Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

A key tool in your armoury for doing theology is practical theological reflection.

What Is Practical Theological Reflection

Theological reflection lets you place a real-life situation in the context of the wider historical Christian tradition and the Bible. Getting used to doing this will help you put your theological knowledge into action to inform your decision-making.

Theological reflection is the first point where practical experience and academic knowledge come together.

Theological reflection is a cycle. The process of reflecting is a learning experience itself.

Process is important. The time given to it is worthwhile and helpful.

There are four stages to this approach to theological reflection. There are other methods, but this is one of the quickest and easiest.

You start at the beginning (a very good place to start), and move step by step through the cycle. It is always possible to go back and add to a previous stage if you think of something, but it is better to keep moving forward. Otherwise, you end up getting stuck in the first few steps and never get to planning and implementing.

One: Describe the Situation 

Two: Engage the Situation

Three: Evaluate the Situation

Four: Plan the Next Stage

Then once you have moved through all the steps, you may well start all over again with Step One. Getting into a habit of doing practical theological reflection on your practice is a helpful and healthy thing to do.

Step One: Describe The Situation

In the first step you want to set down everything you possibly can about what it is you are actually going to be reflecting on.

Whether it is a situation, an event, a project or programme, or decision that needs to be made, the starting point is gaining clarity on what is being discussed. Avoid making judgements at this stage, simply get as many facts down as you can.

Who is affected, what is being done, where is it happening, what is the local context, what is the history, are there any wider factors involved, why is it important, what are the possible consequences etc.

This sets the foundation for the rest of the theological reflection. You cannot reflect on something if you are not clear and sure about what it actually is.

It is important to avoid your own opinion at this stage. Reflecting on your beliefs is important, but that is a different task. Here, at Step One, you need the cold hard facts of the situation.

Step Two: Engage With The Situation

In step two, you will undertake the theological part of the theological reflection. This is where you will bring into play what the Bible has to say, what your church tradition has to say, the wider Christian tradition, and your own personal experience.

It is key to allow space for the Holy Spirit speaking into this process. You need to be aware of what are called kairos moments. Kairos is the Biblical Greek word for a kind of time which is not only the passing of one moment to another, but is a kind of time where everything becomes clear, the right or critical time when things fall into place.

This is where you will hear or experience the Holy Spirit speaking into the process.

What does the Bible say?

Are there any Bible stories you can think of which relate to the focus of your reflection? Did Jesus give any parables which might relate to what you’re looking at? Are there any New Testament letters that address the same issue you’re thinking about?

What does your church tradition say?

Do you know of any other examples of the situation which have happened in your denomination or church? Has someone else gone through a similar experience and shared it?

What does the teaching of your church tradition have to say about the situation? Is there something specific to your church tradition that speaks to this situation that would be different if it were taking place in a different church?

What does the wider Christian tradition say?

What have theologians written which might relate to what you are thinking about? Has there been anything in Christian history which relates to what you are reflecting on? Has a similar situation happened to any other churches?

What does your experience say?

Have you experienced something similar previously? What have you gone through in your life which might speak to this situation? Or what have you learned previously which has had an impact on the way you are thinking about this issue? What are your emotions when you consider this issue?

What is God saying?

Pray and pay attention to what God says.

Step Three: Evaluate the Situation

Taking everything that has been done so far, it is time to work out what is positive and what is negative about the issue at hand.

What have your reflections led you to? What are the positives and negatives? Think about process, events, and outcomes. What about who is going to be affected and what the consequences to them might be? Or about how it will affect you.

Are there any other factors that have not been considered which need to be drawn into the discussion?

Step Four: Plan the Next Stage

What have you learned from your reflections? Is there anything that you need to change? Or is there something which you need to learn more about? Is there someone, or a group of people, that you need to spend time engaging with in order to bring this to a positive conclusion? Are you happy with the way things are, or would you like to see things being different?

Come up with a list of things which you think are good and which you want to build upon.

Come up with a list of things which you want to improve, and then make a suggestion of what can be done in the short term, medium term, and long term in order to improve those areas.

Make a note of your own learning throughout this process, and any areas that have been highlighted that you need to know more about.

Schedule a time in a few weeks or months to go through this process again to see how things have changed.

Remember! Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Don’t get stuck in a doom-spiral of planning and contingencies. You will have to actually just do the thing. It may not work out. If may go wrong. But you still need to do the thing.

You Have Done a Practical Theological Reflection

If you follow these steps, you will find that theological reflection becomes second nature.

It forms the basis for much work in applied or practical theology and helps ensure that what you do in practice is not separated from your engagement with the wider realm of Christian theory and teaching.

It is worth practising it to get the feel for how it can be done and to get used to doing it in your standard working practice.

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