The Role of Doctrine in Spiritual Formation

Illustration by James Steinberg

COVER STORY The Mind Under Grace Why a heady dose of doctrine is crucial to spiritual formation. By Darren C. Marks Bonhoeffer knew, as did Calvin, Augustine, and many others, that dry, seemingly irrelevant ideas like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and eschatology are crucial elements of our spiritual formation. Theology helps map a reading of Scripture as Scripture interrogates its readers under the guidance of the Spirit. For the past 200 years, many parts of Western Christianity have labored as Schleiermacher's children. The mainline traditions have hoped to achieve relevance. The evangelical and free-church traditions have hoped to read the Bible unadulterated and alone. Both traditions, however, have made our feelings—which are, by definition, slippery and transitory—primary. Mainliners have eschewed theology for fear that it imposes another's context and assumptions, while evangelicals have eschewed theology because it might compete with the pristine Bible or become a rigid boundary. Both traditions forget that theology is a kind of memory that allows us to hear God's Word by clarifying our experiences. COVER PACKAGE The Lost Art Of Catechesis It's a tried and true way of teaching, among other things, Christian doctrine. By J.I. Packer and Gary A. Parrett