It is impossible for me to imagine my almost forty years as a pastor without the mentoring I got from Shirley Guthrie about how to do theology in a way that is faithful to the Reformed tradition and speaks to the hopes and fears of people today.
Shirley Guthrie believed in what his teacher Karl Barth taught him: theology was by, with, and for the church. He enjoyed being in local congregations teaching and preaching; he gave unselfishly of his time and talent. What a gift from him, and what a debt we owe to Shirley’s wife and son, Vivian and Tom. Along with my colleagues I continue to gain tremendous help in ministry from his writings. Pastors often comment on the value in worship of A Declaration of Faith, a confession he helped to write.
For Shirley Guthrie, theology was a serious enterprise and joyful at the same time. In his teaching, Shirley practiced what he taught in a way that was contagious. I still remember, as if it was yesterday, a seminar of Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation in the mid 1960’s. The world seemed to be coming apart around us with war clouds in Southeast Asia, racial hostility and conflict at home, and normative ethical and social practices everywhere up for grabs. Shirley invited us to enter what Barth called “the strange world of the Bible” and reflect on the shaking foundation in the light of God’s reconciling presence in Jesus Christ.
It was and remains a vision that offers hope in tumultuous times. I can still hear Shirley say that anytime you begin a question, “Can God …?” the answer is always “yes!” This affirmation of the sovereignty of God was not arrogant, but a humble recognition of what Kierkegaard called “the infinite distinction between time and eternity”. Shirley Guthrie never thought that we human beings have a grasp of the whole truth. he title of his Warfield Lectures at Princeton in 1995, “Always Being Reformed” was a favorite theological truth for him.
Two things about his teaching method were remarkable and helpful. In the classroom, in conversations, in sermons, he was always challenging the conventional wisdom that seemed to be accepted as the final word. Shirley delighted in going against the stream and providing a counterpoint. He loved to engage his students in discussions that encouraged us to look at an issue from a different perspective, to listen to other voices in the belief that God always had something new to teach us. It was not until later that I realized how helpful these conversations were for pastors who are called upon to practice theology on the run, in a meeting, or at a bedside. He was preparing us to be pastor theologians.
Shirley Guthrie came to visit us when both our children and grandchildren were small. We have a treasure of pictures of Shirley down on the floor talking and playing with the children. My two children expressed deep grief at his death because they recalled that “he related to us and valued us.”
Shirley had a tremendous gift for taking profound theological insights and communicating them in a way that enabled people to understand and to believe these truths were for us and for our salvation. Not a bad theological model for someone whose theology centers on God’s becoming one of us in Jesus Christ. In his books, his lectures, his sermons, his presence, Shirley gave us a wonderful gift, and a legacy of how to do theology. Thanks be to God!
JOSEPH S. HARVARD is pastor of the First Church in Durham, N.C.
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