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One idea I found surprising and encouraging too

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One idea I found surprising and encouraging too

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A revelation to me I gained from the reading material and videos is the concept of the Bible as one book that is so carefully written to be read in sequence. We hear Bible extracts and passages of scripture as part of the Lectionary during church time and in my personal reading concentrate on different sections or themes.

It is so incredibly beautiful to have a new understanding of the Bible's wholeness, self-reference and patterns.

I find it encouraging that the approaches to, and interpretations of, the Bible can be understood as worlds, 'the world behind the text, the world, of the text, the world in front of the text. These worlds for and wholeness of the Bible give a frame for understanding

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Ideas I found surprising and encouraging too.

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Ideas I found surprising and encouraging too.

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What I liked about what Mike was saying about story telling through the ages. How it changes through peoples experience and prospective's. He then goes on to state that those who study doctrinal theology may think they know better about God than anyone else. But highlights that that the ordinary person in the pew know God just as much. Sometimes, I think some of the sermons can come across that the preacher likes to hear his/her own voice and makes out they know God more than others.

Anderson, pops the question of 'heresy' in the old church who would try to show the church may be wrong in their thinking. If you don't conform to our way of thinking - if you don't repent - your out. Could of been one of the churches reply at that time.

When I started out reading parts of the bible. I did not have guides like they have now. Mine, was a simple prayer: Father, help me to understand your word, help me to understand in what you are trying to say.

I was no contextual theologian but someone getting to know the love of God.

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I want to better understand how to engage with and study scripture in a meaningful way. Especially given there are so many different aspects that could be considered.

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I found the ideas around Practical Theology quite challenging. Not because practical approaches do not make sense, but because it was hard to cut through the noise of what this approach actually is. Lots of run-on sentences with complex clauses as my first introduction was hard to follow! It seems a lot of what Sarah and Anderson were discussing introduced Practical Theology as a way of legitimizing their personal beliefs and practice, not a study of practice. After reading the much clearer section in Yong's book (1.3 In Front of the Text) I think I'm starting to build an intuition around this. The Wesley example was helpful, but I'm still not entirely sure what this area of Theology means.

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One idea that I found encouraging was the diversity of voices and sources that contribute to Theology. On one hand there are Macrina and Wesley living out their theological ideas in the church, and on the other the strong and independently minded Aquinas upsetting even a Bishop with his thinking. Then in the discussion all three speak about the importance of reading and listening to as many voices as possible.

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Hello everyone!

One idea that you found challenging or surprising and why

I was really interested and surprised that practical theology is a subject that can be studied and taught - and refined and developed! I’d just never really thought about theology in this way before, although as Sarah Brush was talking it made a lot of sense. I think this is based on my background -  growing up, I considered church to be an environment where the priest tells you how something ‘should’ be interpreted... And you do your best to learn and remember, without any encouragement to appraise it yourself. I’m interested in learning more about this hands-on theology (and intrigued that Wesley was named in the Amos Yong chapter as a practical theologian!).

One idea that you found encouraging/ clarifying/

I loved Mike Highton talking about the range of voices which should be included in doctrinal theology. This feels particularly important if such an approach hasn't always happened historically. I also really enjoyed his emphasis on stories, rather than rules or gatekeeping.

One idea that you want to understand better

I wasn’t clear about how doctrinal theology relates to different denominations (e.g., Church of England / Methodist).

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