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Prologue: A Religious Autobiography In this personal reflection from Life Abundant (2001), Sallie McFague gives us a glimpse into her own religious and theological development up to the period just prior to her retirement from Vanderbilt Divinity School. Listening carefully, readers will hear the four “conversion experiences” described here echoed in the twenty-plus selections that follow this prologue. As such, just as “A Trial Run” (ch. 1, below) set the stage for her book Speaking in Parables, this essay anticipates the themes and ideas to be explored in this volume. Source: 2001:3–14 For many years I have taught a course on religious autobiography; it was the first course I taught, and I am still teaching it. Why? Because I am very interested in people who try to live their faith, who have what I would call a “working theology,” a set of deeply held beliefs that actually function in their personal and public lives. Augustine, John Woolman, Sojourner Truth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. are a few of these people. Each of them struggled to discern God’s action in and through their lives and then to express that reality in everything they did. Their theologies became embodied in themselves; as disciples of Christ they became mini-incarnations of God’s love. We call such people “saints,” reflections of God, images of God with us in the flesh. They are intimations of what it means to be “fully alive,” living life from, toward, and with God. They are examples to the rest of us of what a Christlike life is. They fascinate because in them we see God and the human in intimate connection, human lives showing forth different facets of divine power and love. While it may seem outrageous to suggest, I believe each of us is called to this vocation, the vocation of sainthood. Each Christian is asked to examine his or her life with the goal of discerning the action of God in it and then to express God’s power and love in everything. Each of us is expected to have a working theology, one that makes a difference in how we conduct our personal lives and how we act at professional and public levels. Becoming a mature xix Christian means internalizing one’s beliefs so that they are evident in whatever one says or does. Made in the image of God, humans are called to grow into that image more fully—to become “like God,” which for Christians means becoming like Christ, following Christ. And following Christ means following One who, like us, was flesh and bones, of the earth, earthy. It means that Christian saints focus on God’s work of helping to make all of us, every creature on the planet, fully alive. Christian sainthood is, it appears, a very mundane—a worldly, earthly—business. For all the years I have been teaching the course in religious autobiography, it never occurred to me to write my own. Actually, I wasn’t ready. I believe I might be now. I want to see how a few beliefs which I now hold undeniably can function as a working theology for the ecological and justice crises facing our planet in the twenty-first century. A bare-bones theology, a few beliefs carefully thought through and actually functioning at personal and public levels, may be more significant than a comprehensive, systematic, but loosely embraced theology. What is one prepared to live? What beliefs are livable; that is, what beliefs will support the flourishing of life? I want to use my own history as a case study for other Christians who are also trying to integrate their beliefs and their actions at the deepest level, who are trying to be whole, mature Christians functioning effectively in the twenty-first century on planet earth. The story I will share will be brief, narrow, and focused. It is meant as a pedagogical tool for others and hence will ignore all kinds of personal data (family, schooling, relationships, etc.), which undoubtedly in a full autobiography would be relevant but will be passed over here. I have had four “conversions,” four experiences of such importance that they changed my thinking about God and my behavior. The first, which came in two stages, occurred when I was around seven years old. One day while walking home from school the thought came to me that some day I would not be here; I would not exist. Christmas...

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