Practicing Theology

TheoCenTriC: Practicing Theology: "'For theology is not just an intellectual art; it cultivates the skill of living well' (240).

It is tragic that modern theologians have allowed doctrine and practice to be separated to the point where 'the idea of practicing Christian doctrine is an oxymoron' (240). Charry points us in the right direction in regard to integrating teaching and life once again."



This is important. I have carried with me for many years a quote from one of the Eastern Church heroes [but I can't remember which]. "A theologian is someone who prays". Because it is true, I think: in order to be engaged in prayer we must have -if only by inference- an idea of what we are doing, to whom or what we are relating and how. And if we aren't sure about some of that then we are mulling over the issues and coming to some kind of accommodation with practice in the light of those questions. This is all practical theology; it is also spiritual life. Practice and reflection are natural to us. The real issue is how well we do it.



One of the things that life coaching has taught me about spiritual direction is that it is important to recognise the learning we are engaged in -or at least ipotential learning- and to begin to draw that out and to examine it and to make the most of it. Our frequent problem as human beings is not that we don't theologise, it's that we stop short and early and so learn much less effectively. Perhaps it is laziness sometimes, perhaps it is fear of what we might find, perhaps it is a lack of belief that we could discover anything of much value and mostly it's that we have allowed these kinds of things to form in us the habit of not thinking further.



So for those who are soul-befrienders we need to make sure that we listen well and then ask good questions not only about the intellectual stuff [like is it consistent or logical] but how we feel about it and if it helps and what the implications might be. We need also to help ourselves and others to identify resources to help; people to talk to, books to read, hymnds to sing ... we press our seekers to think further and deeper and higher and broader and to think about how we live as a result.