I picked up this book on a whim and expected to find in it a plea for pastors to be more deeply rooted in theology -- to be students of doctrine. While this kind of pursuit is woefully lacking in the church today, this work moves further and deeper still. At it’s core, The Pastor Theologian is an articulation of a paradigm shift which has the potential to reshape how pastors and academics think about the work of theology.
The work contains 9 chapters (122 pages) and an extensive appendix (40 pages). Most of the appendix is a catalog of theologians from the history of the church and is largely included as substantiation for the claims made by the writers in the second chapter.
Chapter 1 overviews the argument of the book. The pull of academia and the church serves as a focal point here. Any pastor or seminary professor can testify to this tension. By starting with this problem, Hiestand and Wilson artfully grab the theologically minded reader’s attention. They set before the reader the idea of the pastor as responsible for the theological health of the church -- a health which drives the piety and passion of the same body (19-20).
Having laid this groundwork, chapter 2 addresses this bifurcation from the historical theological vantage point. This twenty page (21-41) survey of church history is full of powerful and tangible vignettes of clerical, non-clerical, and monastic theologians of the past centuries. The writers’ argument in this chapter is that clerical or pastoral theologians have maintained a substantial presence in the theological work of the church up until the time of the Enlightenment.
Chapter 3 deals with the reason for the shift in the vocations of theologians during the Enlightenment and beyond. The writers address this change in two parts: the European shift and the North American shift. In terms of the European shift (43-46), the authors suggest that one of the substantial factors in the disconnect between pastoring and theology came as a result of a cultural phenomenon which viewed the church as irrelevant, the Bible as non-supernatural, and scientific precision as the greatest end of biblical studies. The North American divorce (46-49) was largely shaped by Revolutionary anticlerical egalitarianism and populist revivalism. The writers admit that none of these explanations fully detail the reasons behind the pastoral-theological disconnect (49), and offer several additional insights that affected the change in dynamic (49-52).
I would title chapter 4: “Why the church needs the pastor theologian.” And chapter 5 would then become: “Why the academy needs the pastor theologian.” Both of these are interesting chapters, but are fairly self-explanatory. The church needs the pastor theologian because the church has weak ethics as a result of weak theology, which comes as a result of pastors who are weak theologians. The writers dismiss the notion of the pastor as a broker of theology to the masses and suggest some better views on the pastor’s role in respect to theology (59-64). The academy needs pastor theologians because the questions that academic theologians are asking and the way in which they answer those questions are quite often unhelpful to the church at large (67). This disconnect is attributed by Hiestand and Wilson to the vastly different social locations (67-70) and theological methods (70-77) of the church and the academy.
Chapter 6 articulates a taxonomy of what it looks like to be a pastor theologian. This paradigm is something like a funnel. At the bottom, one finds the local theologian (81-83); this is the pastor who understands and articulates theology well to his congregation. One layer up, the popular theologian (83-85) is more of a writer, broadening his influence and restating academic theology for “other pastors and the laity” (83). At the top of the funnel, stands the “ecclesial theologian” (85-87). This is a pastor who makes genuine advances to theological writing with a keen eye to the needs of the church at large. The writers envision this funnel as integrally related. In other words, in order for a pastor to be a popular theologian or an ecclesial theologian, he must first be a local theologian. “The theological contributions of the ecclesial theologian spring from the overflow of the shepherding responsibilities that he carries for his local congregation” (85).
“The Pastor Theologian as Ecclesial Theologian” is the title for the seventh chapter. Here the authors plumb the depths of what this theological dodo bird looks like. They explain that an ecclesial theologian inhabits the social location of the pastorate (88-90), places ecclesial questions on the front burner (90-91), aims for clarity and simplicity over subtlety and complexity (92-93), engages in theology with a prophetic imperative (93-94), treasures the church and the wealth of its resources (94-95), functions as a consummate generalist (96-97), partners with academic theologians (97-99), and studies himself closely (99-100).
Chapter 8 includes 3 helpful case studies and 10 strategies which point those seeking to become pastor theologians down a distinct path. The strategies that Hiestand and Wilson suggest are as follows: get a PhD (104-107), hire other like-minded pastors (107), network with other academic and pastor theologians (108), maintain blocks of undistracted study time (110-113), read with variety and copious amounts of ecclesial theology (113-114), refer to your place of work as a “study” (116-117), take advantage of study and writing leave to maximize your productivity (117-118), give opportunities for budding pastor theologians to intern with you and help you in your research (118), ensure that your church leadership is on the same page (120-121), and shape your theological pursuits with deep love for the local church (121-122).
The final chapter closes with admonitions to academic theologians (123-125), pastors (125-127), and the next generation of students who feel pulled to the breaking point between the church and the academy (127-128). This chapter lands the plane, pulling in numerous practical examples of the ecclesial theologian that the writers are calling pastors to be as well as the complex interplay they should have with the academic community. The writers close with a powerful prayer for a reshaping of the theological paradigm of the modern church (128-129).
In analysis, I’ll offer a few critiques. First, the book is at times a little repetitive. While the writers often helpfully restate their thesis and previous arguments, the net effect is often a deja vu-like experience. Secondly, I almost found chapters four and five as unnecessary. I suppose that they are needed from the standpoint of filling out the argument of the book, but they seem almost too blatantly obvious for most readers. In other words, many readers need absolutely no argument to prove to them that the church is, on the whole, theologically anemic and that the seminary is largely unaware of the pressures of church ministry. Finally, one may wish to see greater strides toward putting skin on the ecclesial theologian. The three case studies do help pastors envision how a pastor theologian can function in a smaller or less affluent ministry. The handful of representative research and writing projects in the final chapter provide a glimpse into what ecclesial theologians can produce. But to some extent, whether good or bad, the writers leave pastors to write this part of the book.
I absolutely view this book as a worthy investment for all pastors, academic theologians, theology students, and next generation leaders in the church. The paradigm is at least worthy of consideration and at most, a necessary and vital step for the health of the church. As one who has acutely felt the tension between the pulpit and the lectern, the pressure to adopt the status quo, and a growing sense of distance from the church during my academic career, I greatly admire the tenacity, vision, and risk that the writers have undertaken in this volume. I hope that the next generation of theologians finds the road clearer as a result of this pioneering work.
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