Without Jesus' words, life, death, and resurrection, there is no Christian theology. God did not reveal Himself through dreams or visions, but fully revealed Himself in history, in a concrete, flesh-and-blood human being: Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, theology is grounded in God's historical self-revelation, decisively revealed in Jesus of Nazareth.
Moses did not encounter God through contemplation; he encountered God while living his life, while tending sheep. Jesus' disciples did not encounter God through contemplation; they did not encounter God while sitting in meditation. They encountered God while living their lives, while fishing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, while responding to Jesus' call and following him.
The disciples experienced Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again after three days, within concrete time and space, and encountered God. Theology seeks to know the God whom Moses encountered, the God whom Jesus' disciples encountered. It seeks to speak of that God.
Yet that God is invisible. Nevertheless, theology seeks to know the invisible God, the God who transcends human reason. It seeks to comprehend. It seeks to understand the unknowable God. Herein lies both contradiction and breakthrough. For while God is invisible to the eyes of reason, God is visible to the eyes of faith.
Ultimately, theology is not blind, but faith born of understanding. Understanding fosters greater faith. A more certain faith is born. Believing without knowing leads to blindness, but believing with knowledge brings certainty, greater obedience, and the ability to advance with even greater faith.
Ultimately, theology is about seeking to know God. It is about seeking to know this faith that has accepted God. Therefore, theology operates on an epistemological horizon. Believing with proper knowledge gained through theology is different from believing without such knowledge.
Those who believe without knowing, when trials and suffering come in life, abandon their faith, saying, 'This isn't the God I believed in. But those who know and properly believe in faith through theology gain greater faith during times of suffering and trial and mature more profoundly.
Since we have entered the world of knowledge, the world of theology, knowing properly leads to believing properly. This is precisely why we study theology. Through theology, we come to know the experience of God as it is expressed by the Apostles, the Church Fathers, the saints, the clergy and religious, and the people of God. Through this knowledge, we walk the path of true faith. Faith grows when we know and believe.
