Yesterday I sat in Barnes and Nobles for an hour and read from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. I sipped some Starbucks, nodded off occasionally, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It is important to read and study theology.

Theology is simply what we believe about God and the world as it relates to God. We all have thoughts about God and the world and therefore in some sense we all dabble in theology.

The issue is not whether or not we think about theology. We do. The issue is how we think about theology.

Charles Ryrie, in his book Basic Theology, writes,

Theology is for everyone. Indeed, everyone needs to be a theologian. In reality, everyone is a theologian – of one sort or another. And therein lies the problem.

There is nothing wrong with being an amateur or professional theologian, but there is everything wrong about being an ignorant or sloppy theologian. Therefore everyone should read theology.

I enjoyed Grudem’s definition of systematic theology. I think he makes systematic theology accessible for everyone with this definition:

Systematic theology is any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us today?” about any given topic.

Based on this definition, we all do systematic theology from time to time when we say, “The Bible says…”

Again, the issue is not whether or not we do theology… we do. The issue is how we do it. Are we sloppy or prepared?

So, how about you?

Have you ever read a theology book?

Why?

Why not?

What would make you want to read/study theology?