The above question and description of an answer has been my constant companion over the years of my life as pastor and, more recently, as director of studies for the Lutheran students of theology at the Faculty of Theology in Stellenbosch.

Now, we all are theologians — i.e. humans who talk about God: it’s a combination of the Greek words ‘theo’ (God) and ‘logos’ (word). We might not be speaking explicitly about the God of the Bible — but whenever we speak about the things that really matter to us, the things we need to live our lives, we are actually being theologians. Students who study theology, however, want to learn how to speak about the specific God of a faith community — in our case, the Christian faith community — and more specifically, as students of UELCSA, the Lutheran “tribe” of the Christian faith community. Luther once described the lifelong process of becoming a theologian as a life of prayer, mediation and spiritual trial (Gebet, Meditation und Anfechtung). We live in a relationship with God as Christians — listening to God’s word and responding in prayer, then we meditate on the Word, mull over it in our minds and hearts and try to connect it with life in this world, and this, if we listen carefully and honestly, will bring on what Luther called Anfechtung — spiritual trial or affliction — why?

The world in which we live and the lives we lead are troubled in so many ways that we question the truth of the Word, we begin to doubt the promises of God: Can it be true that God promises mercy, forgiveness, grace, justice and peace? The evidence we see contradicts these promises — and in despair or near hopelessness, we turn, not to our own strengths and powers of positive thinking, but back to prayer, listening again to God’s Word, crying out again to God against the evidence in audacity and courageous hope against the hopelessness around us and in us. This is a lifelong experience, and it equips us to speak graciously to those who despair, who want to give up, who do not see a way forward — and that, in a nutshell, is the task of being a pastor and theologian.

As “director of studies”, tutor and mentor of Lutheran students of theology, I spend my time guiding, prodding, helping students to become such theologians. I accompany them through their academic studies for a Bachelor of Divinity (4 years) and then a Master of Divinity (1-year structured master’s degree), and then also during their internship in congregations, where they work alongside another pastor, learning to put into practice what they have learnt (2 years internship).

Felix Meylahn