Theology is? ... bumpy prose

Although about as elegant as fingernails down a blackboard, here is John Franke's pithy and helpful definition of Christian theology in The Character of Theology (p. 44):

"Christian theology is an ongoing, second-order, contextual discipline that engages in the task of critical and constructive reflection on the beliefs and practices of the Christian church for the purpose of assisting the community of Christ's followers in their missional vocation to live as the people of God in the particular social-historical context in which they are situated."

A sentence the length of which any German would be proud of. Well perhaps not any. I seem to remember reading a bit of F.C. Baur and noting that there was only one full-stop on an entire page.