Type of Experience Obviously the ty

Type of Experience

Obviously the type of experience that the Whiteheads use in their style of theological reflection is ministerial, but in a sense that may not be completely obvious. First of all, ministerial experience is not confined to the minister. The Whiteheads consistently draw attention to the wider circle of persons involved in any ministerial decision, and their examples typically reflect the setting of a parish or community of faith. As they emphasize in their introduction (xiii-xiv), a ministerial style of theological reflection is a corporate task.
Second, ministerial experience refers not only to the factual data of events that can be logically described and analyzed; it also refers to the extrarational data of feelings, convictions and insights
that people of faith bring to the event and that become elements of its objective data. Ministerial experiences are not impersonal cases to be analyzed: they are human phenomena calling for theological interpretation.
Third, the ministerial experiences used for theological reflection are concrete events in particular communities of faith rather than generic human experiences. It is one thing to reflect in general terms on the concept of human mortality or the dignity of the human person; it is quite another to reflect on the unexpected death of a teenager in the parish or the violation of workers' in the county. A ministerial style of theological reflection is more at home in the latter rather than the former type of experience.
Fourth, in ministerial experience there are overt easily acknowledged factors and hidden, unrecognized or suppressed factors. Sometimes the latter exert greater influence on the meaning of a given ministerial experience than the former. One of the benefits of doing theological reflection in a group rather than privately is that these hidden dimensions are more likely to be uncovered. For the same reason a detailed. Comprehensive account of the experience is necessary for engaging the whole experience, not just the parts that are pleasant and agreeable.

Finally, not just any ministerial experience is selected for theological reflection. The specific type of ministerial expenence that the Whiteheads have in mind is an urgent concern or pressing issue, something more, therefore, than business as usual or the routine fulfillment of pastoral duties. Preferably such an experience is shared by the faith by community as a whole, or at least by a significant portion of it.
What makes these ministerial experiences theological? They are theological because they are "the activities of believing people [sic]. people formed within and by a particular religious heritage .” People who are aready part of the faith tradition bring their experiences, ideas. beliefs, feelings and preferences to the situation. Theological meaning is imbedded in ministerial events, not because a minister is involved but because people of faith are involved, and their experience of the faith helps constitute the nature of the ministerial experience it self. each ministerial event is a microcosm of the whole faith tradition; it is to partial and particular to be sure, but real and inviting nonetheless. It is that invitation which is key an opportunity to enter the tradition more fully from the perspective of this ministerial experienceand to enlighten and enrich this experience with the resources of the tradition. This perspective also explains the connection between ministerial experience and theology.

Connection to Theology
The pastoral concems and issues in a particular ministerial experience furnish the agenda for theological reflection; they also provide the criteria for determining which resources in the faith tradition are relevant to the ministerial experience. In the whiteheads' approach the whole of the faith tradition is available for theological reflection. There is no predetermination of sources or themes, although most reflectors turn instinctively to the Bible, and themes such as sin, grace, salvation, incarnation and community typically arise in ministerial experience. The point is that the experience itself provides the connecticn to theology. What it evokes is what theological reflectors should attend to. This is what distinguishes the form of theological reflection from the form of applied theology and other theological disciplines.

For the Whiteheads, engaging the tradition from the perspective of ministerial experience means that sometimes the pastoral perspective confirms the tradition, sometimes it clarifies aspects of it, sometimes it challenges it and calls for change. Conversely the tradition can confirm the meaning of a ministerial experience, clarify overlooked or hidden aspects of it, challenge people's attitudes and actions and call for change.
The manner of conversation in this engagement is not polemical but assertive; the skill needed is not mastery but intimacy, a befriending of the sources of faith. How this works is illustrated in the Whiteheads' book by a chapter on the use of scripture. Theological reflectors grappling with a pastoral situation typically look to the Bible for paradigms, images, themes and historical precedents that seem to correspond to the current concern or issue.

In the first stage there is a free association of possible points of contact between experience and scripture. This is followed by a more critical examination of those that seem to have the most texts relevance to the partorsl situation. This examination includes at least a literary and historical analysis (wuth the aid of commentaries) and possibly also an awareness of liturgical, moral and devotional uses of the chosen biblical passages. Wrestling with these meaning and implications leads to a sense of what the ministerial experience neans biblically and what course of action it calls for.