James Nelson considered “lived experience” to be the most neglected in theology. That’s the reason why oppression and poverty are considered to be a cardinal principle in liberation theology, forcibly and uncomfortably highlighting the daily experiences of marginalised people. For many, theology [and religion] is a second moment. The first moment is life itself. Theology comes afterward, “attempting to understand and serve life”. There are no universal theologies, but only theologies as attempts by ordinary people to make sense of life’s challenges and trying to respond to them in faith. Theology as ‘second moment’ involves understanding our ‘first moment’ experience, as fully as we can”. Liberation theology reminds us that “all theologies are bound to specific histories and life experiences” and that theology is, in its core, a social enterprise. It is not primarily an intellectual task of an individual person, but an authentic “outgrowth of life in community” (Nelson 2004).

Desire is at the heart of spirituality, a desire which is expressed in the hunger for wholeness, a yearning for completion, and a craving for certainty. This desire can also be experienced as a thirst and “since spirit is neither ethereal nor disembodied, both God and alcohol can be sensuous and spiritual experiences”. Spirituality has always been “a matter of the total self — the body and its desires included”. To desire can mean to know, and to know can mean to love.

It’s not possible any longer to maintain that “faith has received its truth quite independently of our body experience” or believe that “spirituality is a disembodied state”. Where this awareness of feeling and bodily attitudes is absent, a person is torn between a “disembodied spirit and a disenchanted body” (Nelson 2004).