72 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION [S]ensus fidei in this sense is reflected in the convergence of the baptised in a lived adhesion to a doctrine of faith or to an element of Christian praxis. This convergence (consensus) plays a vital role in the Church: the consensus fidelium is a sure criterion for determining whether a particular doctrine or practice belongs to the apostolic faith.188 Responding to the concerns outlined in this section and to the commission’s observation that “theologians depend on the sensus fidei because the faith that they study and articulate lives in the people of God,”189 the current interdisciplinary research aims to articulate the practice and experience of Taizé and Bose and their possible theological implications as potentially valid expressions of the sensus fidei, using methods developed in the humanities as contributions: to the dialogue between the different loci. A dialogue between ‘voices’ A helpful model for interpreting the conversation between loci, which consists of complex interactive dynamics between the different dimensions and agents of theology, is provided by the theologians collaborating in the British Action Research: Church and Society (ARCS) project as they explain their methodology of Theological Action Research (TAR). They arrange several authoritative contributors to theology in four segments or ‘voices’ (see Figure 2).190 The ecumenical collective has developed this model specifically to promote the position of practice and experience, and their articulation (operant and espoused theologies), in order for them to become genuine dialogue partners within the theological constellation. They do so, because: [They] consider all the material – written and unwritten, textual and practical – as (potentially) ‘theology’, as ‘faith seeking understanding’. […] Practice is its own proper ‘articulation’ of theological conviction and insight. Practices of faithful Christians are themselves already the bearers of theology; they express the contemporary living tradition of the Christian faith.191 188 International Theological Commission, “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” 2014, sec. 3, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_ 20140610_sensus-fidei_en.html. 189 International Theological Commission, sec. 81. 190 Helen Cameron et al., Talking about God in Practice : Theological Action Research and Practical Theology (London: SCM Press, 2010). 191 Cameron et al., 51.
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