A plethora of dissertations, theological treatises, and spiritual books abound so heavily that one is quickly buried at the prospect of searching them all. Certainly many of these writings were transcribed with fine intentions, though in our daunting quest to understand God, I wonder if we have mistakenly “caged Him.”

Clearly the infinite and transcendent God of the Universe cannot be contained in the mind of any one of His creatures. Yet I think too many of our systematic theologians and Christian philosophers have somehow “arrived” at the conclusion that they have Him figured out. Of course they would never make such a foolish and preposterous claim, but the underlying (even subconscious) attitude is that God has been fully articulated onto the page.

God is not the one who has been caged. The only ones caged by such a line of thinking are the thinkers themselves. I have no desire to follow the predictable God of a misguided thinker; I desire to follow the God I know to be true, and He is far from predictable and fully classifiable. When God is “jailed” in a systemized philosophical structure conjured by man, it does Him utter injustice.

This is not to say that all forms of systematic theology are useless; however, once alleged “theology” ventures into the realm of speculation and dogma, it becomes nothing less than well-polished drivel. This is an honest plea to leave room for the mystery of God. Quite simply, there are facets to the character of God that the wisest man could never articulate. Stop the over-systematizing.