Practical theology

Review: Love Your Neighbor

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Cover image of "Love Your Neighbor" by Katherine M. Douglass and Brittany M. Tausen

Love Your Neighbor

Love Your Neighbor, Katherine M. Douglass and Brittany M. Tausen, foreword by Dominique DuBois Gilliard. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802885234) 2026.

Summary: The psychological pathways and spiritual practices informed by scripture that activate neighbor love.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31, NIV)

Two simple commands that sum up the life of a Christian disciple. Clear. But challenging enough to engage us for a lifetime in keeping them. This book focuses on the second of these, how we love the real neighbors in our lives. It addresses the gap between our aspirations and the reality of our practice. Written by a social psychologist and a practical theologian, it brings together both psychological and biblical insights that help us turn aspirations into action, potential into practice.

The book is broken into three parts. The first explores the circumstances that get in the way of loving neighbors. Some of this is knowing who our neighbors are, which I appreciated. I recently realized I don’t even know the names of many of our nearby neighbors. Then we are often in too much of a hurry, not unlike the two religious leaders with the man by the side of the road. Likewise, we may be on overload from both physical activity and mental distractions like our devices. So, we may need some silence and stillness in our lives. Finally, when there are many others who could love, we fall prey to “the bystander effect” instead of taking personal responsibility when we see a need.

But sometimes what we think and feel about our neighbors gets in the way of loving them. The second part addresses this challenge. Firstly, practicing giving the benefit of the doubt helps us deal with negative first impressions. Often, we pigeonhole and dehumanize people. So, personal encounters help us discover the full humanity of others. But sometimes our dehumanizing leads to contempt. This chapter reminded me of the young man in our neighborhood whose loud exhaust and fast driving disturbs me day and night. At the authors’ suggestion, I’ve begun praying for him each time I hear his car. It helps!

Then sometimes our sense of scarcity keeps us from loving. We start seeing life as a zero sum game, where whatever I give is loss for me and gain for another. Instead, we are invited to learn to trust God’s care for us and that there will be enough to go around. Finally, our unquestioned beliefs may get in the ways of helping others in the form of confirmation bias. The authors challenge us to question and explore and think about our unquestioned beliefs about others.

The third section gets into ways we may choose to love better. In a mobile society, they encourage us to treat every place we live as home, a place where we invest. They invite us to grow in listening with empathy, as well as talking less in order to listen. Then, there are many times where simply being present, especially to someone in pain is the most loving thing we can do. Finally, despite our efforts, people may still treat us poorly. Rather than retaliate, the authors explore how we might keep showing up, sustained by prayer and affirmations of our worth.

Each chapter consists of three parts including insights from psychology, theological insights that parallel these, and very practical strategies for living these out faithfully. What I appreciated is that the parallel insights do not seem forced, as has been the case at times when writers try combine psychology and scripture. And they offer very practical strategies.

Our church, a neighborhood church, has been learning to know and love our neighbors, beginning with knowing them by name. I’m going to suggest that our governance team get the book and read it to think about going deeper into neighbor love. I’d recommend it for other leaders groups as well. And any individual or group may profit from reading and practicing what’s here. After all, it just takes us into deeper obedience to the command of Jesus to love our neighbors.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Practicing Theology

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Cover image for "Practicing Theology" edited by Miroslav Volf and Dorothy C. Bass

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.