Serendipity always makes me wonder why – where and what is the gift of the present moment? Where is the invitation? Aussie blogging friend Simon Carey Holt reflects on the kind of theology that it “practically impractical”, and more significantly (and this is the serendipitous moment for me) he references one of the most influential books I’ve read, Robert J. Banks’ Redeeming the Routines: Bringing Theology to Life. My copy being the original Australian published edition, titled All the Business of Life: Bringing Theology Down to Earth (1987). This PDF of the outline of a course that Banks is facilitating later this year in Singapore gives you a good sense of his theological range.
“Banks,” Simon notes, “addresses the struggle of theologians to get really practical:
‘A theological analysis of an issue may be clear and accurate, but what about the prescription for dealing with it? All too often this is very general. Only rarely will the theologian provide an operational model for what might be done and offer practical recommendations or examples drawn from first-hand experience. We are left up in the air, tantalized by a vision of what is possible, but without the means of realising it.’ (Robert Banks)…
Banks again:
‘If you ask a representative sample of churchgoers whether faith and life ought to be in harmony, they will answer with a resounding ‘yes’. The rub comes when you put the question in a specific way, in relation to a particular aspect of work or area of responsibility. For example, if you are a homemaker and I ask you whether your religious convictions should influence the way you bring up your family and relate to your neighbours, you will probably nod your head in agreement. But then if I ask you whether these convictions have as clear and direct an influence on the kind of house you have, area you live in and the means of commuting you use, you will probably pause to think.’
Simon continues: “When it comes to practice, perhaps theologians–perhaps all of us–struggle to get particular because to do so scrapes too closely to the bone…”
There’s a lot of Banks’ approach in how I think Simon does theology. Like Banks, Simon “exegetes the
everyday biblically” and over the years I’ve gotten the sense that Banks has been both a friend and a mentor to Simon as he’s worked “between the two horizons of Word and world.”
If you’ve never read Banks you should. Start with the book highlighted above. And, if you can secure a copy, read the Simon Holt and Gordon Preece edited festschrift The Bible and the Business of Life (the Amazon link has the “look inside” option so you can see the contents page etc), an outstanding collection of essays written to mark Bank’s 65th birthday. Simon and Brenda (not “Benda” as the typo in the author attribution suggests), his wife, have a wonderful jointly written essay titled: Verandah’s and God: A Personal Reflection on Spirituality and the Built Environment. Its great!
You can read Simon's full post, here.
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