Comments on: Coffee Hour: Seach for the “UU iPod” http://www.makingchutney.com/2005/03/27/coffee-hour-seach-for-the-uu-ipod/ One part facial hair. Two parts moxy. Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:22:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: chutney http://www.makingchutney.com/2005/03/27/coffee-hour-seach-for-the-uu-ipod/comment-page-1/#comment-2435 chutney Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:04:21 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/posts/2005/03/27/coffee-hour-seach-for-the-uu-ipod/#comment-2435 My practical theology prof in seminary had us to a series of projects with our internship churches to uncover precisely their implicit theology. It involved looking at their written materials (service bulletins, newsletters, annual reports), what they hung on the wall, favorite hymns, and the stories they told. But she suggested a second step then: Is this a theology worth having? Or better, it this implicit theology good news or bad news? The task of religious education, as she saw it, was to then lead them into an awareness of how their implicit theology's bad news could become good news. My practical theology prof in seminary had us to a series of projects with our internship churches to uncover precisely their implicit theology. It involved looking at their written materials (service bulletins, newsletters, annual reports), what they hung on the wall, favorite hymns, and the stories they told.

But she suggested a second step then: Is this a theology worth having? Or better, it this implicit theology good news or bad news? The task of religious education, as she saw it, was to then lead them into an awareness of how their implicit theology’s bad news could become good news.

]]> By: Steve Caldwell http://www.makingchutney.com/2005/03/27/coffee-hour-seach-for-the-uu-ipod/comment-page-1/#comment-2434 Steve Caldwell Mon, 28 Mar 2005 04:53:07 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/posts/2005/03/27/coffee-hour-seach-for-the-uu-ipod/#comment-2434 Rebecca Parker talked about our theology existing as "implicit theology" at a LREDA conference a few years back. UU congregations have a shared theology and a shared culture that is distictive enough that we hear jokes like "you may be a UU if ..." or "what do you get if you cross a UU with ... " and so on. The hard thing to do here is to take this implicit theology that we have and articulate it so we then have a shared explicit theology. Rebecca Parker talked about our theology existing as “implicit theology” at a LREDA conference a few years back.

UU congregations have a shared theology and a shared culture that is distictive enough that we hear jokes like “you may be a UU if …” or “what do you get if you cross a UU with … ” and so on.

The hard thing to do here is to take this implicit theology that we have and articulate it so we then have a shared explicit theology.

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