One of my realizations in such an earthy atmosphere was that many of the burning theological issues in the church were neither burning nor theological. It was not more rhetoric that Jesus demanded but personal renewal, fidelity to the gospel, and creative conduct.
I may be reading too strongly, and acknowledge that he qualifies this sentiment with the past tense (Catholicism, it seems, is often the branch of the faith most prone to smothering legalism and preaching nothing but fire and brimstone; it is my understanding that this was an especially large problem at the moment in history he describes), but this is where the balance tipping in favor of feelings and love compromises the truth of the gospel. theology is how we study and know of God, and there are few theological issues that are truly reducible to mere “rhetoric.” Christ’s exhortations to “personal renewal” and “fidelity to the Gospel” presume a right relationship with God, and one cannot truly be in relationship with Him if you don’t really know who He is, and you don’t have a prayer of being faithful to the Gospel if you don’t understand it—even the inconvenient parts.
