Dull Dogma

Every once in a while I find a quote that makes me want to yell AMEN! The following is one of them. The topic is whether or not the teaching and preaching of Christian doctrine is too boring for our churches today. In an attempt to make church "fun," some worship services glorify experience and emotion to the exclusion of the intellect. Just today during Women's Study one of my dear friends said that for her, it wasn't until she was able to see the logic, reason, and Scriptural proof of sound theology that she was able to truly embrace faith. What is the effect, then, of watering down the faith by discouraging the teaching of good doctrine?

“We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine — ‘dull dogma,’ as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man — and the dogma is the drama. . . . This is the dogma we find so dull — this terrifying drama which God is the victim and the hero. If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting? The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore — on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certifying Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”

~ Dorothy Sayers, quoted by Michael Horton in The Gospel-Driven Life(Grand Rapids, Mi.; Baker Books, 2009), 63-64.

AMEN!