The Enraptured Mind

"we might be wise to follow the insight of the 

enraptured heart rather than the more 

cautious reasonings of the theological mind."[1]

- A. W. Tozer

I’ve recently been reading Tozer’s classic, The Knowledge of the Holy, and came across this sentence. Throughout the work Tozer extensively quotes Frederick W. Faber, and this is his defence for doing so. In many ways I agree with Tozer’s sentiment, and I’m sure that, if pressed, he would clarify this statement, so I by no means wish to be pedantic. Instead, it simply made me think about this apparent dichotomy of worship and theology.

Is such a dichotomy a real distinction? Worship Central teach their students that all Christians are theologians, and I would agree with that. I applaud the Worship Central emphasis on theology because I believe that good theology inspires deeper worship, and good worship deeper theology. However, as a wise woman once said to me, “we might all be theologians, but some are better theologians than others”. 

What I believe Tozer is getting at in this sentence is the tendency for theologians to shy away from complete self-abandonment in an attempt at objective awareness. In this sense, therefore, I wholeheartedly agree that the enraptured heart that has encountered God is far more in tune with the life of the Godhead than the stale academic mind that refuses to be shamed by the unlearned (1 Cor 1:27).

But is there a positive reality? Far be it from me to simply critique if I cannot provide a positive solution!

I believe that genuine theology is done within worship, viz. that the study of God is a spiritual discipline.[2] Theology is very much faith seeking understanding, and the academic pursuit of God is primarily a pursuit. The ‘academic’ nature of it is simply a qualification, making it a sub-category in the art of spiritual discipline. The nature of theology as a sub-category is that it manifests as a outworking of faith: it informs and forms faith, which in turn seeks greater understanding again.

But this circle can also be seen in the discipline of worship. As the Spirit forms us and informs us in worship, so we leave desiring God more, which again leads us to worship him.

Two particular examples of this form of academic faith that I look up to are A. W. Tozer himself, and St. Augustine. Both these men express such deep passion for God in their academic pursuit, so much so that one gets a sense of the worship of God through reading their work. This is not to suggest that others do not engage in this form of theology, but I would argue that what I have aimed to express here is most manifest in the writings of these two men.

For me, Augustine articulates the heart of the theological quest with the words;

“What then do I love when I love my God?”.[3]

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[1] A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (Kent: STL Books, 1976), 21.

[2] Cf Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (New York: Harper Collins, 1998).

[3] St. Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 185.