If Theology is OK, then History is OK

If the christian life were all about what we believe, about God, then I suppose we'd have to look through scripture and ask questions like, "What else did Paul believe about God, based on what we have here?" and "What else did Jesus really believe about God, based on what we have here?" and "What else did the Gospel writers really believe about God, based on what we have here?" And so forth.

Whenever it wasn't clear, I suppose we'd have to build up from clues and reconstruct the beliefs of those writers as approximately as possible. For instance, we might not find Paul explaining clearly that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were three persons and One God... but we might successfully propose that such a theory (a) rests soundly on logical analysis of certain key pieces of the info that we have and (b) does the best job of explaining all the info that we have. After doing such work thoroughly well, we'd probably decide to accept our new theory... even though Paul nor Jesus nor the Gospel writers ever said such a thing, precisely, in the scripture.

And I think this would be good.

Now, then...

If the Christian life were also all about what we do, as believers in God, then I suppose we'd also want to look through scripture and ask questions like, "What else must Jesus have done, based on what we have here?" and "What else must the disciples have done, based on what we have here?" and "What else must Paul and his co-workers and his converts have done, based on what we have here?" And so forth.

Whenever it wasn't clear, I suppose we'd have to build up from clues and reconstruct the activities of those characters/historical figures as approximately as possible. For instance, we might not find the Gospels explaining clearly that Jesus spent three decades of Sabbaths silently learning, without parading his knowledge in Nazareth, and that he slowly developed a deep and active devotional life before God... but we might successfully propose that such a theory (a) rests soundly on logical analysis of certain key pieces of the info that we have and (b) does the best job of explaining all the info that we have. After doing such work thoroughly well, we'd probably decide to accept our new theory... even though Paul nor Jesus nor the Gospel writers ever said such a thing, precisely, in the scripture.

And I think this would also be good.

And possibly much, much, much better.