The Problem of Theological Illiteracy
This is the first in a series of addressing the problem of theological illiteracy using the results of the 2022 State of Theology survey by Ligonier Ministries, available here.
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”
-Hebrews 5:12-6:3, ESV
THE PROBLEM OF THEOLOGICAL ILLITERACY
One of the biggest problems I see in the church today is what I refer to as theological illiteracy. This means that many Christians have an overly limited or even erroneous understanding of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. This is a serious problem, as an inadequate knowledge of God causes us to worship not the true God as revealed in Scripture but a god our minds create, which is the definition of idolatry. Erroneous views of Scripture, God’s nature, our sinful condition, and the process of salvation can cause us to trust in the wrong Gospel, which actually brings about God’s curse (Galatians 1:6-9). Such views also cause us to distort what Scripture teaches and misapply it to our lives, even leading us to approve what is evil and shun what is good, which similarly brings about God’s curse (Isaiah 5:20, Romans 10:2-3). But is it really that bad? The recent “State of Theology” study by Ligonier Ministries suggests it is. In this post I will look at the general takeaways from that study, while future posts will examine more specific lessons from that study. Ultimately, the goal is to begin to counter the epidemic of theological illiteracy found throughout the church in America.
THE “STATE OF THE THEOLOGY” STUDY AND METHODOLOGY
Ligonier Ministries regularly surveys American Christians to gauge the general state of theology in the American church. They present various statements that address Scripture, God’s nature, human nature, sin, salvation, the church, and how Scripture clearly applies to certain current issues. People could answer that they strongly or slightly agreed or disagreed with the statement or were unsure. These statements are written so that a Christian with general knowledge of the basic tenets of Christianity can easily identify whether the statement is true or false, as the validity of all of the statements can be determined either directly from Scripture or derived from Scripture. This means that the more people answer them correctly, the healthier the state of theology in America. The most recent results can be found here. The site also has a data explorer that allows you to view results broken down by region, denomination, age, gender, population density, education, income, marital status, ethnicity, and regularity of church attendance.
In order to see what was driving the overall results, I looked a few specific breakdowns. I looked first at region, comparing results across the U.S. to those of the Northeast (where I currently reside) and the Midwest (where I spent most of my life). Second, I compared the results for all denominations in these regions to those of evangelicals specifically. Finally, for all of these categories, I compered the overall results to those of people who attend church at least once a month, which I considered “regular” attendance for the purpose of this study. To pinpoint specific areas of strength and weakness, I broke the 35 questions down into the categories of Scripture, God’s nature, man and sin, salvation, the church, and current issues. My overall results are below. The first graph shoes the average percentage of correct vs. incorrect responses for each group, while the second shows percentage of correct responses broken down by question category. In both, groups ending with “regular” indicate regular church attendance.
Note that these are averages only. Results varied widely based on particular questions, with some easily answered correctly across categories while others caused great difficulty in all categories. As a result, standard deviations were quite high (sometimes over 20%), which means I can’t statistically test my hypotheses without looking at the results for specific questions (which I will do in coming posts). Still there are some conclusions that can be drawn from this overall data.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The first major conclusion that we can draw is that many Christians disagree on the core tenets of Christianity. For three of the twelve categories I looked at, less than half of the people surveyed answered more than half the questions correctly. As we will see in later posts, there were even questions that the majority of respondents answered incorrectly across all categories I looked at. The worst responses dealt with the inherent sinfulness of man and the damnable nature of all sin. Responses about the unchangeable nature of God, the dual natures of Christ, and the personhood of the Holy Spirit were only slightly better. This resulted in low marks in the “God’s Nature” and “Man and Sin” categories. Performance in the “church” category was the worst across the board, owing to a low view of the importance of the local church and the prevalence of pluralistic views. Overall, I believe this shows a lack of understanding by many American Christians of what Scripture clearly teaches about who God is and who we are.
It is also easy to see significant variation between both regions and denominations. Of the two regions I looked at, the Midwest was generally closer to orthodoxy than the national average, whereas the Northeast was generally farther away. At first glance, it seems region shapes conformity to orthodoxy more than denomination. Those identifying as evangelical also answered closer to orthodoxy, though only slightly. The fact that this difference is only slight is likely due to the broad range of denominations or affiliations that can be considered “evangelical”. Most importantly, across all categories I looked at, those who regularly attended church (which I defined as monthly or more) performed better on virtually all questions. This makes one thing very clear: church attendance matters! Regardless of denomination, regular attendance at church exposes people to Scripture and true doctrine which puts them in a better position to understand the basic tenets of Christianity. There is no substitute.
The results were not all dismal, showing a relatively high view of Scripture, a somewhat accurate understanding of salvation, and a reasonable ability to apply Scripture’s clear teachings to current issues. The overwhelming majority of respondents expressed understanding of the perfection of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, the truth of the resurrection, and the fact that God created humans as male and female. Results on most of the tenets of salvation and applying Scripture’s clear teachings on topics such as abortion and sex outside of traditional marriage were also relatively strong, though results were slightly worse on the topics of homosexuality and transgenderism. Still, this shows that the majority of Christians have at least some understanding of what Scripture teaches and how it applies to serious issues we face. So while the theological muscles of the American church have definitely atrophied, they are still alive.
The 2022 State of Theology survey is very sobering in the broad scope of theological illiteracy it illuminates. Still, there is reason for hope. In many ways, this survey does not reveal any issues that have not already been identified. Christendom in America has been steadily declining for decades, with the views espoused by many who claim to be Christians straying further and further from pure orthodoxy. Like the audience of Hebrews, the church in America needs the pure spiritual milk that can only come through Scripture. In future posts, I’ll examine some of the muscle groups that especially need to be strengthened by this milk, but it will strengthen the faith and knowledge of all Christians who partake of it. Thus, every Christian needs to drink up, starting with an insatiable appetite for Scripture. While not Scripture themselves, creeds (such as the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, and Chalcedon Creed), confessions (like the 1646 Westminster Confession and 1689 London Baptist Confession), and catechisms (like the Heidelberg Catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism, and New City Catechism) can also be very helpful in teaching and reinforcing the truths of Scripture. The Shepherd’s Church’s “beliefs” page or my own theology page are also good places to start.
So American Christians, drink the milk!
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
-1 Peter 2:2-3, ESV
