Quotable Monday

I am reading a book called Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes by Robert McAfee Brown.  In his first chapter, he writes about how knowing and doing are related.  He shares that in our American culture, we tend to try to build up a body of knowledge and principles first, often in as detached a way as possible, and then apply and draw from this knowledge bank when it seems right.  By doing this, we can often postpone action because it just doesn't seem to be a "right" time.    He then goes on to write,

"Christians in a third world are trying to relate thinking and doing in a different way.  For them, as Gustavo Gutierrez, a Roman Catholic priest in Peru, has said, 'Theology is always the second act,' not the first.  What comes first is commitment, which in his situation means commitment to, and involvement with, the poor and oppressed.  It is in the midst of the struggle of the poor for justice that theological reflection takes place.  There is an ongoing relationship between 'reflection and action' in which each continually informs and empowers the other: the more fully we act, the more fruitfully we can reflect on the meaning of our action and find ways to to act more effectively next time; the more deeply we reflect, the more fruitfully we can embody the reflection in action and learn to reflect still more effectively.  It is a process that never ends."