on theology and prayer

There is a perennial misunderstanding about the relation between theology and spirituality that mistakenly believes that theology (or theoria) comes first, and tells you what you need to know in order to practice your spirituality (praxis). This may be the order of logic but not the order of discovery. In real life, spirituality often precedes theology - it was only in following and obeying Jesus that the disciples began to discover who he was, and their fullest understanding of Jesus only comes after the resurrection, after the mysterious encounter on the road to Emmaus and the meal that followed it.

Something similar is said by almost all the early theologians of the Church, and in summarising the writing of Maximus the Confessor (a Byzantine theologian from the 6th century) Andrew Louth writes: "the contrast between Maximus in his major treatises and in his condensed summaries is not at all that between 'theology' and 'spirituality', for as we shall see, even in the densest of his theological treatises, Maximus' concern for the life of prayer and engagement with God is still uppermost. The purpose of theology is to safeguard against misunderstandings that frustrate a Christian life of prayer."
Andrew Louth, Maximus the Confessor, London: Routledge, 1996. p. viii