Let Ministry Teach: A Guide to Theological Reflection Book

For Tracy Christian theology is the correlation of the results of the critical investigation of common human experience and the equally critical investigation of the "Christian fact," the texts, symbols, images, and practices of the Christian tradition. Unlike some, for whom correlation means giving Christian answers to secular questions, Tracy believes both sides have answers and questions. There is a religious dimension in common human experience which Tracy describes as the experience of limits--intellectual, ethical, aesthetic, etc. Limit experiences push us beyond literal language. This is a quality of both secular and religious literature. A passage from this book that I like: "...our common experience testifies to the need for ... fictions, myths, images, stories, and symbols. ... we dismiss the seriousness of such fictions at the presumably unwelcome price of impoverishing our own humanity. A clear grasp of that fact is the first step needed to allow one to be willing to listen once again to the Christian story of Jesus Christ." This is heavy reading, and I didn't understand it all; but Tracy is a thinker worth pursuing.