in dogmatics familiarity with the subject must be there, and this really means familiarity with the life of the Church." -Karl Barth Dogmatics in Outline p. 10.

Theology as a (strictly) academic exercise is a contradiction. One cannot seek to know God and not be in relationship to His Son. This does not mean that theology cannot be done in academic contexts or to the greatest degree of erudition. It does mean that those in such contexts must always have in mind how their task of learning will be useful for the building up of the Body of Christ. They must pray with one of my favorite professors, "Lord be helpful to us, that we may be helpful to the Church."