Worship and Theology

Some people say you don't need theology in order to worship. Some say you can't worship without knowing theology. How do you react to these points?

• It is Jesus' life, death, and resurrection that makes possible the sending of the Spirit who, in uniting us to the Son, draws us into God's triune life and enables us to worship in spirit and in truth.
• We worship what we know. If our knowledge is not deep, our worship won't be either.
• Worship has a cognitive dimension: what we are to know, and thus to worship, is who God is and what God has done.
• What we have come to understand in life we should come to celebrate corporately. The meaning of Christian life comes to focus in worship as nowhere else.
• Theology is not only the study of God, but a means for improving our worship. Conversely, worship is not only the praise of god, but a means for improving our theology.
• Our worship is the index to how well we have understood our faith.
• The worth-ship of our worship is a function of how deeply we perceive God's worth. In true worship the Spirit relates us to the Son, the truth of God, enabling our worship to correspond to who God is.

- Kevin Vanhoozer
Professor of Theology
Wheaton College Grad School