Living Wittily

The Shaping of a Life

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What keeps theology from becoming a theoretical hobby, self-indulgently pursuing abstract concepts and intellectual structures is the rootedness of all good theology in the context of a life.  Some time before McLendon wrote his book on theology and biography, I had already met the kind of theology I enjoy reading best. It’s found mainly in autobiography and biography, written with that combination of self knowledge and life savvy, a willingness to engage in an investigative journalism of the self in relation to God.

In addition to biography and autobiography, there are letters, journals, travel diaries – but each of them seeking to explore and explain the landscape of the spirit, to excavate and examine the rich ore of experience, especially the experience of God. Some of the best church history is in the definitive biographies ( Rack on Wesley, Oberman on Luther, Ker on Newman). But it is the less celebrated writers who often have most to share about their journey, the sights and insights of their travelling, the ways in which theology and faith, doctrine and practice, God and daily life, intersect in surprisingly disruptive and creatively constructive ways. What makes life-story-telling such an effective medium for real theology is simply this; God is the living God, the involved and subversively interested God who is made known in Christ, who became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and whose deepest and defintive statement is made in the life of a person.

0385497555_01__aa240_sclzzzzzzz_ So the story of a life is narrative theology. And that is what Phyllis Tickle’s book is so good at. The story of a life growing and unfolding towards God. The title, The Shaping of a Life, indicates a slow process, organic and personal; the subtitle is about context, A Spiritual Landscape. I’ll write more about this book when I’m finished it. For now three random, but significant influences in the shaping of her life – Psalms, pubs and T S Eliot. The chapter (26) on her discovery of a Memphis pub called The Pigskin is a beautifully observed narrative of community – here’s just one sentence:

Ks77446_1 A pub presupposes not just any neighbourhood, but a particular  one of some density which it serves not as a private home or a public husting would, but is "that third good place" of satisfactory human intimacy.

Made me wonder about church as "that third good place" of satisfactory human intimacy. Discuss.

Comments

6 responses to “The Shaping of a Life”

  1. Margaret Sutherland avatar
    Margaret Sutherland

    The pub comment made me think of the TV series Cheers – sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. Mmmmmmm……wonder if people feel that and then think about going to church…….. People read people too there won’t always be a book.

    Reply
  2. Margaret Sutherland avatar
    Margaret Sutherland

    The pub comment made me think of the TV series Cheers – sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. Mmmmmmm……wonder if people feel that and then think about going to church…….. People read people too there won’t always be a book.

    Reply
  3. Jim Gordon avatar
    Jim Gordon

    Margaret, the sense of ourselves that comes from being known, and the importance of others being able to name us,seem to me essentials of community. To know, and use, another’s name is both an act of recognition and of acknowledging the world doesn’t only orbit round me!
    And yes, people read people, which is why Tickle loves the pub – as observant reader – I do wonder if she is also willing to have her own lived text an open book. The written text is always edited for us by the writer.
    Your question about church being the place where we are known, named and welcome…I am aware of another need many might feel – to that privacy that allows us to come and go without being pulled into the wider agenda – other than going where we are known. Does the church’s missional mindset get in the way of that uncalculating hospitality that invites those who won’t / can’t pay us back?
    Evangelism as learning people’s names, and knowing them next time??

    Reply
  4. Jim Gordon avatar
    Jim Gordon

    Margaret, the sense of ourselves that comes from being known, and the importance of others being able to name us,seem to me essentials of community. To know, and use, another’s name is both an act of recognition and of acknowledging the world doesn’t only orbit round me!
    And yes, people read people, which is why Tickle loves the pub – as observant reader – I do wonder if she is also willing to have her own lived text an open book. The written text is always edited for us by the writer.
    Your question about church being the place where we are known, named and welcome…I am aware of another need many might feel – to that privacy that allows us to come and go without being pulled into the wider agenda – other than going where we are known. Does the church’s missional mindset get in the way of that uncalculating hospitality that invites those who won’t / can’t pay us back?
    Evangelism as learning people’s names, and knowing them next time??

    Reply
  5. AndyP avatar
    AndyP

    I remember chatting with some of the mums at a toddler group one of our previous churches ran. I asked what they particularly liked about the group. The response from a couple of them was, ‘you know our names.’ It’s such a simple thing but it shows that we value people as individuals.

    Reply
  6. AndyP avatar
    AndyP

    I remember chatting with some of the mums at a toddler group one of our previous churches ran. I asked what they particularly liked about the group. The response from a couple of them was, ‘you know our names.’ It’s such a simple thing but it shows that we value people as individuals.

    Reply

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