Building A Theological Framework: Reflections on Richard Lints’s Fabric of Theology

Understanding the influence that my culture, community of faith, and experiences have had on my theological framework and vision has played a significant role in the maturation of my personal theological framework over the past few years. The exposure to the factors that have influenced and formed this framework and vision is due in large part to a book by Richard Lints entitled The Fabic of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology. In this book Lints seeks to “outline an evangelical theology that is at once biblically and culturally sensitive,” as well as “to understand evangelical biases while also affirming the public character of truth and the absolute character of God’s truth.”1

Lints’s cumulative work has influenced me in three ways: it has helped me identify the filters through which I understand theology, helped me understand my context within the history of the church, and helped me learn how to build a theological framework that overflows into all areas of life. Lints lists three primary filters that influence our theological framework and vision: tradition, culture, and reason. I’ve come to a fuller awareness of the impact these filters have on my interpretation of God’s redemptive work within the world. Lints does not believe that these factors force us into a particular theological mold, rather he believes we can understand and use these factors to cultivate a healthy environment for theological formulation. Lints carefully articulates what a healthy and biblical approach to each lens looks like.

Foundational to our ability to critique the social and philosophical beliefs that help form the way we approach our theological method is the belief that God is the one who breaks through these filters. His affirmation that the God who has revealed himself to us can indeed “break through our cultural blinders and thereby enable us to see ourselves more clearly by the radiance of his glory” was particularly helpful to me.2 Amidst my studies and exposure to various interpretations and beliefs of many Christians, it has been an immense relief to be reassured that the Sovereign Lord who reveals himself through the power of his Spirit transcends our historical, cultural, and philosophical lenses. This gives me hope as I counsel and have conversations with those that are in a place of disbelief. It also gives me hope that the beliefs that I wrongly hold now can be changed by the power of God’s spirit.

Lints’s book also gives historical examples of key figures from church history and their theological frameworks. This overview, as well as his articulation of the current cultural context of post-modernism, has helped me better place the foundations and formulation of my own theological framework within the context of the historical community of faith.

The final section of Lints’s book has helped open my mind and heart afresh to the scriptures. He builds a theological framework and vision based on the biblical story of redemptive history. Building a proper redemptive historical hermeneutic has helped keep my theological framework in check as the cross-cultural story of redemption cuts through my interpretive lenses. To borrow from Geerhardus Vos, understanding the bible not as a dogmatic handbook but a story full of dramatic interest has helped me understand my place in a story that is bigger than I could ever imagine.

1 Richard Lints, The Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publiching Co., 1993), 28.

2 Ibid, 106.

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Tags: Culture, Prolegomenon, Reason, Richard Lints, Theology, Tradition