surviving the desert

This is the tentative title of a book I've decided to begin. It's "practical theology" in the sense that it will be about the uses of theology in times of alienation from, estrangement from,  disillusionment with, the church. Think of it as a work of what some traditions call ascetical theology. For surely it is a severe discipline to come to terms, creative terms, with the discovery that the garden of the church harbors a desert as well.