Theology Matters?

I get a publication almost every month called Theology Matters. It is a well thought out and well written publication. But does Theology matter? Having two advanced degrees my knee jerk response is OF COURSE THEOLOGY MATTERS. How and what we think about God shapes our lives, or at least that's the dominant thinking. What often troubles me is the disconnect between right thinking about God and right living, coupled with the tendency to twist and turn what we think about God to justify what we are already doing. Then there's the whole disconnect between what we think about God and reality. Theodicy is just one of those issues. How many times have we writhed under the Good God, good people, bad stuff question? How many times have we thrown out words like permitted, allowed, but not first cause. We even had a book called The Shack that creatively wrestled with the question. I know it is a real question, because I have a person in a study group I lead that asks the question regarding God's goodness, and sovereignty in the accidental death of his daughter. Theology might matter if it were able to answer that question adequately, but alas it hasn't, at least adequately. Some of the answers it gives, reduces God into some uncaring cruel person, or a powerless deity. Neither one of those is a viable option to me or to most people. Would I deal better with those kinds of losses if I had a better answer- theologically speaking? The sad part is probably not. The pain would be just as real and deep. The why question if answered in those type of situations rarely gets heard. There is always an accusing finger pointed God's way regardless- either as the direct cause- "it must have been God's will," or indirectly by inaction- the old could have done something to stop it it, but didn't response. No matter how you roll it, it keeps coming up - at least emotionally as God's fault. This is a God sins by commission and omission argument... On a more positive note, it seems theology does not matter that much to God. We think right theology is necessary for a person to enter into a relationship with God, and for God to enter into a relationship with them. The truth is that a whole lot of people have entered into and enjoy a relationship with God regardless of how right or wrong their theology is. God seems to love people and God allows himself to be loved by people regardless of the correctness or incorrectness of their theology. If this is indeed true of God, it should if nothing else, get us to turn down the volume in theology discussions and enable us to live better together. Theology does matter, but not nearly as much as we may think it does.