I’m sure that you are all avid readers of Yankee Brew News. You probably rush into your nearest brew pub or microbrewery every time you hear that a new issue has been released right? Well, probably not. None the less, it is kind of cool that the editor of YBN asked Terra Nova to do an article about Theology @ The Taproom for it’s current issue focusing on the connection between beer and faith in today’s culture. I wish I could just post a link to the online archive of the article. Alas, there is no online archive for this venerable journalistic institution. So, I’m forced to cut and paste the contents of the article for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

         It is a crisp fall evening as people straggle into The Taproom at Brown’s Brewing Company and climb the stairs to the second floor of this 19^th century brick walled factory turned brewery. In a few minutes time, roughly 40 people have crowded around tables in one corner of the restaurant. With a beer in one hand and a bible in the other, they look quite happy. Welcome to Theology at the Taproom, a monthly discussion uniting a passion for great beer and classic theology.  “I love reading the great theologians of church history and now I get to do this with friends at a great pub over a couple of beers and dinner—this is like a dream come true” said Dennis when asked why he attends TATT. Steve comments that “for too long, churches acted like beer was evil, or bars were evil or people who went to bars were evil, thankfully that is changing and I love that my church is playing a role in that”.

Steve is referring to the not too distant past in American Christianity when the consumption of alcohol was a litmus test for true faith. If you drank, you were clearly hell bound. Any effort at pointing out that Jesus Christ’s first miracle was turning water into wine brought on a barrage literary gymnastics trying to prove that in fact what Jesus did was turn the water into really good grape juice.

The historical truth is that for most of church history, men and women of faith have gathered around a pint to discuss all sorts of issues. Monks all but took over the brewing process in the middle ages. The great German reformer Martin Luther said that “While I sat and drank beer with Philip and Amsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow”. And that beer that Luther was drinking was probably brewed by his wife, an accomplished brewer in her own right. When the puritan pilgrims landed in Plymouth in 1620 seeking religious freedom, they had a choice to make on what to build first . . . a church or a brewery. They chose the brewery. A few hundred years later back in merry old England, well known Christians such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were known for getting together at local pubs with other thinkers of their day to discuss everything from the nature of free will to the ethics of cannibalism.

Groups like Theology at the Taproom are becoming more and more common today. Catholic Priests across the country do something called “Theology on Tap” which is a little more classroom oriented than what Terra Nova Church is trying to accomplish with TATT. “Normal people go to pubs restaurants and coffee shops and discuss things that are important to them, why can’t we be normal people in the church” says Pastor Ed Marcelle. “I’m a beer snob and a theology geek—Theology at the Taproom is the perfect combination of these two obsessions” says Pastor Phil Taylor who began TATT.

In the last two years, TATT has included discussions of St. Augustine’s Confessions, Dorothy Sayer’s The Mind of the Maker and Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will. “The goal is to introduce average non seminary trained people to the greatest thinkers and writers of Christian History in a relaxed environment” says Phil. The bar is set high though (no pun intended) and the monthly reading assignment can be quite lengthy. The two paramount rules at TATT are 1. Do the assigned reading so we can have a good discussion and  2. Don’t embarrass us by ordering light beer.  The fact that 30-40 show up monthly to discuss 60-90 pages of heavy theological writing would indicate that things have gone well.

But similar discussions across the country have not gone so well. Darrin Patrick at The Journey Church in St. Louis sponsors an event called Theology at the Shaefflly Tapworks. Recently Darrin and his church got a holy spanking from the Missouri Baptist Convention for holding such an event. Southern Baptists apparently feel that the end of prohibition was a bad idea and do their part to keep it alive in churches across the country. But back in Troy, NY, Garry Brown’s legendary brews flow freely over discussions of 1500-year-old theological writings and no one seems to be complaining.

 

Theology @ The Taproom is run by Terra Nova Church in Troy, NY. It meets on the third Monday of the month in The Taproom at Brown’s Brewing Company. Those interested can email theology@terranovachurch.org. The current study in Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together” will end in April. Our fall study will likely involve something from the Middle Ages. Possibly Thomas A Kempis’ classic “Imitation of Christ”.