Practicing Theology

Practicing Theology, Miroslav Volf and Dorothy C. Bass, editors. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802849311) 2001.

Summary: Essays answering the question of what theology has to do with real life, how our beliefs translate into practice.

“But what does that have to do with real life?”

Miroslav Volf confesses that this is a question he is asked by students in his theology classes. I’d suggest that its also a question people out in “real life” wonder about. For example, consider those listening to sermons on Sunday and wondering what this has to do with Monday through Saturday.

The authors of the essays in this book are theologians who believe that the doctrine they teach do translate into “practices.” They define this as “patterns of cooperative human activity in and through which life together takes shape over time in response to and in the light of God as known in Jesus Christ” (p. 3). They unpack this in four sections.

First, in “Practicing Theology, Embracing a Way of Life”, the first two essays lay the groundwork for what follows. Craig Dyksta and Dorothy C. Bass articulate a theological basis for the idea of “Christian practices.” Their focus is to elaborate “how a way of life that is deeply responsive to God’s grace takes actual shape among human beings.” Then Amy Plantinga Pauw gives attention to the gap between beliefs and practices using the story of Jonah as a case study.

Second, “Practicing Theology, Engaging in Ministry” elaborates these ideas in specific practices. What is notable here are the diverse voices. Serene Jones describes translating theology into renewed vision for a United Church of Christ congregation. Sarah Coakley explores mystical and ascetic practices in the contemporary church context. Meanwhile, Tammy R. Williams surveys differences in healing practices within idifferent African-American church groups. Christine D. Pohl, who wrote extensively on hospitality, offers a reflection on the hospitality of the Open Door Community. Gilbert I. Bond studies the intersection of liturgical practice and ministry practice in Anabaptist and Afro-baptist churches. Finally, Nancy E. Bedford studies the practice of discernment in a Latin American congregation in Argentina.

But prior to ministry practice is the training of these pastor-theologians. Part Three focuses on this in three essays, the most significant of which is “Beliefs, Desires, Practices, and the Ends of Theological Education” by L. Gregory Jones. Specifically, Jones notes the disconnect between church and seminary. Often seminarians come from churches where they learned Christian practices but were fuzzy on belief. Jones argues for rigorous baptismal catechesis to address this. Then Reinhard Hutter connects God’s hospitality revealed in worship and doctrine to our practice of hospitality. Kathryn Tanner also explores issues of theology and the practice of hospitality in the concluding essay of the section.

Finally, Part Four consists of just one essay by Miroslav Volf on theology as a way of life. The essay draws heavily on a story of how his parents translated hospitality at the Lord’s table to hospitality at their own table.

I appreciated the diversity of voices, less common twenty-five years ago. I also was struck by how often the writers came back to the practice of hospitality and the profound gospel truth behind it of God’s hospitality. At the same time, for a book on practices, the reading at times was still somewhat abstract and theoretical–theologians writing for others in the theological academy. That said, the examples of translating theology into practice, and even the notion of practices which anticipates James K.A. Smith’s cultural liturgies is important work. Lastly, L. Gregory Jones challenge for us to grow in passing the baton from church to seminary to church in the formation of ministers is one still desperately needed.