Pastor Ron was a Lutheran pastor in the Salishan\/Eastside area of Tacoma, known for its gang affiliation, poverty, and high crime rate. He saw himself more of a parish priest who emphasized the strengths and assets of a community when they rallied together over yet another gang shooting. He ministered all over the city from visiting inmates at the local jail to attending services of significant public figures. Later in life, he was a recipient of the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize. One of my more significant interactions with him was when we, along with two others, stood outside the home of a woman who had been murdered by her husband. At that spot, we participated in a \u201cMoment of Blessing\u201d whereby we prayed as a way to reclaim the space where the homicide occurred. In the gated community (20 miles west on the \u201cother side of the tracks\u201d), someone called the police on us, nervous that we were trespassing. Pastor Ron laughed, recognizing that the demons on the eastside aren\u2019t much different than the demons on the westside of town. To me, he was the living example of practical\/contextual theology, even before I knew that something practical and theological could be in the same sentence. His line, \u201cwhen hope and despair meet, that\u2019s where transformation occurs,\u201d continues to lead me in whatever context I operate. Hope by itself doesn\u2019t change lives, neither does despair. The meeting of the two, that\u2019s where I want to live, recognizing that the intersection cultivates an environment where the Spirit can work in powerful ways. It\u2019s in this kind of embrace that I find myself holding paradoxes, a place that I call home as a practical (and spiritual, but that’s for another blog post) theologian.<\/p>\n
In fact, as I try to assimilate the assigned sections from the three texts, I find myself becoming more of a poet than a typical doctoral blog-poster, something that seems very practical to me.
\nHere\u2019s what comes to mind:
\nPractical Theology happens in the intersection of\u2026.<\/p>\n
action and reflection<\/p>\n
God\u2019s yes and our desire<\/p>\n
public theology and personal relationship<\/p>\n
transcendence and immanence<\/p>\n
practical application and theological understanding<\/p>\n
hope and despair<\/p>\n
interior and exterior<\/p>\n
incarnation and divinity<\/p>\n
\u201cthe not yet but will be\u201d<\/p>\n
culture and religion<\/p>\n
sacramental and ordinary holiness<\/p>\n
faith seeking understanding and faith seeking intelligent action<\/p>\n
justice and love<\/p>\n
\u201ccollaborative action\u201d of God\u2019s divine will and human participation<\/p>\n
relational reality and biblical justice<\/p>\n
welfare of the city and proper liberty<\/p>\n
compassion and deliverance<\/p>\n
dialogue with life and lived out truth<\/p>\n
listening in the public square and efficacy of a Christian identity<\/p>\n
honoring identity of origin and valuing theology of place<\/p>\n
theologians and culture experts<\/p>\n
newspaper and the Bible<\/p>\n
top-down source of revelation and personal convictions in community of faith<\/p>\n
awakening society\u2019s consciousness and living\/practicing \u201chigher obedience\u201d<\/p>\n
subversive communication and imaginative responses<\/p>\n
leaving and coming home<\/p>\n
ideal place (City of God) and urban landscape<\/p>\n
the city and ourself<\/p>\n
cultural and religious matrix<\/p>\n
public discourse and careful reflection<\/p>\n
commitment to common good and truth-claims\/convictions<\/p>\n
restoration and biblical tradition<\/p>\n
and<\/p>\n
gospel and tradition and culture.<\/p>\n
Seven years ago, I started working in a downtown non-profit (where I first met Pastor Ron) that believed in the social and spiritual renewal of the city. Seeing the city through a theological lens was the underlying foundation by which everything was done, whether in conversation, reflection, or action. Little did I know that theologians around the world – Max Stackhouse, Christopher Marshall, Robert Gascoigne, Stephen Garner, to name a few \u2013 were already having these conversations. It was new to me as a concept, but came naturally. However, it wasn\u2019t until this last semester, at the insistence of a wise advisor (:)), that I was finally able to name my theology as both a spiritual and practical theology, a way of understanding God as he intersects our world. Just as Public Theology \u201cstrives to offer something that distinctive, and that is gospel,\u201d[1]<\/a> I too hope to live into a place that offers a distinctive, culturally responsive, personally aware, and living-out faith in both my actions and essence for the greater good of my community and world. In that intersection, practical theology becomes a way of living that can change the world.<\/p>\n
![\"c1a542556157ee24358abc8688ef7cbc_large\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/c1a542556157ee24358abc8688ef7cbc_large-300x194.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n