How does confessing we believe shape our understanding of theology today?

The order for me was, I believe, therefore I read.

It was coming to know God that led me to say, "Well, I best read this text." We understand that to speak of God as Father is to speak of the one who takes responsibility for the one who has no one else who takes responsibility.

The language of creation is presented only in terms of, in the beginning, God created, rather than the fact that God is creator means that he continues to engage with creation.

Hmm.

Um, he is still an imperfect representation to me of what God is like as Father to Jesus.

Uh, and I know that, of course, for many people, their experiences of human fathers will have been far, far more problematic than my own.

But once we understand that I am not reading God as Father because I have a father and therefore I'm speaking in those terms, but because Jesus calls him Father and he is Father to Jesus, that, that changes things.