Len wrote: 'Ultimately, we may need poets more than we need theologians... we need people who are rooted in the Big Story, inwardly transformed by the Spirit of God, and shaping new stories in faithful missional communities.'

I like that. But still, where has the Big Story come from? Who told it to us? Did they get it right? Can we really trust them? Or do we imagine that we can simply go back to the source and read it with undistorted vision? Maybe, but I think it's very difficult to escape the voices in our heads saying, This is what it means, or That is what it means.

My feeling is that we could understand things a lot better than we do. The product of that understanding would not be a new dogmatism; it would have the vitality and relevance and interdependence of a conversation or a story-telling or a weblog. But there is a danger that postmodern Christians will become as unthinking and complacent about their Big Story as modern Christians are about their statements of faith. Surely we need theologians with humility and imagination, and poets with the discipline and intellectual integrity of scholars. Or is it simply that we need both?

So this is my question: What is a theologian supposed to do these days? Is it the role of the theologians to keep us rooted in the Big Story while the poets shape 'new stories in faithful missional communities'?