鈥淎ll theology should be clinical theology.鈥� That is the phrase Dallas Willard spoke at a conference back in the early 1990s. And it is the phrase that is inspiring the creation of the clinical theology section of Conversatio Divina.
Dr. Preston Hill published an essay, 鈥淭herapeutic Theology: Doctrines that Catalyze Human Flourishing,鈥� making a compelling case that, ultimately, 鈥渢heology should actively be shaped by lived experience and aimed at experiences of flourishing in sacred friendship.鈥� And he makes the bold claim that Jesus was the first therapeutic theologian.
In another essay, 鈥淭wo Sides of Psychology鈥檚 Normal Curve: Love and Fear,鈥� Dr. Gary Moon takes inspiration from Bono鈥檚 autobiography, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, and the poet Michael Leunig, to suggest that the primary two human states are love and fear. He then discusses some of the implications of these two 鈥渘otes鈥濃�攕o divergent that they cannot be played at the same time鈥攖o human flourishing.