Making Faith-Sense: Theological Reflection in Everyday Life

Making faith-sense is a new term for an ancient practice. It is what the early Christians called mystical or wisdom theology: understanding life in the light of God?s participation recorded in the Gospels, recognizing the signs of God?s presence in everyday events and shaping one?s life accordingly. In Making Faith-Sense, Robert Kinast shows all who seek to unify their life experience around their belief in God how to follow that ancient practice. Drawing upon the award-winning process he has used with students for the ministry, Father Kinast explains how to make sense of family, work, and cultural experience from the perspective of Christian faith. Each chapter contains numerous real-life examples and practical guidelines that can be used privately or with a group. Making Faith-Sense begins with a discussion of wisdom theology and its revival in modern times, highlighting ?the turn to experience? that characterizes feminist, liberation, and inculturated theologies. The methods for making faith-sense embrace three main components: experience, reflection, and action. The first section describes what is meant by experience, the value of narrating it, how to analyze it, and what to pay attention to so that experience will reveal its theological meaning. The second section explains the role of reflection, its similarity to prayer, techniques for connecting experience to theological tradition, and the most useful theological resources for making faith-sense. The third section affirms the importance of putting reflection into practice, of ensuring that action flows from reflection, of planning and evaluating the effect of one?s practice, and of using practice as the starting point for continuing the process of making faith-sense. Examples from work, family, and cultural life are used throughout to provide illustrations of these general points. A concluding chapter summarizes the reemergence of practical theology since the 1980s as an effort of church communities to make faith-sense of their collective lives. Chapters are ?What Is Faith-Sense?? ?How to Make Faith-Sense: Getting Started,? ?How to Make Faith-Sense: The Heart of the Matter,? and ?Enacting Faith-Sense: The Culmination of the Process.? ?It is a reminder that Christianity is, after all, a way of life.? New Theology Review?In the hands of this gifted theologian, the concrete complexities and challenges of contemporary life?in families, in the workplace, in the civic arena?are used as the raw material for shaping lives of authenticity and meaning, aligned with God?s purposes and hopes for humanity.? Dolores Leckey Senior Fellow Woodstock Theological Center Georgetown University ?His thoughtful instruction in theological reflection turns a vague desire into a practical method. He explains well how sound reflection leads to conversion of mind and heart and integrity of faith and life.? Philip J. Murnion Director, National Pastoral Life Center