Graham Tomlin / Words About God: Theology as Worship, Reform, and Witness

For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

"If you don't really understand religion, if you don't understand faith, if you don't understand theology, you can't really understand the modern world."

"Words make worlds," says one of my podcasting heroes, Krista Tippett. Ask any poet, priest, or politician, and they'll agree. Language does have that power, for better or for worse.

But whatever power our words have to make a world that we can then ourselves inhabit—that power is drawn from the archetypal Word—the Word made flesh, by whom all things are made and in whom all things are held together, and for whom all tongues confess.

So this simple definition offered by Bishop Graham Tomlin, that theology is just "words about God" is actually quite expansive. When our words about God are directed first toward God, but then toward the church and the world, theology lives up to its purpose of worship, reform, and witness. Graham Tomlin is President of St. Mellitus College and author of many books of theology and Christian spirituality. He recently completed his tenure as Bishop of Kensington and now leads the Church of England's Center for Cultural Witness. He joins Matt Croasmun today for a conversation about the meaning and potential of theology. Thanks for listening.

About Graham Tomlin

The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is President of St Mellitus College and Bishop of Kensington. He served a curacy in the diocese of Exeter, and among past roles he has served as Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford and Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he taught within the Theology Faculty of Oxford University on Historical Theology, specializing in the Reformation period. He was closely involved in the foundation, and was appointed the first Dean, of St Mellitus College, a position he held for the first eight years of the College’s life, before being made Bishop of Kensington in 2015. He has spoken and lectured across the world, and in 2016 was awarded the Silver Rose of St Nicholas, a global award recognizing a significant contribution to theological education and learning. He was very involved in the response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. He is married to Janet and has two married children and three grandchildren. He is a keen follower of various kinds of music and sport, suffering a lifelong addiction to Bristol City Football Club.

Show Notes

• The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin is President of St Mellitus College and Bishop of Kensington.
• What's going well with theology
• Theology connecting in the church; the church as context for theology
• Spiritual theology deepening and nurturing human life
• Ellen Charry and thinking about eudaimonia in theological context
• Challenges to theology
• Fragmentation
• Three audiences for theology: God, Church, and World
• Audience 1: God. Theology as prayer and worship
• Audience 2: Church. Theology as reform and referendum, enabling the church to be the church
• Audience 3: World. Theology as witness, declaring what life looks like, seen through the lens of the gospel.
• Theology for the World: Pluralism and Secularity
• "If you don't really understand religion, if you don't understand faith, if you don't understand theology, you can't really understand the modern world."
• Religious studies and objectivity vs subjectivity in studying religion
• Lived experience and inhabiting faith to understand it.
• Theology's connection to every other academic endeavor
• Theos, Logos: Words about God
• God as the source of our being and the one to which we return.
• Three aspects of Theology: Worship, Reform, and Witness
• The God who reveals himself to us
• Thinking holistically about the world
• Engaging heart and mind
• About St. Mellitus
• Theology in the church doesn't mean dumbing it down or removing academic seriousness.
• Theologians with a passion for the church and see the connection between theology and Christian life.
• Churches don't always see the need for theology; they stay pragmatic.

Production Notes

• This podcast featured Graham Tomlin
• Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
• Hosted by Evan Rosa
• A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
• Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give