Nazarene Theological Seminary

 

 

 

Interview with Dr. Thomas A. Noble
Professor of Theology

How has your sabbatical been and what projects have you been working on?
Great!  I recommend sabbaticals.  Take one when you can!  June was spent at home in Manchester catching up on various pieces of work; July was devoted to two theology conferences (in Cambridge and Toronto) and seeing friends and sight-seeing in Ontario and Quebec.  (That was our summer vacation of course.)   By the way, everyone in North America should go to see the old city of Quebec.  You think you are in Europe!  In August I started some serious theological writing and came back to NTS to teach a modular course.  But I’m undertaking a major work of theology and I’m only really getting started.

 

Reared in the Church of the Nazarene, educated in modern and church history, political philosophy, education and theology, there is a sense that your story began before you ever walked this earth.  You mention in your Curriculum Vitae that your grandparents were charter members in 1906 in the Sharpe Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Parkhead in Glasgow.  How did their history shape your journey?
A great deal, I believe.  Both sides of my family had been in our church long-term and I was brought up in the tradition.  I suspect (if one is allowed to speculate about one’s own psychology) that it was knowing my grandfathers that made me interested in the past (first of all, their past) and so in history.  Most of us are living proof that we are not isolated individuals but that we came to Christ in the arms of the community and the tradition which shaped us.  It’s not coercion of course.  We have to respond for ourselves.  But even if we reject our heritage, that shapes us.

 

Dr. Noble, as one reads over your extensive biography one cannot help but be impressed by your passion for the formation of theology and Christian Doctrine and your desire to teach it.  How does this passion shape your understanding for the importance of continuing education for pastors?
Truth shapes us.  The indicatives shape the imperatives.  To be rational is not just to be good at abstract thinking.  It is to behave rationally in accordance with reality around us.  The good life is therefore to relate to God and to people and to the world in appropriate ways.  You cannot guide people in their lives unless you have good understanding of the truth about God, humanity and the world – reality.  Christian truth is therefore fundamental to the work of the pastor.  It is not just about spinning words or fussing over language or debating ideas.  It fosters a practical realism about God and about life.  You cannot be a great pastor, or even a good one, unless you have deep and true understanding of the One in Whom you have believed.  And that is what Theology is all about.  It is absolutely fundamental to the work of the ministry.

 
When you hear that NTS is committed to “preach the gospel” what comes to mind?
I’m delighted that preaching is still our focus.  The Church lives “by every word which comes from the mouth of God,” and the Word of God is first, foremost, and always the Gospel.  I believe that every other aspect of ministry is subordinate to that prophetic role of the preacher.

In your opinion, what seem to be some of the theological challenges we face to preach the gospel?
But the theological challenges are legion.   One danger is that we are always preaching the law, especially holiness as law rather than holiness as gospel.  That is the danger of legalism.  Another danger is that we don’t preach the law at all.  We are always in the indicatives of the gospel (what God has done) and we never get to the imperatives of the law in the life of the Christian.  That is the danger of antinomianism.

But more specifically in this generation, there is the danger on the one hand that we are so immersed in the sub-culture of our church that we don’t communicate with the world.  There is the danger on the other hand that we allow the world to squeeze us into its mold to such an extent that we just give good advice about how to be nice, well-adjusted people instead of preaching the scandal and offence of the cross.

On the one hand we can be so confrontational and negative, preaching judgment and wrath, that    we repel people.  (I don’t think many Nazarene preachers today are in danger of that!)  But our greater danger is probably that we are so cozy with our accent on community and love that we           domesticate the Lord God and forget the stark message of the cross.

The danger for some of us is that our preaching simply reflects the political and social views of a conservative evangelical sub-culture.   The opposite danger for others is that our preaching reflects the cultural trends and fads of the intellectual world.  It seems as if every danger has an equal and opposite danger.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
The ‘Aha!’ experience.  I find it most satisfying to clarify my own understanding and see hidden connections in order to communicate as clearly as possible.  And I find it highly satisfying when students say, ‘Aha! I see now how that all fits together,’ or, ‘Now I see what that means and why that is significant.’  And I strongly believe that knowing Whom we believe in, and accordingly What we believe, profoundly shapes (as nothing else can do) who we become and how we live.

How would you describe the academic life here at NTS?
Lively!  We have students who come from classes with excellent professors at all our Nazarene colleges and other universities.  So they all have different perspectives.  That makes for really stimulating classes.  This is where you get the church coming together to brainstorm!  Add to that mix the leading theologians who come here from time to time – Moltmann, Hauerwas, Lindbeck, Tracy, Jenson, to name a few – and you have a recipe for lively discussion.

But let me add this:  NTS is no ivory tower.  Here there are people who are experienced in ministry and people who care about ministry – among both teachers and students.  We are intentional about the integration (key word!) of theology and ministry.  That is the way you get good theology and the way you get good ministry.

 
Most importantly, do you still prefer tea to coffee?
Oh, I’m ambidextrous.  We Brits are not in a rut, you know.  We have always drunk both.  But a decent cup of tea must be made properly with boiling water in a heated tea-pot, and coffee should be so strong and sweet that you can only drink a couple of small cups per day!