In his book The Skillful Teacher, Stephen D. Brookfield speaks of ‘growing into the truth of teaching.’

Yet the truth is…that each of us comes to certain understandings and insights regarding teaching that just seem so right, so analytically consistent, and so confirmed by our experiences that describing them as truthful seems entirely justified. The truth I am talking about here is not universal truth, the grand narrative of standardized pedagogy that says that everyone should think, believe, or teach in a certain way. It is a more personal truth, one smelted and shaped in the fire of our practice so that it fits the situations we deal with every day. … By growing into the truth of teaching I mean developing a trust, a sense of intuitive confidence, in the accuracy and validity of our judgments and insights (8-9).

Brookfield is not advocating a solipsistic approach to this personal truth. In the next chapter he calls upon teachers to seek subjective and objective inputs into their self-reflection to develop their professional skills and practice. Their practice is self-critical and informed by reflection, student and peer feedback, recourse to professional literature and standards, and so forth. While he rejects a one-size-fits-all normative truth of teaching adequate for every situation, he does not reject truths of teaching. His focus is on the personal appropriation of these truths in the lived experience of practice, such that they become one’s own standards.

I like the image he uses of growing into the truth, a ‘personal truth, one smelted and shaped in the fire of our practice’ so that we develop ‘a trust, a sense of intuitive confidence, in the accuracy and validity of our judgements and insights.’

Something similar can occur in the Christian’s appropriation of biblical and doctrinal truth. There, too, occurs a mix of objective and subjective inputs. Personal reflection must be informed, guided, and disciplined by community theological discussion: both are necessary. But the truth of the gospel must take root in personal life, be tested and applied, proven and shaped in one’s practice and experience. The word must become flesh in us, as well, until we have an ‘intuitive confidence’ in the gospel that shapes our judgements and insights in everyday life.

(For a little more on this theme, see my post: How to Think Theologically).