Ben Myers has a post today over on Faith & Theology concerning the relationship of ‘research theology’ as practiced in the academic setting and the popular theology that occurs in the actual ecclesial setting of the church.  His comments and the posts that they link to are well worth reading and I will not bear simply repeating them.

However it occurs, I see a deep problem in the disconnect between academic theology and the life of the Church.  The insights and ideas of professional theologians seem to be by and large utterly ignored by the vast majority of Christians and I am saddened by the ignorance that I have seen even in the clergy.  Yet oftentimes the subject matter of theology bears little insight on the interests and cares of the person in the pew and this is not helpful either.

There was a move associated with the Liberation Theology movement to focus on ‘Theopraxis’ (that is, right practice) rather than ‘Theology’ (that is, right thought).  However, the two are not alternatives but are rather dialectically interconnected.  One cannot have right practice apart from an understanding of the Gospel and one cannot fully understand the Gospel apart from living it.