Choose who teaches you theology, carefully
Since I’ve spent the majority of my professional career as a teacher of Scripture, philosophy, and theology, I’ve often had the opportunity to think about matters of pedagogy and other issues related to instruction. One thing that’s always struck me as I have considered what it means to be an effective teacher is that most of the great teachers in history were themselves students of other great instructors. Socrates taught Plato; Plato taught Aristotle, and Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. The entire history of Western ideas has been affected by these four men. In theology, we see that Ambrose of Milan taught Augustine, and Augustine, through his writings, taught both Martin Luther and John Calvin. We owe a great debt to Ambrose, who by discipline Augustine got the ball rolling for the Reformation, in a manner of speaking. That great teachers produce other great teachers tells us that we can’t take the search for a teacher lightly. In fact, our choices of the instructor...