It all began with university students.

When I started teaching a basic theology course, I had students who had been in church all their lives, those who had never been around Christianity, and EVERYONE in between. I was very surprised to learn that almost everyone had the same questions.

So many of them— from devout to skeptic to ‘non’— were shocked at how interested they were in this required class. So many preconceived notions got knocked down about what theology is and what it isn’t.

Theology isn’t Sunday School or bible study. And isn’t just boring for the academically rigorous and those who like to debate. Theology is for every person. Because we’re all already doing it all the time.

I like to define theology as thinking about thinking about God and talking about talking about God. No typos there.

And— what you’'ll hear here a lot— what you think about God is the most important thing about you.

We all have religious beliefs, values, and practices. But what are they really, and why?

And why are some different from other Christians? We believe in the trinity... but we do we mean when we say God is three-and-one? We know we must take care of the poor… but why can no one agree on how? We are all baptized… but why are some sprinkled as babies and some dunked as adults?

Answering these kinds of questions can make faith deeper for some. For others, it allows faith to make sense and click with that rationality God has gifted us. For some, especially nerds like me, it’s just plain interesting and fun. But for all of us, theology is an act of worship.

Theology is about loving God with our minds. Many of us are good at loving God with our hearts, mouths, and hands. We were often told what to believe, but never told why. Many of us experienced this as children and were never given the chance to find out the what and why for ourselves.

I was a total church girl growing up. I knew what happened in the bible, and I knew some stuff that happened at church. But learning about the history from the Bible to now and learning about Christianity all over the world changed my life.

One of the reasons I love theology is much is because it’s the most interdisciplinary study you can ever take on. Simply put, theology is the study of God. Not of just the Bible, or church, or Christians, but of all that and more. Much more. Like… everything else. Because to study God, you have to study everything connected to God. And, as it turns out, everything is connected to God.

Something odd happens, sometimes, when we study God as our subject. We may find that our Subject, is also interested in us. And so it seems that to wrestle with ideas about God is, sometimes, to wrestle with God’s very self.

If that scares you a little, you’re doing it right.

I’m here for you! Anything you want to ask or chat about, ‘just holler’.

-Casey Cole Higginbotham