Theory or Practice

I've read some interesting thoughts about theology versus praxis over the last couple of days.

Andrew Hamilton had the following quote at his blog today:

“Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbour or not. We must get into action and obey — we must behave like a neighbour to him. But perhaps this shocks you. Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that, there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.”Oscar Romero

At New Life Emerging, this was in the comments to "Getting Real":

We'll spend an entire lifetime trying to get it(our theology) right, when all the while He was beckoning us to be real. and the 'real' is not found in our cocoons of complacency while we sit on our asses of apathy.
we will never truly be 'real' until we experience God's greatest calling on our lives and that is to serve and love and bring dignity and justice to the least of these. period.
somewhere in the midst of it we'll all find that doctrines and emerging efforts to get it right matter little to the big picture.

The following quote is from Tony Jones at Next Wave:

"...conversation alone leads to paralysis by analysis, which is why we have always made sure that conversations are led primarily by practitioners rather than theoreticians and consultants."

There is obviously a theme about being doers and not hearers only. But how many of us and how many churches in general are guilty of hammering out, discussing, and sometimes arguing over our beliefs, week after week, year after year.

I am most interested in real-life theology. How are you living out your beliefs? What are you learning as you do what is in your heart? I want to learn from those that are doing the stuff.

This kind of theology is learned "in the field" of practice. There is so much we can learn from one another as we attempt to manifest the life of Christ around us in ways that are outside the box of our previous traditions and experience.