In response to HokiePundit's justification for not posting his next theological essay, let me simply say "Bull-she-iet".
More specifically, HP, the only way your post makes sense is if you're saying Christian theology is irrational and must be taken on faith. Since the Bible doesn't tell me if I should invest in Pepsi or Nike or neither, Christians obviously have to extrapolate from what's given to gain further insight and guidance. And you extrapolate by using rationality.
Now, the basic ideas of Christainity do rest on faith instead of rationality, and I'm not arguing that. But anyone who can study Greek mythology or play Dungeons and Dragons is capable of the level of empathetic understanding necessary to comprehend Christian theology.
The real frustration I've seen Christians have when talking about theology with non-believers isn't that the non-believers can't or don't comprehend. Christians almost always treat theological discussions as relating to reality, which they obviously do for Christians. But for non-believers, that doesn't hold. I've never had a non-believer be incapable of following a theological issue assuming it's treated as a hypothetical. It's just that non-believers automatically rebel when Christians, subconciously or conciously, treat theology as reality instead of hypothetical. But that rebellion isn't based in a misunderstanding of the Christian theology, it's based in a rejection of the faith-based foundation of Christian theology.
And for a Christian talking with a non-believer, you want to bring that rejection to the forefront. This is what clearly separates a Christian from a non-Christian, and the sooner you, as a Christian, isolate and address the issue of faith, the better your witness will be. As for theology, publish it all you want, but when you receive a critique from a non-believer, understand that there's only two ways to fairly treat him or her:
- Honestly treat the discussion as a hypothetical, academic, exercise; or
- Steer the conversation towards the root cause of misunderstanding and address the issue of faith.
Doing anything else is neither fair nor productive.
