What makes a good theologian?

Richard Bauckham recently won the 2009 Michael Ramsey prize for his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.

It is hard to deny that Richard Bauckham is a remarkable scholar who has genuinely redefined the debate in a whole number of areas (eyewitnesses in the gospels, Christology in the early church and Gospel audiences). But what has made him such a good theologian? Our attitude towards God is of course what really defines whether we are 'good' theologians or not. But the question is wider, if not deeper than that observation.

Kim Fabricius thinks he knows what makes Bauckham a good theologian. He has noticed that Bauckham seems to read a lot of novels. He argues that: 'Fiction is as intrinsic to continuing ministerial education as theology. And that's because there is no greater theological resource for moral and spiritual formation than a great novel'.

Martin Luther apperently agreed because he desired 'that there shall be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible, because I see that by these studies, as by no other means, people are wonderfully fitted for the grasping of sacred truth and for handling it skillfully and happily' (HT JT). Perhaps an enjoyment of 'culture' is essential to being a good theologian when theology is as much art as science (Theodore Gill in an editorial of Theology Today in 1986 certainly thought so).

However another possible cause of what makes Richard Bauckham a good theologian is that he is wide-ranging in his studies and writings. Michael Bird and Craig Keener have both recently written in encouragement of generalists in Biblical Studies, and Richard Bauckham has certainly written on a wide variety of areas in NT studies. He has written books on Revelation, Peter, Jude, James, the Gospels and the Early Church. But he has even gone beyond that and has written a monograph on the theology of Jurgen Moltmann!

No doubt a theologian could benefit from a whole range of different things. But what do you think are the most important, or neglected, practices for theologians?

I still like Luther's three rules of prayer, meditation and Experience (or Anfechtung), and would probably also add pastoral work. I have commented in that past that it is pastor-theologians who have influenced me most of all.