We all need theology, an author interview
We all need theology, an author interview
Emily Lund and Tyler Hansen talk about their new book, *Napkin Theology*
Gentle reader,
Today’s interview is with coauthors Tyler Hansen and Emily Lund, who talked with us about their new book Napkin Theology: Small Drawings about Big Ideas.
Here’s the endorsement I wrote for the book: “Tyler Hansen and Emily Lund have succeeded in sharing the heart and meat of Christian theology in a fresh way that will appeal to those wanting a first foothold in the conversation. Napkin Theology is warm and genuine.” After the interview, you’ll also find an excerpt from the book.
The interview follows:
BFJ: Tell us about the role of drawings in this book.
TA (the authors): We wanted to use drawings for a couple reasons.
One: because that’s what teachers and mentors had done for us. I (Tyler) had a professor in undergrad at Wheaton, Jerry Root, who was a genius at this. We’d sit in the dining hall on Tuesday mornings and I’d pepper him with questions. While he talked, he’d pull out a Sharpie pen and napkins and start drawing. It was during these breakfasts that he’d talk about concepts like the Trinity, time, salvation, etc. Interestingly enough, if I said I really liked something he’d said, he would remark, “Now you go and write the book about it!” And, well, here we are.
Two: because we’re both big believers in theology as a field that should be for everyone, not just academics (more on that later!), and including these simple drawings helped set this book apart from other introductory theology books. We hoped that people would see the title and the cover and think, “I sort of know what theology is, but what do the napkins have to do with anything?”
BFJ: Why did you write Napkin Theology?
TA: Back to what we’re big believers in: our soapbox is that everyone, everyone, thinks about the things of God, whether they realize it consciously or not. Theology is filled with concepts and ideas that normal, everyday people wonder about, but there’s this barrier of academic jargon and ivory-tower inaccessibility between so much rich theological work and many of the people in the pews thinking about those concepts. We wanted to write a little book that would be approachable to those readers who are curious about theology but haven’t attended seminary, who don’t necessarily know the technical terms of “eschatology” or “pneumatology” but who still wonder about the ultimate ends of the universe and about the workings of the Spirit. We see this book as something of an entry point: now that you’ve gotten in and taken a look around, what else might you read and explore?
BFJ: Give us the short version: what’s the book about?
TA: The subtitle of the book is “Small Drawings about Big Ideas,” and that really sums it up, we think. The book is centered around these little drawings that illustrate complex theological ideas – the Trinity, revelation, Christology, etc. We use those drawings to help break down the jargon, the theological “shorthand,” around those ideas and hopefully make them more memorable.
BFJ: Share a detail you’re fond of from the book.
TA: We really loved the chance to draw on conversations with friends and family and stories from our lives – those kinds of scenes pop up throughout the book. It felt meaningful to include those because so many of those people were the ones we were thinking of as the ideal audience for this book: the people who had come to us with questions, thoughts, and wonderings about theology over the years, knowing that we were studying these topics in seminary.
BFJ: What do people mistakenly assume when they hear about your book?
TA: Some people might assume, because of the somewhat whimsical title/cover/premise/etc., that it’s a book for “young people” – and that’s partially true! But we really wrote this to be a book for everyone who’s interested in God and the things of God, and who want a peek behind the proverbial curtain into the world of theological studies.
BFJ: How does the book relate to or come from your experience in ministry?
TA: I (Tyler) found that during my time as a high school pastor, theological concepts often needed to be explained both orally and visually. Students would sometimes ask me about a certain term or idea, and it turns out that Sharpie pens and napkins came in handy – thanks, Dr. Root!
BFJ: Are there difficulties in the spiritual life that Napkin Theology can help to address?
TA: We hope that a key theme that comes across in the book is that we need each other in order to talk truly of God – no single one of us has a monopoly on the truth or the right way of speaking about God’s work in the world. No one of us can have all the answers!
BFJ: If you could gift every one with one insight from the book, what would it be?
TA: Theology is for everyone! You don’t have to go to seminary or be a pastor to engage with the riches of the Christian theological tradition; if you’re interested, there are ways to wade in that will make all these concepts seem less intimidating and inaccessible.
BFJ: How has your spiritual life and prayer life changed as you’ve matured?
TA: Not to sound like a broken record, but both of us have found that we need other people to walk alongside us in our spiritual lives and prayer lives. We both grew up in traditions that very much emphasized private prayer and time with God, which is so important! But we also have found the beauty in things like liturgical worship, where we confess and pray and give thanks as part of a community speaking in unison. We’ve had the gift and the challenge of navigating all sorts of congregations and denominations throughout our lives, and that’s helped us to see just how wide and wonderful the church truly is.
BFJ: What would your 10-year-old selves say if they learned you’d grow up to write about this stuff?
TA: Part of me (Emily) wonders how surprised either of us would be – both of us were pretty bookish and pretty interested in all this stuff at a young age, so we might just say, “Great job, us! You actually did it!”
BFJ: What was it like working on this book together?
TA: It was so fun. We essentially created a list of the topics we wanted to write about and devote chapters to, and then we divvied it up 50-50 based on the extremely scientific rationale of “who wants to do this one?” Each of us would work on our own drafts and send it to the other for comments, edits, questions, etc. It was a lovely and low-key process.
BFJ: Sounds like a good way to run a coauthored project and a good way to run a marriage! Besides Napkin Theology, what are your top reading recommendations for folks who want to think more deeply about these matters? Why do you recommend them?
TA: We do always recommend your book, Practicing Christian Doctrine! We drew on it a lot as we were writing Napkin Theology because of its accessibility and how many topics it covers – it’s perfect for people who want a comprehensive introduction to theology. We also love the Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms – I (Emily) was given a copy on my first day at Duke Divinity School, and it has been such a valuable resource.
Tyler Hansen and Emily Lund, authors of Napkin Theology, photos courtesy of the authors.
The following is an excerpt from Napkin Theology:
Recently, I (Emily) was telling a friend what I’d been learning in my Bible and theology classes when she interrupted me, looking rather embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said, “but I have a dumb question. What exactly is the difference between studying the Bible and studying theology? Aren’t they kind of the same thing?” Her question wasn’t dumb—far from it. It took me a very long time to figure out what theology actually was. Unless you go to seminary or preach every week, it’s not really a word you hear that often. But here’s the thing: even if you can’t describe what theology is, even if you’ve never heard the word before, you have still practiced theology at some point in your life. So what is theology, anyway? The word “theology” might conjure up images of bearded men with glasses who probably died a few centuries ago, poring over biblical commentaries and thinking Deep Thoughts. It might sound reminiscent of “biology” or “anthropology” or any number of “ologies” you’ve been forced to study. In other words: it might not sound like something interesting, or relevant, or especially useful. Yes, you’ll find a lot of bearded men (some of them with glasses) when you study theology. And yes, it is an “ology”—a field of study. When you start breaking the word apart even further, though, it doesn’t sound too bad. Our word “theology” comes from two other words, ancient Greek words: theos and logos. Theos means “God.” Logos means “word.” It’s the same word used in the famous first verse of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Think of theology as a simple equation: God + word. At its most basic level, theology is words and God, God and words. It’s words to God, words from God. It can also be words about God, which is often what people think theology is all about (remember the bearded men reading and thinking Deep Thoughts?). Really, however, theology is “God talk”—whether it’s God talking to us, us talking to God, or us talking about God and things related to God. Of course, in practice, it’s a little more complicated. There are plenty of fancy terms and complicated lines of thinking to describe everything from creation to the last judgment (and everything in between). Theologians have developed a kind of shorthand to reference all the concepts and ideas they discuss. And unfortunately, that shorthand means a lot of people intrigued by God and the church think that theology is way too “academic,” way too “heady” for them to ever really understand it (or even be interested in it). But think back to that most basic definition. Theology is “God talk”— which means that if you’ve ever talked about God or talked to God, then you’ve done your own kind of theological work, no matter how small it may seem. Even if you’ve never set foot in a seminary class, even if you’ve never read Augustine or Aquinas or Barth—and even if you’ve never heard of them—you’ve taken part in the world of theology. If we’re already doing it, then why study it? Theology can actually make your life better. Really—hang with us here. The point of knowing things about theology is not to memorize terms and names so you can impress your friends or achieve a certain level of nerddom. The point of knowing anything about theology is so you can translate that knowing into doing, and more specifically following: following Jesus. There’s a theologian named Beth Felker Jones who talks about how theology is primarily about becoming Jesus’ disciples. She writes that “we learn to speak and think well about God so that we can be more faithful followers of Jesus.” Theology, in its most basic sense, is “words + God.” Theology in its fullest sense is “words + God for the church, for the Christian.” If theology is not done with the intention of guiding believers into the ways of Jesus, it’s incomplete. It’s missing a vital element: faith. People of faith need theology—good, sound, robust theology. You’ve probably heard the saying that goes “bad company corrupts good character.” Bad theology corrupts, well, everything. Throughout history, people have twisted their God-talk to justify all kinds of terrible things, from slavery to murder to domestic abuse. Right God-talk is needed to fight against that. It’s also needed to encourage fellow believers, to remind each other of what is true about our God. We’ll discuss this more in the conversation about the theological term “revelation,” because many of the words we receive from God were first designed for a different audience than people today, in the twenty first century. In theology, we often overhear other conversations, and we must be sensitive to that. For example, in the New Testament, we can read the apostle Paul’s letters to his protégé Timothy. And, well, we’re not Timothy—but we are the grateful recipients of that letter, which Christians before us deemed necessary to preserve. If we become arrogant and think that every word written throughout history is written directly to us, then it increases the chances that our God-talk won’t be accurate. Studying theology gives us the humbling, exciting opportunity to study God and the things of God. It’s intensely personal—because when we study those things, we learn more and more about our own story. We learn about where we came from, where we’re going. We learn about the stains of sin that mar our lives. We learn about the God who saves and sustains us. And all these ideas and concepts are interconnected—webs of thought, woven together. You can’t study where we came from in the doctrines of creation without also thinking about the reality of sin: or, in technical terms, diving into some hamartiology. Thinking about doctrines of salvation means you’ll probably also think about eschatology: the field of study that deals with the last things, with where this whole universe is eventually going. It’s all part of this messy, wonderful feast of ideas that we call theology. The book is designed to make your approach to the table a little less daunting. Hence the napkins. When Tyler was a youth pastor and students would ask him questions about God and salvation and sin, he’d sometimes pull out a pen and a napkin. (He first learned this from his pastors and professors!) He’d draw a picture as he talked about their question, scribbling arrows and stick figures to help both him and the student understand the words a bit better. Now Ty is a big believer in napkin theology—because theology is far from being the Ivy-League, ivory-tower thing so many people think it is. Theology involves so much of what we think about, sometimes on a daily basis: “What’s God up to? Why are we here? What’s this world all about?” Napkin theology isn’t supposed to replace the big books and long lectures that address these same questions. But it is supposed to show that the most profound truths are much more accessible than we think they are. Now go grab a pen and a napkin from the stack in your kitchen, or one of those Starbucks napkins that’s sitting in your car console. It’s time to start drawing. Adapted from Napkin Theology: Small Drawings About Big Ideas (Cascade Books, 2023). Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Many thanks to Emily and Tyler for sharing with us! Buy their book here.
Grace and Peace,
BFJ
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