Jesus Taught No Theology.

His teaching is entirely spiritual. Historical Christianity, unfortunately, has largely concerned itself with theological and doctrinal questions which, strange to say, have no part whatever in the gospel teaching. It will startle many good people to learn that all doctrines and theologies are human inventions built up by their authors out of their own mentalities, and foisted upon the Bible from the outside; but such is the case. There is absolutely no system of theology to be found in the Bible; it simply is not there. – Emmet Fox

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5 comments

  1. If by “Theology” we mean thinking and study of the nature of God, and what He does, then it would seem that the several statements of Jesus that begin “The kingdom of heaven is like…” would be theological statements.
    Some may object (I think incorrectly) that these are statements about a good society, and not about God himself. To those, I accept that the most clearly theological statement would attempt to answer “what is God like”
    It is recorded that Jesus was asked exactly this “Show us the Father” whereupon he answered (paraphrased from memory)
    ” …have you been with me so long and do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.” and “…the Father and I are one”

    Perhaps these are not accepted as theological teachings because they don’t sound like someone explaining doctrine: they are personal claims. But they powerfully assert that God “the Father” is like Jesus. Orthodox Christians of course see this as a claim to the incarnation. It may also be that these statements are not acknowledged as theological statements because some do not wish them to be such. Those who disagree with Jesus’ assertions here may wish to cut them out of the record so that they may somehow honor “Jesus” while not being bound to see Him in any particular way, and that they may impose their own ideas upon Him.

    Agree with Him, or disagree with Him; but please, no nonsense about Jesus taught no theology.

  2. “Was the theology of Jesus his own?” (I’m ignoring your use of the word ‘theosophy’ as I am not sure the distinction you are making)

    First, if one means “was it original to him” I would say that I believe not. As for his moral teaching (and remember that for the Jews, moral teaching, aka “the Law” was essentially theological) Jesus summed it up in what is commonly called “the summary of the Law” “…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…” and “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” And these two commandments hang “all the Law and the Prophets.”

    Secondly, His descriptions of the Father were not his own only, but were of a piece with what had been said before in the old testament. There were two possibilities for variance: one is that the consistency was not always foreseen, but was only evident looking backwards. The second is that “his teaching was not as that of the scribes and the Pharisees, but was as one with authority” He did not so much teach about, as he exhibited.

    But in another sense, proclaimed by Christians, the “theology of Jesus” was most assuredly his own, indeed it was about Him.

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