Tower Colliery, situated in the south Wales valleys, was earmarked for closure in 1994 by British Coal. Tower represented the last deep coal mine in an area made famous by its mining tradition, and the reason given for closure was that mining low grade anthracite from that pit was too much work for too poor a return.
When the miners marched back to the pit on January 2nd 1995 a balloon was inflated for each worker. On January 3rd 1995 the Colliery re-opened under the ownership of the workforce buy out company - Goitre Tower Anthracite.
Almost 10 years later, there is still more anthracite to be mined.
Why do I tell you this? For this reason: sometimes it is worth mining places where few others are prepared to go, because amidst rubble, debris and dead ends, there are sometimes great rewards to be found.
I have been down a particular theological shaft this week, and have found much to fill my basket. Here is extract number 2:
"Theological work can only be done only in the indissoluble unity of prayer and study. Prayer without study would be empty. Study without prayer would be blind...
In the sense that interests us, 'study' is an undertaing to be pursued earnestly, zealously, and industriously... Study demands human participation, vigorously pressed forward because of man's impulse, free inclination, and desire to complete the given task...
He would cease to be a student of theology were he not devoted to his task with the characteristic impetus and impulse already described. A lazy student, even as a theologian, is no student at all!
It is well to clarify and expose two other self-evident matters which should be taken for granted.
First of all, theological study and the impulse which compels it are not passing stages of life. The forms which this study assumes may and must change slightly with the times. But the theologian, if he was in fact a studiosus theologiae, remains so even to his death...
Secondly, no-one should study merely in order to pass an examination, to become a pastor, or in order to gain an academic degree... The real value of a doctorate, even when earned with the greatest distinction, is totally dependent on the degree to which its recipient has conducted and maintained himself as a learner... Only by his qualification as a learner can he show himself qualified to become a teacher.
Whoever studies theology does so because to study it is (quite apart from any personal aims of the student) necessary, good, and beautiful in relationship to the service to which he has been called. Theology must possess him..."
I take my hat off in appreciation!
Posted by pencils at March 18, 2004 01:58 PM | TrackBack