Experience
Monday, October 17, 2022
3:26 PM
Experience is a source for theological reflection and has both an individual and collective sense.  Experience may refer to a person's lived experience of being aware of their dependence on God, a sense of awe and word at the ways God has made God's self known, relationships, work, ethical struggles, grief, love, and experiences like that.  Experience may also refer to the collective experience of a people as in the African-American Experience.  In this sense, the experiences of collective oppression, privilege, migration, prejudice may be internalized by individuals and may shape their theology.  Culturally transmitted values like time perception, relationship to the earth, collective vs. individualistic orientations, concepts of justice, gender roles, etc. can shape theology. 