theo – (prefix): relating to God.

logic – (noun): reasoning conducted or assessed according to principles of validity.

I chose the name Theologics because it sounded cool and represented what is fundamentally important to me. One might call it a Christian realism. On Memorial Day, I woke up early to a light rain. I was outside by 7 a.m. (Don’t feel sorry for me because I was about to play 36 holes of golf. Praise be to God.) The clouds broke apart, the rain stopped, and the sun pierced brilliantly through the sky. I took a moment to take in the beauty, sublimity, and strength of the colors I was experiencing. By realism, I believe that the sun shining through the morning clouds was an objective event. The colors, beauty, and sublimity would have been there even if I was not.  I don’t believe that beauty is completely or absolutely in the ‘eye of the beholder.’ Certain things are beautiful whether one sees it or not. I am quite confident that the pink and the blue colors I saw were there and not in my mind. I wouldn’t know what it would mean to have a sublime or colorful “mind”. The sun-pierced clouds that I was experiencing could have been experienced by someone right beside me or miles away because it was there objectively, verifiably, outside of me. This is what I mean by realism.

Following behind great thinkers such as Jesus, Paul the Apostle, Aristotle, Pascal, Calvin, GK Chesterton, CS Lewis, Dallas Willard and many others, I believe knowledge is only knowledge to the degree that it is connected to what is actually the case, what is actually real.  Knowledge is “the act (or capacity) of representing (thinking about, talking about, dealing with) a corresponding subject matter as it is, on an appropriate basis of thought and experience, including good “authority.” Knowledge, biblically, is an interactive relationship with what is known.  Knowledge is no longer knowledge if it is not representing things as they are.

Now there is no doubt, one might think they know something in which they do not.  That does not mean that nothing can be known.  One might think a raccoon to be a cat.  That only proves that they did not know the difference between the two. It does not mean there is no such thing as a raccoon.  Or that there are not verifiable ways to validate the differences between a cat and raccoon and come to a knowledge about which is which.

Think about how many times the Bible states “God has done this that you know..”  Or Jesus’ when He says, “I’ve come that you may know the Father..” Or “He who abides in my words, are my disciples and they shall know the truth and truth shall set them free.”  Knowledge is central to life.  For example, you would not take your car to a mechanic who’s sign out front read “We get lucky sometimes.”  Or “We occasionally have moments of inspiration.” Inspiration is good but it is not something to live by. We want knowledge in our mechanics. That is to say, we want a mechanic who has interactive experiences with fixing cars.  It is no different with faith.  We want a teacher who knows the world in which we live, how we were intended to live in it, and how we might become that kind of person.  That is Jesus Christ.

The “Story” We Believe

We all experience reality.  One thinker defined reality as what you run into when you are wrong.  Now, much of philosophy is telling a “story” as to why what we experience is the way that it is.  You can tell an Aristotelian story, or a Kantian (Immanuel Kant) story, or a Hegelian (Hegel) story, or Nietzschian story, etc. for they are offering an interpretation as to why our experience is the way that it is.  Jesus, as with all the great thinkers of the world, offers us a “story” as to why our experiences are what they are.  Some of these stories have similar things in common and some conflict.  For example, Jesus’ and Aristotle’s view of virtue and character are similar, while Nietzsche and Hegel are similar in some way, though they conflict with Jesus and Aristotle.  What I am pointing out is that the stories offered to explain our experiences can be tested being validated or invalidated in life.  That is the ‘logic’ part.  I believe once we make the decision to take Jesus’ ‘story’ (narrative) or explanation as to why things are as they are and test it against real life, looking for the coherency, we will find that He knows more about life, truth, the human soul, society, relationships, ethics, goodness, beauty, wisdom, love, and human flourishing more than any other.

Theologics represents this foundational idea that the narrative Jesus offers, that is we are eternal beings living in God’s world created for interactive relationships with Him, through which we come to know Him, is the most coherent narrative of what is real. For example, Hegel and Nietzsche take what a person, by common experience knows to be the case, and then tells a story as to why what that person thinks to be the case is most certainly not.  Arguing that because we cannot escape our minds we cannot ever know what is objective from what is subjective.  Therefore, we cannot know.

Jesus is different.  Jesus takes, what by common experience we know to be the case, and tells us a story as to why that is the way that it is and what it tells us about God and the world around us.  For example, “consider the ravens, who neither sow nor reap…”  Or “unless a seed fall into the ground and die…”  Jesus starts with what can be validated by common experience and gives a narrative as to why our experiences are the way they are.  He is teaching what is true that knowledge might be acquired, assisted by the Holy Spirit and grace, so that we might believe what is actually the case.

Belief is the readiness to act on what we think to be the case.

Belief is grounded in knowledge.  Never try to believe something you do not believe. Rather, if you “want to believe” then pursue knowledge of what is true. I did not become a Christian to make myself feel better, I am a Christian because I want the truth. Belief is the readiness to act on what we think to be the case.   In this sense, everyone has beliefs and they are central to how we live.

What I am quite certain of, is that we can know God through Jesus Christ. God may not be comprehendible, but He is altogether knowable.  We can act on the teaching of Jesus, in a particular area of life, committing the outcome to God.  We will find that God acts on our behalf (grace), which encourages us to obey Him and commit more to Him.  And He acts on our behalf again. This happens and continues to happen as “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.”

We do not start by loving God for you cannot love what you do not know.  We start with confident expectation (hope) that God will act on our behalf (grace) and through obedience we commit our circumstances to God (trust) finding that God is indeed faithful to keep that which He  promises.  We move towards God through hope, obedience, trust, and grace resulting in a genuine love for God from the heart.

This process of hoping, trusting, God moving and our confidence in Him growing is faith according to the Bible.  Faith is grounded in knowledge. A knowledge of God through Christ, validated in our obedience and experiences of God’s faithfulness.  Any serious inquirer can validate the teachings of Christ in his or her own experience.  But they cannot invalidate them by simply refusing to consider them and hiding behind the dogma of modern intellect. Herbert Spencer, a scientist, philosopher, theologian, and considered a father to the field of sociology once wrote, “There is a principle which is bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”