A way to live: the shape of Christian existence

Christian Century, Feb 24, 2004 by Trudy Bush

Given that the practices are so important to the church and the living out of the faith, does your work lead to any specific proposals about the shape of theological education? Do we need to rethink how ministers are trained and how theology is taught in light of the practices of faith?

I think that the question we are raising--how do Christian practices add up to a way of life?--is being raised in theological schools. The schools are asking, "How do we help students to integrate what happens in one class with what happens in another class?" "How does what happens in field education relate to what happens in people's homes, in classrooms and in the library?" Reflection on practices can be one way of drawing the pieces of theological education into larger and more coherent wholes.

People are hungry for a more thoughtful, deliberate way of life, a way of life that's engaged in community and care tot creation, and responsive to God's presence in the world. Theological schools can be places where this hunger becomes manifest, and where we explore what the tradition offers us as we try to live out such a life.

FOR OUR RECENT BOOK Practicing Theology we gathered a group of theologians to reflect on what difference attention to practices would make to the study of theology. We're very interested in how the doctrines and beliefs of the church grow out of communities of practice and also have implications for those communities. Theologies schools themselves can experiment and exemplify a way of life shaped by Christian practices.

Practical theology--theology that is addressed to the lives of communities and grows out of the lives of communities, theology that is done for the sake of a way of life--is a growing, exciting dimension of theological studies. We're realizing that it's impossible to separate the life of real communities from the theology that matters to those communities. The Valparaiso Project is now in the process of becoming much more explicit about how our work is situated within practical theology and what its implications are for ministry.

Let's take a specific kind of seminary course--on preaching. What does reflection on practices tell us about the task of preaching?

Well, one of the practices we have highlighted is testimony--truthful speech. We need to hear and speak the truth in our everyday lives. Preaching is one way in which the church tries to foster that practice. It's important to realize that the preaching happening this week belongs to a long practice of faithful speech that has taken somewhat different forms in different times and cultures. Today's preaching is part of an ongoing history and also contains the possibility of discovering new dimensions.

Like any practice, preaching is not the work of a single practitioner but is a shared task of the whole community. Though the preacher is the one in the pulpit, the purpose of the preacher's activity is to help the whole community to engage and proclaim the word. It's an opportunity for all the people to become more articulate about their lives and to be able to speak the truth to one another.