Theology & Theologies | Reflections on Coming to Terms

Coming to TermsTheology/Theologies
Written By Jon Carl Lewis

A working definition*

Theology is the result of reflecting on the nature of the sacred/divine and how all things relate to the sacred/divine.

Reflection

I prefer using the word “theologies” to underscore (at least for myself) that any fixed, monolithic “theology” is necessarily incomplete and temporal.

Whatever I (as a finite creation) could ever come to understand about God (which I prefer to call the “sacred/divine”) can never fully comprehend the vast reality of all that is.

That doesn't mean I—or other finite creatures—can never understand anything about the sacred. I believe that Spirit (my term for the “Holy Spirit”) leads us into all the truth we need to know (in that moment) about the sacred/divine. Jesus promised.**

I believe Spirit grants to every person and every community and every age glimpses of the sacred/divine. When we bring together the fragments of our understandings as they develop over time, we gain a fuller picture of the sacred/divine. We also develop greater wisdom about how to be in fuller right relation with the sacred/divine in Creation, and whatever sacred/divine exists apart from Creation.

Please let me know how this sits with you in the comment section, below. Thanks in advance!

Notes

* Original definition: 16 December 2025. Initial reflection: 22 January 2026.

** John 14:15-18 (NRSVue): “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides in you, and you in him.” (So much for what some decried as a “radical” inclusive language update!) Later in the chapter, John 14:25,26 (NRSVue), Jesus continues “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (I don't do single verses, folks, even when it hurts! That's how I do theology.)

Jon Carl Lewis

Jon Carl Lewis (he/him) is a liberative theologian and spiritual guide in the contemplative, Christian tradition. I explore how healthy integration of the spiritual and the sexual/erotic enlivens and reconciles individuals to themselves, the sacred, their communities and all of Creation. When we tap into the fullness of an embodied, deeply connected life, we experience not only joy, but power to participate in the work of healing the world and inviting all to participate in the now-and-not-yet kingdom of God on earth as in heaven.

https://joncarllewis.com