Jason has got me thinking again. I left a short comment to his post Disconnect between belief and practice, but my thoughts have spun off at least to a quantity where they need their own post. So to make sence of what I write here your best to read Jason's post first.
Jason’s post raises lots of questions and issues, too many to reflect upon in one post.
I therefore want to reflect briefly on the relationship between beliefs and practice and the role of faith, sin and wisdom.
Beliefs inform practice yet practice also informs belief. I’m suspicious of theories that suggest a linear progression from thinking to character, belief to practice, and would want to al least introduce some sort of “feed-back” loop. The relationship between beliefs practice is therefore something that is perhaps circular or dialectical.
For example - I believe that God heals, From time to time I pray for someone to receive God's healing (i.e. my belief informs my practice). That said I know people and have prayed for people who have not received healing. My experience of a lack of healing also informs my thinking. It has not destroyed my belief that God heals, but has shaped and is shaping my thinking and thus altering my practice.
So in our belief / practice interaction I would want to as a Christian introduce the "element" of faith. Not an issisponsible, blind or ill-informed faith, but a nuanced, informed faith in God.
Where does Romans 12:2 , “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” fit into this. Does this not suggest that thinking / belief is the locus of character formation and practice?
I think all I want to say about this here is that the injunction to be transformed by the renewal of our minds cannot be separated from the act of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices (v1). It is also worth noting that both are present passive imperatives – in other words not one off events but ongoing.
There are things that we would count as beliefs, even as core beliefs, but we don't really understand them, thus are unsure of the implications for our practice. Robin Parry states;
For many Christians, the Trinity has become like something akin to their appendix: it is there but they are not sure what its function is; they get by in life without it doing very much; and if they had to have it removed they wouldn’t be too distressed
In other words we've been told that belief in the Trinity is a core belief but we don't understand it, and don't see any practical implications that flow from it. My earlier post Mission / ecclesiology interplay is perhaps an example of how understanding added to a belief can be an impetuous to action and transformation of practice.
Ellen Charry in By The Renewing of your Minds advocates a return to a pre-modern way of knowing she calls Sapience.
Sapience includes correct information about God but emphasizes attachment to that knowledge. Sapience is engaged knowledge that emotionally connects the knower to the known.(p4)
Despite all the talk of postmodernity there are aspects to all of us that are stubbornly modern. Many of our beliefs are modern in the sense that there is a separation of believer and belief. We view our belief in say the divinity of Jesus as something that is external, as something we can dissect and play around with in our thought laboratory. We lack an emotional attachment to such beliefs because we’ve not integrated it into our identity. People react, people act on beliefs that are connected to their sense of identity. This is why people will become actively involved in issues around race, gender, women’s rights etc.
I’m not too clear on how we learn sapience, on how we become emotionally attached to beliefs that should matter, but I’d hazard a guess that being part of a believing community has a part to play.
Then there's the issue of sin. I am that wretched man of Romans 7 who knows the thing he should do and then does the very opposite. There are at least four levels to this problem of sin. One is my own rebelliousness, my selfishness my weakness. Another is "structural sin". I believe that war is wrong; I believe that for the
UK
to have nuclear arms is immoral, yet I pay my Taxes that pay for these things. I could refuse to pay my taxes, but the fear of the consequences from this weigh heavier than my belief that this is wrong.
The third level is what I'll call "societal sin". As Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us a sense of belonging is a fundamental need. This need means that our egos can be easily manipulated to conform to the crowd. We know we should care for the poor and be compassionate, but the message from the rest of society to "look afar number one" bends our will away from that which we know we should do. We want to fit in and not be different, so we conform and look after number one.
An issue with many of our churches is that rather than act in a positive, non-manipulative way, in informing our behaviour / belief matrix, our relationships at church are so shallow that they lack the ethical currency to exert any real influence. Just as above there is a lack of emotional attachment to our beliefs so for many in our churches there is a lack of emotional attachment to their brothers and sisters, so there is an ambivalence to what I think about what they think about what I am doing.
These are my initial ramblings
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