“Theology is a peculiarly beautiful discipline. Indeed, at this point we may refer to the fact that if its task is correctly seen and grasped, theology as a whole, in its parts and in their interconnection, in its content and method, is, apart from anything else, a peculiarly beautiful science. Indeed, we can confidently say that it is the most beautiful of all the sciences. To find the sciences distasteful is the mark of the Philistine. It is an extreme form of Philistinism to find, or to be able to find, theology distasteful. The theologian who has no joy in his work is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this science. May God deliver us from what the Catholic Church reckons one of the seven sins of the monk — taedium — in respect of the great spiritual truths with which theology has to do. But we must know, of course, that it is only God who can keep us from it.”
-Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II.1, The Doctrine of God, page 656.
One Response
The theology prof at the seminary here has that as a quote on his door – the theologian laboring without joy being no theologian at all.