Kim Fabricius

"Strictly speaking, all believers are theologians, because all believers, willy-nilly, think about God."

(I would add that even if you are an "unbeliever" you are a theologian...maybe even more so that many "believers".)

"It is the theologian’s job to help us.........die better"

(that's what I say 10 times in the morning upon rising)

“Christians would rather die than think – and most of them do.”

"Ultimately, of course, theologians do not know what they are talking about. So they should ...... not talk too much."

(O.k. so I realize I am humoring myself by splicing these a bit - they are all in full at the bottom of this post)

Here is one I am not mess'n with and I really like...

"I often think that books of theology should contain occasional blank pages, to signal the reader to pause, in silence and wonder."

...

Well Eric - you are probably the only one who reads my blog! And if that is true, it is worth having it. In the event that someone mistakenly trips into our plasterings than whoot-a-whoot-a!



Eric, thanks for your comment and I will harp on in joy and possibly in the spirit of "willy nilly" and the pursuit of "to die better".

Sarcasm aside (not to far) I will say that I deeply agree that bad theology has driven our human history head on into some poor displays of pure evil...and is currently doing the same and is of utmost importance to be privy - fighting for the good standing up to the bad.

With that said, as a result of your comment, I looked up Mr. Kim Fabricius finding myself to have two thoughts.
One, wow what a guy.
Two, self declared brainy theologians strangely evoke the image of a dusty walled-in library cubicle that somehow is like time and eternity: square, dusty, caffeinated and if you step into it you will surely never die, but will have the ever present notion of bad gas.
(I say this in with the deepest respect.)

So I post a bit about him below and post up front the comment that Eric left - I post because I really do appreciate what he has to say.
I especially chuckled that he was "blasted into faith reading Karl Barth's Commentary on Romans." Blasted!

Also want to point out that he is into baseball and cappuccino and then baseball again!!!...the second baseball, rather than a mistake is simply important to note because he is most likely hopped up on caffeine at this point breaking free of his academic theological cubicle skin becoming one wild-swing'n-willy-nilly-who-ya-daddy- who dies with the best theology wins!!!!!
But then it goes on to say that he is in to cats... and then baseball again!! I'm not sure how to interpret this one.

Cats have never given me a hankering for baseball.

With that said, here is the bio...


Kim is a minister at Bethel United Reformed Church in Swansea, Wales, and he’s United Reformed chaplain to Swansea University. He was born in New York in 1948, and, after spending most of the 70s wasting his youth (which he reckons is better than having done nothing with it), he was blasted into faith reading Karl Barth’s Commentary on Romans. This led him pretty directly into ministry, which Kim describes as “that wonderful vocation provided by the good Lord for displaced Christian intellectuals who are useless at proper work.”

He studied English literature at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and then took an MA (Theology) at Oxford University in 1981. He’s married to Angie, and they have two kids in their late twenties, Karl and Katie.

Kim’s favourite theologians are Barth, Bonhoeffer, Yoder, Hauerwas, John Webster, and Rowan Williams; and his interests include running, baseball, rugby union, cappuccino, baseball, Indian food, cats, and baseball. He often contributes posts to Faith & Theology, including the ever-popular “ten propositions” series, listed below:


...6. Theology (with Aquinas, Calvin, Barth) is thus a very spiritual matter, and a very practical, very ethical matter. In fact the theologian, as a student of the humanity of God, is the quintessential humanist. She will have in her sights not only God but also the good, God in his perfections and humanity in its perfectibility, i.e. she will be concerned with human flourishing. And as humans can only flourish in community – in the polis – a question that one should always ask about a theologian is: How does her theology politic?

7. All good theology is always contextual theology. Which is not to say that the context sets the agenda of the theologian, because contexts never come neat, they are not self-interpreting: the theologian must be an exegete not only of the text but also of the context. Rather it is to say that the theologian works at the interface of text and context, and seeks to address specific text to specific context. The letters of Paul – all occasional, none systematic – are the paradigm for the theologian.

9. Strictly speaking, all believers are theologians, because all believers, willy-nilly, think about God. The only question is whether we think well or poorly. It is not the theologian’s job to think about God for us, it is the theologian’s job to help us think about God better, so that we may believe, pray, live and die better. Dorothy Sayers said that “Christians would rather die than think – and most of them do.” The theologian is out to make Ms Sayers a liar.

10. Ultimately, of course, theologians do not know what they are talking about. So they should exercise meticulous word-care – and not talk too much. I often think that books of theology should contain occasional blank pages, to signal the reader to pause, in silence and wonder. There will be no theology in the eschaton. Before the divine doxa, we will confess, with St Thomas, “All my work is like straw.” Karl Barth famously said that when he gets to heaven he will seek out Mozart before Calvin. Quite right – and presumably he spoke to Calvin only to compare errors. Me – I’ll be heading for the choir of angels, to find Sandy Koufax, to see how he made the baseball sing.