Reasoning Faith vs Faith-ful Reasoning

What's the difference between 'religious thinking' and 'thinking about religion'?  This was the question I spoke of as part of the introduction on Philosophy of Religion yesterday.  After explaining the difference, I left them with the question, as to which category belongs our practices of piety?  Is it religious thinking or thinking about faith?  Would one be possible without the other?

The other tricky part was speaking about faith and reason or in other words, the need to engage oneself in a process of critical dialogue.  That a genuine faith will not shrink from being challenged and challenging!  That a robust faith is possible only when one has put one's faith to test and made a sincere attempt to review our body of beliefs.

... that people fear putting their faith to the test for fear of loosing the little they have.  Others, fear that they'll have nothing to hold on to (so who is sustaining whom? Faith sustains us or are we 'sustaining' faith???).  Some those who, with great trepidation, dare to undergo the test, cling to the massive debris rather than the iota of essence. Some go through the test only to 'justify' their faith, not to test it, but merely to somehow endorse it.