Ordinary Theology : Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology

"Ordinary theology" is the theology of the church's front line; it is truly a warts and all theology open to the alley; statistically speaking, it is the theology of God's church. So argues Jeff Astley in this book which attempts to articulate and defend ordinary people's religious understanding and reflections of the divine. Although the overwhelming majority of contemporary "God-talkers" have not studied academic theology, they are inevitably engaged in doing their own theology if and when they speak and think about God with any seriousness. "Ordinary theology" is Jeff Astley's phrase for the theology and theologising of Christians who have received little or no theological education of a scholarly, academic or systematic kind. This book argues for an in-depth study of ordinary theology, involving both empirical research and theological reflection, as helping to recover theology as a fundamental dimension of every Christian's vocation. Astley claims that this is an area of study that needs to be taken seriously not only by the church's ministers, preachers and educators, but also by academic theology itself.