THE SHAPE of PRACTICAL THEOLOGY: Empowering Ministry with Theological Praxis

Abstract

r > A^efore the theologian there was the storyteller. To say “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” is not the recitation of a genealogical litany but the recapitulation of a theolog ical legacy To say “Abraham” calls to mind a personal encounter that demanded a walk of faith and a witness to divine promise. To say “Isaac” reiterates the gracious intervention of the God who brings forth the promised seed from Sara’s barren womb. To say “Jacob” distinguishes Rebekah’s revelation as divine Word from Isaac’s natural inclination to honor a cultural custom. These were all storytellers; it remained for Moses to become the first theologian. Following the encounter with God at the burning bush, and the revelation of the new name—Yahweh—Moses outlined the contours of the divine covenant of grace and mercy as revealed through the liberation of his people from Egypt and the journey toward the Promised Land. The inner logic of God’s saving grace became the “spine” to which the stories lodged as fragments in the oral tradition could be attached as a coherent pattern of inspired and written Word of God. God’s act of reconciliation is simultaneously God’s Word of revelation.