Practical Theology

What good is Theology if it is not practical and put into practice? The epitome of compartmentalization is treating theology as merely cognitive and intellectual and letting it have little to no impact in your life. What I believe about God should be directly evident in my life. I love how Peter begins his first epistle... He establishes in the first twelve verses the great hope that the elect have that is founded in the amazing grace of our God. He then exhorts the readers with the command to "be holy." What other response could we have execpt to imitate our God and conform to the image of His Son? Any other response is either done in selfish ambition (which is ironically worse for the individual) or done in arrogance ( in that one thinks that he/she knows how to live without the help of God).

In this specific passage, and in general, the dividing line seems to center around the perspective of the individual; is it an eternal perspective or a temporal one? This discussion is difficult, however, because both sides of the coin can be taken to the extreme and severely abused. Obviously, living too much in a temporal mindset leads to antinomianism and materialism: ultimately hedonism. However, living too much with a heavenly perspective could possibly result in the "ivory tower" syndrome: isolating oneself from the world to an extent that leaves no interaction with the world.


Perspective is the key to practical theology. Although "perspective" is a loaded word, it has profound implications for practical living. Humanity is immortal (in one sense), yet most of us do not live as though we are... yes, even those of us who know that we are eternal beings.... even we still do not live with an eternal perspective. Perspective affects little choices we make, and those little choices have consequences, and these consequences become large, and eventually our lives are characterized either by living for this world or the next.... what will I choose?