Abstract
These distinguished scholars in theological education offer a pondering and playful collection on Christian practical wisdom. What is Christian practical wisdom? It is the wisdom of God that dwells in our habituated actions and movements in the sanctuary as we bow, kneel, raise our hands, and break bread—but it is not only that. For the authors, there is no divide between the sacred and secular in our bodies. To spoon with a partner is to know something of God, as is dancing. In Christian Practical Wisdom, the authors first show how practical wisdom operates in our ordinary everyday living and then use their academic gifts to convey why this knowing—so embodied that we at times are not conscious of its wisdom—indeed matters.
The “show” essays in part 1 were especially pleasurable to read. The foci of embodied wisdom ranged from spooning, swimming, a rock concert at the Ryman Auditorium, and camping. Each author writes in those essays with their own particular voice and personality heightened, seeking to resist the tendency in academic writing to fit the mold of a rigorous, disembodied language. In part, this is because these opening essays have more of an oral/aural quality about them. They have fewer external citations than a typical academic essay. Footnotes are absent, though references are mentioned conversationally at the conclusion of each chapter. Sections appear within each chapter as episodes centered on a particular theme of the essay. Authors raise more propositions and wagers than definitive answers and imperatives. In other words, I found myself speaking out loud to the authors, pausing to ponder my own narrative of knowing through daily practices, even desiring to write my own essay (probably on karaoke and knowing).
One potential audience that came to mind first as I read this collaborative effort were faculty in theological education across the disciplines, not just those who teach under the category of “practical theology” or “ministry practices.” The reason for this are the rich essays under the “tell about” theme in part 2 which explore the “eclipsing” and resurfacing of practical wisdom in theological education in the West.
Christian B. Scharen (Auburn Theological Seminary) offers the “eclipsing” chapter, artfully outlining the complicated fall into prizing Descartes’ “abstract reason and universal truth over practical wisdom and embodied judgment” (p. 145). Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore (Vanderbilt University) follows Scharen’s essay with a discussion of the recovery of practical theology in its own right as a discipline, sketching the family tree of practical theology from Anton Boisen, Seward Hiltner, and Don Browning as well as, thankfully, giving Liberation theologians credit for the recovery of epistemology in theology. Miller-McLemore also traces the recovery of practical wisdom in the life of the church and other classical disciplines of the seminary curriculum, as “place, body, stuff,” and “know-how” resurface in theology.
Another audience for this rewarding read are those in spiritual practices and disciplines. Kathleen A. Cahalan (Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary) beautifully argues for a recovery of spiritual disciplines as paths of seeking to know God beyond the study of God (or academic theology) and beyond words. Cahalan argues that although theology and abstract academic knowledge are important, they are “limited” (p. 318). These traditions of spiritual discipline and practice anticipate that this knowing of God through “Unknowing” (the title of Cahalan’s chapter) occurs in the covenant of community over time. Cahalan critiques spiritual practice today as being too “episodic” in nature (p. 319). Indeed, in a technoculture of mash-up and remix, and as theological education transitions from being residence-based to online or hybrid, how can we nurture lives of spiritual practice in clergy? Questions like this popped up throughout the essays.
In part 3, which really is a concluding chapter, the authors pull back the curtain to speak about how the piece came to be. This project emerged organically after the For Life Abundant project, from years of intentional conversation and the sharing of research. The site for this gathering was Saint John’s Abbey in central Minnesota. The Benedictine Monastery became a laboratory of sorts for these scholars to wrestle together with their shared passion for practical knowledge. Though each chapter has the name of one author assigned to it, the authors acknowledge that each chapter weaves the voices of the team. Such an effort is thus noteworthy in the classically silo-ed, individualistic academic institution. In other words, the authors practice what they teach and model what theological research and writing could be. Thus, the brevity of part 3 may be an invitation for others to continue the conversation.
Although the collaboration celebrates the wisdom of everyday practice, I do not imagine laity sitting down with this long (300+ pp.) book for a church small group study. I do think, however, that certain essays could be read as springboards into pondering the wisdom of everyday life in a small group setting, under the direction of a leader who has read the whole of the book and can paraphrase its aim.
It seems to me, as we train ministers and minister to people in the midst of an age of rapid technological change and institutional collapse and restructure, that a turn to on-the-ground wisdom and relationship with God over universal rubrics is necessary. This book, as well as the web of projects and books connected to these five distinguished scholars, should be required reading in times like these in which all that seemed certain and secure undergoes radical questioning and transformation. As these authors argue throughout, we need not throw out our theories and systems, which remain essential. Rather, we must be open to the possibilities that may reveal themselves as we allow the knowledge that resides deep in our habits and postures as Christians in this age to be in creative tension and discernment with theological texts and traditions as we continue to seek after God.