“Teri, what do you think?” My seminary professor called on me because she’d noted the “thoughtful” look on my face. Did I dare tell the truth? My brain had lost track of – or just plain given up on – the class’s deep theological conversation and was comfortably contemplating a sparrow sitting on a branch outside the classroom window. I did not tell my professor about the sparrow. Instead, I stumbled and stammered my way to the answer that often came to me during my seminary days. “I don’t know.”
I thought I knew God. Then I went to seminary. “Deconstructing” is a term post-evangelicals use today to describe how they are working their way out of toxic Christian teachings. But we could all use some deconstruction – and reconstruction – when it comes to our faith. Seminary shone a light on the ways my faith was not only superficial, but in some ways, even wrong. Theological education, studying the works of Augustine, John Calvin, H. Richard Niebuhr, James Cone, Delores Williams, Gustavo Gutiérrez and so many more can be a radical upheaval; an exercise in humility where you come to know all you don’t know about God. In Matthew 23, Jesus denounces religious leaders who lack humility — misusing their authority, expecting seats of honor at banquets and in the synagogue. But the scribes and Pharisees of the first century were not a monolith. We should not read Jesus as condemning all the religious leaders — just those who assume they are above others; those who need a lesson in knowing all that they don’t know. ... Read the rest of the commentary on the website. | 
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