Theology of everyday life

Two fresh thoughts from Reinhold in the Swiss mountains:

"We tend to seek God in the Grand, Spectacular and the Special. But 90% of our lives is just routine, repeating tasks and unspectacular things - yet God is always there. We need something like a 'theology of everyday life' to see and hear him in our mostly very 'normal' lives."

"I am in the process of seeing the church more and more under the Kingdom aspect rather than vice versa. Ecclesiocentrism is one of the diseases that the current clerical crisis is bringing to the surface. The Church yesterday understood this very well. When you talk Kingdom, you talk action, power, and challenge. When you talk church as an end in itself, most people (except from a few pastors) get easily bored. I guess it all boils down to Q-S-Q (Simson) again: quality (the Kingdom) needs the right structures (forms of Church) to become quantity (to multiply and disciple). This formula is irreversible."

Comments

[Ron Z.]

Excellent insight regarding "the theology of everyday life." Such a theology does exist, and it's chief proponent was a Catholic priest and theologian named Karl Rahner. (Who, I believe, was originally from Austria.) There's an excellent biography about Rahner called "Karl Rahner: Mystic of Everyday Life" by Harvey D. Egan, who was one of his students. (Pub. by Crossroad Publishing Co., New York)

I don't believe Rahner ever published anything about his "everyday theology," but it was obviously something that was very important to him, and comes out in his less technical, more personal writings and sermons.

There was another great teacher and theologian, though he was never published, had the best theology of everyday life I've ever come across. Thankfully, his students remembered many of his teachings and later published their own papers and books about his life and method. This teacher/theologian was remarkable for being known primarily by his first name: Jesus.

[Gerrit van Leeuwen]

the right structures, or no structures ...