Doing Theology in Community

The Church as the Context for Doctrine

Christian theology is not the private speculation of isolated individuals. It is a communal task, a shared stewardship, and a deeply ecclesial enterprise. In an age that prizes personal expression and suspicion of authority, we must recover the truth that theology belongs to the church. The doctrines of the faith are not the preserve of scholars alone, nor are they reducible to personal interpretation. They are the truths once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), entrusted to the household of God for proclamation, preservation, and practice.

To do theology well is to do theology in community—within the body of Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and in continuity with the saints who have gone before us.

1. Theology Is Entrusted to the Church

The Apostle Paul calls the church “the pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). This striking phrase reveals something of the church’s unique role: not as the source of truth, but as its steward and witness. God has entrusted His self-revelation to a people, not merely to individuals. The “faith” that Jude commends was not privately discovered, but communally received and publicly proclaimed (Jude 3).

This has practical implications. It means that theology is not merely what I believe about God, but what we confess. From the beginning, Christian doctrine has been taught, received, guarded, and handed down through the church (2 Tim. 1:13–14; 2:2). The creeds, confessions, and catechisms that adorn the church’s history are not extraneous additions to Scripture, but faithful summaries of its teaching, forged in the furnace of pastoral need and theological conflict.

2. Theology Is Shaped by Corporate Worship

The early church devoted itself to “the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Theology was not an extracurricular activity; it was woven into the rhythms of gathered worship. The reading of Scripture, the preaching of the Word, the singing of psalms and hymns, the administration of baptism, and the Lord’s Supper—all of these were, and are, theological acts.

Indeed, much of the earliest Christian theology was doxological before it was polemical. The Christ-hymns embedded in texts like Philippians 2:6–11 and Colossians 1:15–20 are not abstract speculations but poetic confessions sung by the church. The same can be said of the Nicene Creed, which emerged not from the academy but from a pastoral need to clarify the identity of the one worshiped by the church.

Today, the church continues to be a theological community every time it gathers to worship. What we sing shapes what we believe. How we pray reflects our understanding of God. The liturgical patterns of the church form the theological instincts of its people.

3. Theology Requires the Communion of Saints

Theological reflection is enriched by the wisdom of others. We do not begin from scratch. We stand on the shoulders of the saints. The doctrine of the communio sanctorum—the communion of saints—reminds us that theology is not a modern invention or merely the fruit of personal Bible study. It is the ongoing conversation of God’s people, across time and space, guided by the Spirit and shaped by the Word.

To ignore the insights of the past is not humility but chronological arrogance. C. S. Lewis warned against this tendency in his famous introduction to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation: “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.”¹

The creeds correct us. The Reformers sharpen us. The Puritans exhort us. Our brothers and sisters in the global church challenge us. Theology done in community is theology done in conversation—with the past and the present, with the local church and the universal body of Christ.

4. Theology Builds Up the Body

Sound doctrine is not merely a guardrail; it is nourishment. Paul charges Titus to “teach what accords with sound doctrine” because sound doctrine produces sound lives (Titus 2:1). In Ephesians 4, he describes the church being equipped by pastors and teachers “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine… Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:14–15).

Doctrine stabilizes. It strengthens. It matures. And this process of maturation is communal. Theology builds up the body, not merely the individual. This is why Paul insists that elders be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2), that the Word dwell richly in the congregation’s singing (Col. 3:16), and that all believers be growing into “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13).

In other words, theology is not the hobby of a few, but the heritage of all.

5. Theology Flourishes through Mutual Accountability

Theological error often takes root in isolation. From the heretics of the early church to the cult leaders of our own day, those who depart from the truth often do so by disconnecting themselves from the wider church. By contrast, doing theology in community protects us from idiosyncrasy, pride, and self-deception.

Even the most brilliant minds need the correction and encouragement of others. Augustine was sharpened by Ambrose. Luther was steadied by Melanchthon. Calvin wrote in community with Farel and Bucer. Theological accountability is not a threat but a gift.

This is why confessionalism remains vital. A church or institution that confesses its faith publicly—whether through the Apostles’ Creed, the Second London Confession, or another doctrinal standard—declares its commitment to theological integrity and mutual responsibility. It invites both internal coherence and external accountability.

Conclusion: Theology for the Whole Church

Theology belongs to the church. It is for pastors and laypeople, elders and youth, seminary professors and Sunday school teachers. It is formed through worship, safeguarded through confession, and passed down through discipleship.

To study theology in isolation is to miss both its context and its purpose. But to study theology in the church, with the church, and for the church, is to participate in the great task of the ages: knowing God, delighting in His truth, and proclaiming His glory among the nations.

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Footnote

1. C. S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 202.