Abstract
The relationship between theory and practice refracts differently in my journey in practical theology, during which I moved from deductive to inductive approaches, and from New Testament studies to practical ecclesiology and religious leadership. This article offers a conceptual analysis of the theory/practice relationship through the lens of three major concepts that have marked my academic journey. Embodiment focuses on our bodies as the empirical and spiritual locus of human experience and knowledge. Practices and theories emerge in our bodily engagements with the world and one another. Identity formation is the focus of learning processes that shape selves to create personal, social and religious identities that enable us to engage our social and religious worlds. Missional leadership is intent on discerning divine involvement in embodied faith practices in neighbourhoods, communities and contexts. The argument culminates in an agenda for theological education for the next decade.
Highlights
I completed my tenth year of teaching a first-year course in Practical Theology to our Bachelor students
It enabled me to reflect on my pastoral ministry where I had wrestled intensely with my normative, evangelical theology and how to make it work in pastoral practice
Reading Osmer converted me to practical theology
Summary
I completed my tenth year of teaching a first-year course in Practical Theology to our Bachelor students. The assignment was mostly oriented towards literature and theory, with a particular case by way of interview to sharpen theoretical reflection. After ten years of teaching this orientation course and helping students wrestle with making meaningful connections between interviews and case studies, on the one hand, and theoretical and theological concepts, on the other, I reordered the course to a more inductive approach, based on the growing conviction that theology arises from faith praxis. My reason for this change is partly my growing uneasiness with student performance in the course as I taught it, and partly my growth towards empirical research as a key method for finding and generating theological insight (Bennett et al 2018; Graham 2002; Scharen 2015; Ward 2017). This is perhaps fitting in a discipline where reflective research and auto-ethnographic approaches are an accepted part of published academic work
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