Great theologians never set out to be the next big name. They set out to make God’s name big. Pursue the true first thing—God’s glory—and you might, but most likely won’t, find some kind of glory in the eyes of men. Pursue self-glory first and you’re guaranteed to miss God’s glory and find your own turned to dust.

I’m blessed to know one of Time magazine’s top 50 living thinkers. He has been my personal mentor for more than 20 years. He’s a die-hard Chiefs fan. He has been a sage through seasons of deep doubt and a friend through bouts of deep anxiety. His name is J. P. Moreland, and he thinks I’m an idiot.

How do I know he thinks I’m an idiot? Because he regularly reminds me. Our office doors at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology are about a first down apart, and we cross paths often. Before you conclude that J. P. belongs on Time magazine’s Top 50 Living Insensitive Jerks list, let me tell you why his regular reminders are a blessing. It’s what G. K. Chesterton sought when he said, “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly . . . [but] Satan fell by the force of gravity.”

If we want to be better theologians, we must take ourselves less seriously to take God more seriously. When it comes to our knowledge of God, we need to realize we’re all idiots.

Realizing Our Idiocy

A good definition of a theologian, then, may be one who realizes what a total idiot he or she is about the deepest things of God yet who seeks to mitigate that idiocy as much as possible by bringing it often to the sacred Scriptures. (Perhaps theology conferences should be called idiot conventions.) 

Charles Spurgeon made the point in a sermon when he was just 20 years old: “Theology,” Spurgeon argues, “is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. . . . No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.” There’s something unique about the study of God on account of the sheer magnitude and infinity of its Subject.

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