The experiences I gained as a youth minister and in campus ministry have informed my understanding of the term ‘Church’ and the lived reality that it describes. These ministry experiences serve as a constant source of reflection and theological questions for me:  What is the role of the ‘lay’ person in the Church?  What is it that distinguishes a minister (lay or ordained) from a baptized disciple?  How do ministers and disciples differ in their participation of the singular mission of the Church – evangelization? 

Most of all, ministry has kept me grounded in the reason I began formal theological formation – to draw persons into closer relationship with Jesus Christ.  Just as with youth ministry or campus ministry, I began my formal theological formation because I felt a call to ministry. In other words, my call to serve as a theologian is also a ministerial call – that is, a call to evangelize the Church itself. 

This call is why I am starting my blog ‘Deep Theology.’  As I mentioned on my bio page, theology is studied not for its own sake but rather as a means to evangelize.  My hope is that I will make understandable and accessible academic and theological concepts that underpin the faith that we profess.  It is also my hope that this blog will help equip us within the Church – ministers, students, parents, and families – with a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith and enable us to more effectively evangelize persons we encounter.

The title of my blog, Deep Theology, is a play on my name Deepan, but more importantly it signifies the always discoverable but never exhaustible mystery of the Catholic faith.  Although GOD is always more than we can ever know, we still seek to enter deeper into this mystery. We seek to know the GOD who loves us so deeply that our own human nature was assumed by this GOD in the person of Jesus Christ. We seek to know the Holy Spirit who works in and through the Church to enable every person to encounter the personal, living, and triune GOD. That which we seek is the mystery of our faith, so beautiful we cannot help but gaze upon it, yet so deep we can never capture its entirety in our field of vision.

Deep Theology also signifies the intellectual depth of the Catholic faith which has long emphasized the relationship between faith and reason.  Our Catholic faith has deep intellectual roots and enables us to see the created world through its lens; this perspective provides a deeply ordered and systematic framework built upon the foundation of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition by the most brilliant minds in history who have been guided by the Holy Spirit through the eons of its construction.

I invite you to join me and engage the depths of this Catholic faith. I’ll be posting every first and third week beginning the first week of October 2017. Subscribe by email or follow me on social media to stay up to date with my posts. Finally, as we begin together, I ask you to pray with me - Veni Sancte Spiritus, Come Holy Spirit – and I welcome you to Deep Theology.