Book Review: Theology as a Way of Life by Adam Neder

Baker Academic, 2019

Theology as a Way of Life by Adam Neder

I first met Adam Neder when I was an undergraduate at King College and Adam, then a Ph.D. student at Princeton Theological Seminary, gave a lecture in one of my classes. In retrospect, it could have been a job talk. If it was, it was King’s loss that he did not end up there.. It is probably one of the first times that I encountered the name Karl Barth.

Neder’s Theology as a Way of Life is for theology teachers; but, I suspect that it will prove useful to teachers of all kinds and pastors everywhere. Drawing heavily on Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Kierkegaard, Neder articulates a pedagogy that is the outworking of what my friend Jeff McSwain once called a “gospel of all along belonging.” That is to say, Neder avers a pedagogy that is the reflection of a Barthian theological anthropology. Humans exist, according to Barth, within the context of the reconciliation that Christ has secured for them with God. Whether or not our students know it, this is who they are, and this identity forms how we as teachers ought to teach them.

This means, first and foremost, that theology cannot be taught in a merely descriptive mode. It must become existential. With Kierkegaard, Neder argues that theology must move beyond the description of doctrine to making disciples. The teacher must become vulnerable; that is, the teacher must not be perceived to be an irreproachable source of theological knowledge. Instead, the teacher must allow the students to see the teacher’s own limits, doubts, and questions. The teacher must become the first student in the class, open to correction and reproof. The students will learn by watching the teacher do theology; not by learning the teacher’s recitation of theological claims.

Returning to Barth, Neder develops the notion of witness. The teacher is a witness to the truth about who God is and who we are created to be. Everything that we do or leave undone speaks; let it speak about God! Teachers can become credible witnesses by pursuing authenticity, teaching with an awareness of our own limits, and by depending ultimately on the authority of God.

The teacher is also someone who does not protect themselves or their students from the danger that is inherent in theological discourse. She ought not to offer her students the security that can come from theological certainty on the one hand, or from “ceaseless uncertainty” and “endless deliberation”, on the other. Instead, the teacher must press the students to make decisions—decisions that are risky because they might be wrong. With Kierkegaard, we must come to understand that to act is to begin the theological task in earnest.

Finally, Neder claims, teachers must be expert conversationalists and they must train their students to be able to carry on a conversation in a cultural context where digital media has diminished the quality and character of dialogue. This means, first, helping students to locate themselves in the on-going historical conversation that is the church—a conversation with and about scripture. Then, in the second sense, this means helping students to learn how to speak with each other about things that can cause disagreement, division, and even pain, balancing critical thinking with sympathetic listening. These are skills that are best learned through good reading.

One of the main dangers confronting theologians and their students today is the temptation to simplify the theological task in order to accommodate standards of learning and metrics that bear little to no reflection of the nature and task of Christian theology. Neder writes,

Pastors and teachers are pressed on all sides to make ‘everything as convenient, as comfortable and as inexpensive as possible.’ The pressure to sell Christianity at discount prices is intense, and Christian leaders who refuse to adjust to these conditions create very real problems for themselves (111).

Neder’s approach will not help you to become a more efficient administrator. In fact, his approach will probably cause you to work harder, constantly adjusting your syllabus and assigning new texts and projects for your students. But this is the work of the theologian and the pastor. It is work that reflects both the subject of theological discourse and the participants. Anything less isn’t worth the effort.