I've just finished reading Face to Face by Frances Young, which is a subtitled A Narrative Essay in the Theology of Suffering. This is an extremely important book that describes through biographical narrative Professor Young's theology towards disability, suffering and what it is to be human. Young has a severely disabled son Arthur.
Books like this are extremely important for theology, because they root theology in the world. There is no opportunity for abstract reflections. They cause the theologian to reassess their theology. It reminds me of another book I read a few years back as a first year undergraduate called Evangelicals in Exile: Wrestling with Theology and the Unconscious by Alistair Ross, which narrates Alistair's spiritual journey as a baptist minister and pastoral counsellor with an evangelical upbringing. It was extremely helpful as I was finding my way through the evangelical maze.
I think this narrative theology is another reason why I like Stanley Hauerwas so much. Theology is not something out there, Christianity is not a collection of beliefs, but the lived out life before God. Theology may sometimes describe something beyond our immediate sight, but it must always return to the experience of the theologian. Barth was right to say that theology is done with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
If you've not read either Face to Face or Evangelicals in Exile let me recommend them to you.
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