Don’t Avoid Conflict: How to Lead Classroom Discussions on Theology

Don’t talk about politics or religion. That’s the conventional wisdom for dinner conversations. These topics touch on identity and ignite emotion. A single off-handed comment can spark a heated argument.

What is true at family dinners is also true in classrooms on theology. We might hope that a common faith and commitment to Scripture would create harmony, but that is not always the case. Theological disagreements often emerge, and to many students, they feel personal. When topics challenge presuppositions or long-held convictions, as they often do, tensions can rise quickly.

Yet the theological classroom is precisely the place where these conversations must occur. Avoiding them would short-circuit spiritual and intellectual formation. If we want students to grow in understanding—true understanding—we must learn how to handle difficult classroom discussions in a way that models and cultivates clarity, humility, and grace.

This article will consider how professors and students can navigate those moments with wisdom, not simply to keep peace in the classroom, but to foster the kind of learning that transforms.

Why difficult theological discussions can be valuable

A goal of education is not merely to accumulate knowledge. It is to increase understanding. Knowledge absorbs and retains, while understanding analyzes, discerns, and synthesizes. Wisdom applies that understanding in love.

Paul prayed this for the Philippians:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Phil 1:9–11)

Paul treats love not as an emotional response, but as something grounded in knowledge and insight. The learning that takes place in a theological classroom should foster renewed love that possesses the characteristics Paul describes. For students, the classroom becomes the primary setting where this growth can occur.

For professors, that growth does not happen coincidentally. Professors have a responsibility to create and maintain an environment of deep thought and dynamic discussion. Such environments are fostered by how we lead discussions, frame disagreements, respond to challenges, articulate positions, and embody Christ-like humility.

Professors must understand that difficult conversations are not obstacles to be avoided. They are opportunities to steward deeper learning. They should be characterized by critical thinking and charity. Disagreements can occur without conflict. In this way, the classroom turns into a workshop of wisdom, a place where students learn to thoughtfully and carefully engage the Word of God, and to do so with each other.

Why theological discussions can prove difficult

It helps to acknowledge, honestly, why theological conversations can become tense. Each student enters the classroom with experiences, convictions, assumptions, and traditions. Some of those things are articulated, others are subconscious. A professor won’t possibly understand all of the factors, but he or she can acknowledge what may be at play.

Several realities converge to make theological conversations uniquely challenging. Once we name these realities and consider the import they have, professors can lead with patience and confidence. Tension is not a sign of failure. It may be a sign of opportunity for real formation, not of an idea, but of a learner.

1. Interpretation is complex

The history of the church has evidenced that faithful and careful readers of Scripture may arrive at different conclusions for legitimate reasons. So theological disagreement can be expected.

2. Identity is involved

Theological disagreement can be perceived as a threat not so much to the intellect, but to identity. A challenge to someone’s theology may feel like a challenge to their very person.

3. Traditions & backgrounds differ

Some students enter a theological classroom with existing biases or even fully formed opinions on a variety of topics, and those opinions may be anchored in family systems, church backgrounds, and denominational affiliations. Reformed, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic students—they all enter the classroom with different theological instincts and interpretive approaches.

4. Some doctrinal topics are more divisive than others

Some issues prove to be especially hard:

• Soteriology (e.g., atonement, predestination): Students may approach these topics with immovable convictions, and they may see those with opposing views as the enemy.
• Church function (e.g., gender roles, spiritual gifts, leadership structures): Interpretations are codified in denominational convictions that students may inherit before they study the text themselves.
• Biblical authority and ethics (e.g., cultural issues, sexuality): Determinations are made regarding how the admonitions of Paul, for instance, can be applied to our context.

These are not dry, dusty topics. Because these questions shape people, relationships, and church practice, addressing them must be done with wisdom. That requires charity and careful, patient handling.

5. Emotions run beneath the surface

Students may carry church wounds, poor teaching, or unhealthy environments. Emotions aren’t something to demonize, but they do present a challenge that must be recognized.

How to lead classes in healthy theological discussions

The best way to navigate difficult conversations is to establish the classroom culture from the beginning.

It is natural for statements either implicitly or explicitly threatening firmly-held theological beliefs to be met with defensiveness and frustration. While it may be natural, though, it isn’t best. The professor has the ability to help students reframe their thinking when meeting opposition.

Here are practices that help:

1. Set expectations early

Include in the syllabus a short statement explaining that theological conversations, and even subsequent disagreements, are welcomed, not feared. Dialogue and challenging conversations are formative and healthy, when respectful.

2. Identify the nature of the critique

It is the idea being critiqued, not the person. Students need to hear this explicitly: Disagreement is not disrespect. Engagement with various ideas can be done respectfully when it’s understood that the matter itself is conceptual, not personal.

3. Model humility & intellectual curiosity

By sharing how his or her understanding has grown over the years, the professor indicates that growth should be normal, not shameful. Immovable dogmatism on every issue is not a point of pride. Communicate that none of us have it all right.

There is wisdom in admitting that no single person interprets each issue perfectly. If students emerge from a theological classroom with more dogmatism and less humility, the target has been missed.

4. Acknowledge that interpretation is hard

When students realize that interpretation is complex, they become more patient with one another. They see that differences may not reflect intellectual stubbornness or scriptural illiteracy: They might be byproducts of the genuine challenges of understanding Scripture faithfully and holistically.

A variety of factors influence interpretation:

• Linguistics and grammar
• Lexical semantics
• Genre and intertextual awareness
• Canonical shape
• Rhetorical and discourse features
• Historical-cultural context
• Literary context
• Biblical-theological context
• Theological coherence

When students learn these components, appropriate nuances can be appreciated. Rigor and humility is required in the study of Scripture.

5. Avoid a proof-text approach

Hermeneutically, it matters how the text is used. Professors should be careful to keep discussions from devolving into an exchange of proof-texts. It’s the professor’s responsibility to model a more robust hermeneutic and to call the students to the same.

6. Invite hermeneutical hospitality

Encourage students to practice a generous and open approach to a person’s interpretation. It doesn’t mean abandoning convictions or even treating all views as equally valid. It does mean, though, listening thoughtfully and receiving another person’s interpretation of Scripture with charity, patience, and curiosity. Professors and seminarians alike should listen to understand rather than to respond.

7. Differentiate discussion

Some students aren’t comfortable contributing to an open class conversation. Others aren’t as articulate when they are asked to think on their feet. Breaking students into small groups can allow for less intimidating discussion. Additionally, asking for written reflections offers time for processing and thoughtfulness.

8. Pause & refocus

Reframe heated moments as teachable moments. When temperatures rise, it’s time for a pause. Acknowledge the difficulty of the topic. Restate the question. Return to the text.

When a professor is challenged, he or she should respond with humility and gentleness, communicating with clarity and conviction fueled by the text, not by ego.

When challenges are voiced that fall outside of orthodoxy, the professor should ask clarifying questions. After having sought to understand the student’s position and after having mined the biblical text, an articulation of historic boundaries of Christian beliefs is helpful.

9. Clarify the authority of Scripture

Students should be trained to believe that theological claims must be tethered to the biblical text. Nothing precedes the text and nothing supersedes it. Traditions are helpful, but they are not supreme. Every position must be submitted to the same inspired text. The text is king.

In an age of opinion, when conversations begin with, “I feel like …,” the most grounding and clarifying question a professor can ask is: What is your text? While that question does not address the issue of interpretation, it does ground the conversation in Scripture rather than in emotion, assumption, or tradition.

A text-centered classroom clarifies focus and reduces defensiveness. It grounds conversations and models the prioritization of Scripture. What is your text? is a question that invites focused consideration and study rather than reaction. It’s not a rhetorical weapon. It is an affirmation that the Word of God can lead the people of God who are submitted to the Sprit of God.

A closing vignette

In a class on the theology of the New Testament, a student, Bible open in front of her, raised her hand. She was responding to another student who had explained his position on a contentious topic. “I’ve never really studied this before. I was always taught the opposite view.” Looking down at her Bible, she remarked thoughtfully, “I see the point he’s making.”

She wasn’t abandoning conviction or capitulating to another student’s opinion. Sides weren’t being taken. She was listening with curiosity and expressing an interest in understanding better.

The other student, whose view she was reconsidering, didn’t gloat. It wasn’t about him or his argumentation. He seemed to know that. He nodded and said, “There’s another passage that convinced me—hang on …” and he opened up his Bible and asked to read it aloud.

The students were engaging in the practice of theology.

The moment wasn’t dramatic, but it was formative. It was a small picture of what we hope all theological classrooms become: a place where students feel safe enough to say, “I’ve always heard it this way,” and curious enough to say, “But I want to understand what else the text may be saying.”

The classroom should be a place where convictions are not discarded lightly, but where they are placed under the microscope of the Word of God. It should be a place where students discover that humility is not weakness and that learning often begins with the admission, “I know I don’t have it all right.”

This is the kind of moment we long to cultivate. We don’t want students to be swayed by every argument, but we do want them to submit every assumption, opinion, perspective, and conviction to the living and active Word of God. In that way, theological disagreement is not about engaging in debate but about pursuing truth together.

Resources for wrestling through difficult and debated topics

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