Researching at Work

While at work this week I was tasked to find out more info on a possible speaker at a seminary event. The guy turns out to be a popular emergent/postmodern speaker. Here is a portion of the article I found and the link to get to the rest of it.

I like the comment. Lately I've come to realize how important it is to translate God's Word to people. In ways they can understand it and absorb it. Surely the Word is efficacious on its own and is at work even when we have not translated it. Even though this is the case, we are all called to give voice to the faith that has been instilled within us by God (witnessing)--for this is how faith and Christianity spread. The writer claims that theology is inherently practical. I would add that this is because we are earthy people (incarnational) and God chooses to come to us on earth and through earthly means. Read and enjoy.

So then, WHAT COUNTS AS THEOLOGY? “Everything is theology. Every ‘small’ decision reflects and reveals what you think. Whatever is actually practiced is theology. Praying in practice is what is believed about prayer.” So said one small circle of people associated with the network, who as it happens are part of the ‘emergent’ movement’s conversation as well. Among them there is a strong conviction that people practice their way into beliefs. It is natural for them to assume that real beliefs are embodied, enacted, not merely spoken or espoused. They perceive there is much of the time a gap between what we think we think, and what we do think.
What counts as theology is likely to be a question about whose theology counts! It is not only that of the pastor or the magisterial teachers most skilled in the intellectual traditions. Those skilled in the daily routine practices of the faith are theologians also. In this view, then, a range of things count: songs composed and sung in the congregation; dialogue with the received tradition; recognitions of the gospel’s critique of the community’s culture and call to a divergent pattern of activity; patterns of listening and attending to biblical texts; efforts to discern the presence of the reign of God and interpret it among peers; owning the public-ness of worship, witness, and identity and knowing that in that public activity the gospel is grasped more and more; developing an imagination of the world in light of the mission of God and God’s intentions for the world; finding meaning in work and lending meaning to the workworlds in which people live daily.