Hey,

Just a few days ago I finished a killer little book, called A Little Exercise For Young Theologians, by Helmut Thielicke. I would highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Bible school, anyone who identifies as a theologian, anyone involved in Christian teaching. Incredibly insightful, and incredibly convicting.

Thielicke spends 41 short pages highlighting some dangers that young theologians can fall into, and gives wise advice as how to avoid the worst of these dangers. I think it’s the sort of book theologians (especially young ones) should read perennially. Here’s a word from Thielicke that sums up the book well, and should serve as a caution to all us students of theology:

There is a hiatus between the arena of the young theologians’s actual spiritual growth and what he already knows intellectually about this arena. So to speak, he has been fitted, like a country boy, with breeches that are too big, into which he must still grow up in the same way that one who is to be confirmed must also still grow into the long trousers of the Catechism. Meanwhile, they hang loosely around his body, and this ludicrous sight of course is not beautiful. (p. 10)

If you’re a student of theology, I recommend you buy a copy and read it at the beginning of each semester. It’s what I intend to do for the remainder of my schooling.

-Daniel