Vanderbilt’s Field Education website offers this helpful list of definitions of Theological Reflection given by prominent theologians. Many of them express the theme of bringing our everyday experiences into conversation with God and our church traditions. Which quote is your favorite?

I like Patricia O’Connell Killen and John de Beer’s definition:
“Theological reflection is the discipline of exploring individual and corporate experience in conversation with the wisdom of a religious heritage. The conversation is a genuine dialogue that seeks to hear from our own beliefs, actions, and perspectives, as well as those of the tradition. It respects the integrity of both. Theological reflection therefore may confirm, challenge, clarify, and expand how we understand our own experience and how we understand the religious tradition. The outcome is new truth and meaning for living.”

This quote comes from their book The Art of Theological Reflection. I like that Killen and Beer simplify the sometimes-complex practice of reflection into putting lived experience into conversation with religious tradition. I also like that they give equal value to both of these poles – not privileging one over the other.