The Sin of Theological Arrogance - Softcover

Stern, Rev Benjamin J

9798170860609: The Sin of Theological Arrogance

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798170860609

Publisher: Independently published, 2026

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What happens when the desire to be right becomes stronger than the desire to love?

In The Sin of Theological Arrogance, Rev. Benjamin J. Stern offers a personal and theological reflection on one of the most subtle dangers of religious life: confusing confidence in God with confidence in our own understanding of God.

Beginning with his own experience as a young seminarian and priest, Stern reflects on the ways theological education, doctrinal certainty, and religious authority can quietly become sources of pride. He remembers caring more about correcting error than encountering people, judging what he considered “lesser” expressions of Christianity, and becoming, in his own words, a “Master of Divinity” before learning what it meant to be mastered by Divinity.

This book is not an argument for relativism or theological indifference. Truth matters. Revelation matters. Doctrine matters. Heresy is possible. Christianity cannot mean absolutely anything. Yet there is an enormous difference between believing that truth exists and believing that we possess truth exhaustively.

Drawing upon Scripture, Christian tradition, and figures such as Anselm and Aquinas, The Sin of Theological Arrogance explores the limits of theological language and the humility required whenever human beings speak about God. If God truly transcends human comprehension, then theology should deepen wonder rather than eliminate it. The Christian theologian may speak truthfully about God without pretending to comprehend God completely.

The book also examines the danger of projection. God can become suspiciously aligned with our politics, culture, temperament, fears, resentments, ecclesiastical loyalties, and personal needs. Opposing theological camps may even commit the same sin while accusing one another of it.

Stern considers the problem of interpretation as well. Christianity begins with God's self-disclosure, but revelation is received through Scripture, tradition, language, worship, community, and human thought. Even an infallible truth must still be understood by fallible human beings. This makes humility essential rather than optional.

One of the book's central themes is the courage to say, “I do not know.” Using the debate over the ordination of women as a case study, Stern explores how intelligent and faithful Christians can understand many of the same biblical, historical, and theological arguments while still reaching different conclusions. Objective truth may exist even when we lack certainty about it.

Ultimately, the book asks a deeply Christian question: What is our theology producing in us? Does it make us more patient, merciful, humble, courageous, forgiving, and capable of listening? Or does it make us contemptuous, combative, suspicious, and delighted by the belief that God agrees with us and condemns our opponents?

Saint Paul warned that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1, RSV).

The Sin of Theological Arrogance is not a rejection of theology, but a call to recover its proper purpose: to lead us toward God, deepen wonder, form us in love, and remind us that the mystery we seek to understand will always be greater than our understanding.

Perhaps one of the holiest sentences a theologian can ever speak is simply:

I may be wrong. And God will still be God.

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