Ordinary Theology Research Articles

Mass of the Ages 18–39: The Sudden Revival of the Tridentine Latin Mass and Lessons for a More Robust Post-Conciliar Theological Aesthetics in Liturgy

The Tridentine Latin Mass (TLM) is rapidly growing in popularity. The movement that has formed around it has grown so attached to it as to threaten the unity of the Catholic Church. I attended TLMs in multiple distinct settings, studied the worshippers’ ordinary theology, and proceeded hermeneutically using the Circle Method. The most useful insight to emerge from this is that the theological aesthetics of the post-Conciliar Mass could be more deeply symbolic and synergistic with Conciliar intellectual theology. The TLM’s aesthetics offer worshippers assurances of certainty, but these assurances are empty. Therefore, parishes should facilitate the self-expression of the faithful, both to foster engagement with mystery and to inspire liturgical aesthetics. From these expressions, contextually meaningful symbols will emerge, which, through communal discernment guided by the Holy Spirit, may prove worthy to the task of enhancing liturgical aesthetics.

Ann Loades as practical theologian and Christian educator

ABSTRACT This article attempts to frame the theology and teaching of Ann Loades within the categories of practical theology and Christian education. After outlining the author’s academic relationship with Loades, the author analyses the meaning of the phrase ‘practical theology’ and some aspects of the debate surrounding the term. He contends that Loades’s wide-ranging reflections on the practices of Christian prayer and spirituality, worship and liturgy, and ethics and belonging may be regarded as examples of such a practical theology. The author’s concept of ‘ordinary theology’ is then employed as a bridge into an exploration of Christian learning and teaching, which draws parallels between both Loades’s interpretation of a ‘learning Christ’ and her perspectival account of spiritual vision, and the views of other Christian educationalists and theologians. Although Ann Loades did not inhabit the rather specialised worlds of practical theologians or Christian educationalists, her work has much to contribute to both.

Enhancing The Empirical Theological Approach of the Waverley Integrated Framework

Rev Dr Andrew Hardy https://doi.org/10.52456/WACJO214 Download PDF of article Abstract This article seeks to recommend the enhancement of the Waverley integrative framework (WIF). It suggests that the WIF could be theologically developed with reference to ordinary theology, which is

Hiring labourers for the vineyard and making sense of God’s grace at work: An empirical investigation in hermeneutical theory and ordinary theology

The Matthean parable of the labourers in the vineyard is open to multiple interpretations. For some, the parable may speak of God’s unlimited grace and generosity; for others the parable may speak of God’s unfairness. The present study is set within the context of an emerging interest in the concept of grace as a topic for empirical enquiry. The study draws on the theoretical framework provided by the notion of ordinary theology and employs the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics, which is rooted in Jungian psychological type theory. Data were drawn from two one-day workshops with Church of England Readers (lay ministers). On each occasion the participants were divided into three separate groups according to their preferences for thinking or feeling (the two judging functions proposed by psychological type theory) and within these groups they were invited to explore the messages about grace in Matthew 20:1–15 (Jesus’ parable of the labourers in the vineyard). The rich data gathered from these workshops generated insights into contemporary theologies of grace and also confirmed the hypothesis that a biblical interpretation of grace is shaped by the reader’s psychological type preference for thinking or feeling. While feeling types tended to empathise, thinking types pondered motives and unfairness.Contribution: Situated within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, the SIFT method is concerned with identifying the influence of the psychological type of the reader in shaping the interpretation of sacred text. Employing this method, the present study contributes to three fields of scholarship: to the field of homiletics and hermeneutics, to the field of ordinary theology and to the emerging field concerned with the concept of grace as a topic for empirical enquiry.

The Bible in the ordinary theology of Christian chaplaincy volunteers: a case study

ABSTRACT Previous researchers referenced Jeff Astley’s concepts expressed in his book Ordinary Theology when exploring the extent to which ordinary Christians (that is, those with no academic theological education) might use the theology taught by their local church. In my doctorate study (DThM) at Durham successfully completed in 2020, I considered Astley’s ordinary theology from the perspective of investigating the practice of faith of Christian volunteers in the world beyond their local church congregation. I asked ordinary Christian volunteers in the Church of England how their faith changed when they practised their faith away from their local church context. This cohort of ordinary Christians used their Bibles as an available source of theological insight into the issues raised in their voluntary work. This enabled them to share a rich and nuanced approach to the theological challenges they perceived to have arisen from their work with the unchurched. Church leaders and the academy may have more to learn from such ordinary theology.

Everyday Life from a Sacral Perspective. Individual Entries in Prayer Books of Intentions as Material for Social Research

This paper presents the exploratory potential of entries in prayer books of intentions displayed in places of worship and in their online counterparts—virtual boxes of intentions. By reporting the happiness, dramas, and the whole element of human existence, individual prayer intentions are extremely authentic and valuable source materials. Their analysis requires extraordinary ethical sensitivity on the part of the researcher. Based on a review of previous research explorations and my own research, a four-dimensional model of analysis is proposed, consisting of the following areas: axionormative, communitarian, communicative, and ordinary theology. It can be useful for developing analyses of such documents and also allows for comparative research. The text also discusses the limitations associated with such analyses and briefly signals the basic ethical dilemmas and possible directions for further research using prayer entries.

Theological Wiggle Room as a Resource in Ordinary Theology: Significance for Ecclesiology, Leadership, and Personal Development

Abstract Ordinary theology is often described as unrefined and imprecise in comparison to academic theology. A recent ethnographic study of vital youth ministries discovered a similar pattern, which the study coined “theological wiggle room.” This article discusses how a lack of precision may serve as a possible resource for theology in the ordinary, and thereby why theological wiggle room may be of significance. The article argues that a certain theological wiggle room engages centripetal and centrifugal dynamics. In other words, the lack of precision should not be interpreted as a shortage or deficiency alone, but as a significant quality of theology in the ordinary – in particular with regard to ecclesiology, leadership and personal development.

Hearing and Believing: Listening Experiences as Religious Experiences in Nineteenth-Century British Methodism

This article uses Jeff Astley's concept of ordinary theology (Jeff Astley, Ordinary Theology: Looking, Listening and Learning in Theology (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002)) to examine and interpret listening experiences from nineteenth-century Methodist sources. It argues that the participatory experiences of singing together with fellow believers were crucial to the development and sustenance of personal faith, and that believers shared accounts of such experiences in ways that they knew would be understood by their readers as indicative of the depth and sincerity of their spirituality. It further contends that the widely recognized importance of hymnody in Methodism demands attention to its practice as well its content, and that while the lyrics of hymns set out Methodist theology and doctrine, the participative experience of communal singing was itself invested with meaning and value by many lay Methodists. Ordinary theology provides a framework through which common features of these accounts are identified and discussed, emphasizing the importance of various forms of life writing in understanding the ways in which religious practice shaped the lives and interactions of individual believers. The article also explores differences between different types of published and unpublished life writing. While examples are drawn from different branches of nineteenth-century Methodism, it is argued that hymnody's potential for creating spiritually intense experiences was commonly recognized and affirmed across them. This article contributes to the wider discussion of the significance of listening experiences by emphasizing music's vital role in the construction and communication of meaning between individuals on matters of deeply personal value.

‘Worship is … .’ Qualitative Research among Rural Methodist Congregations

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study draws upon 164 instances of coded responses about worship from 60 individuals attending Methodist services in rural contexts. It explores the ‘ordinary theology’ that many expressed about what worship means to them, and seeks to take seriously these responses to begin to draw a picture that sees rural Methodist worship from the perspective of the pew.

Conversation as a tool of research in practical theology

ABSTRACTThe study of the dynamics of conversation has been a well-established tool of research in the social sciences but, although interest in the espoused and ordinary theology of church members has grown, its use has not been well developed in Practical Theology. This article examines how attention to the manner in which conversations proceed may aid understanding of the speaker's theology, aiding both the researcher and the minister in understanding the theological assumptions of members of Christian congregations. Listening to these conversations with the aid of the discipline of Conversation Analysis has revealed theology that is extra-ordinary: insightful, relevant and missional.

Faith is Not Gone: Listening to the ‘Ordinary Theology’ of Roman Catholic Rural Young People

ABSTRACTThis study listens to the voices of young Roman Catholics, between the ages of 18 and 35, living in a rural diocese within the Republic of Ireland who had experienced active involvement within the Youth Pastoral Councils. These young people had been invited to write their responses to four core questions, designed to access their understanding of God, to articulate their life experiences, to identify the influence of the Youth Pastoral Councils on the formation and retention of their personal Christian values, and to respond to the three values of Pope Francis: justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. Viewed through the lens of Astley's notion of ordinary theology the responses of these young people show that their faith has not disappeared, although their confidence in the church has been eroded.

“All these little pushes and nudges”: uncovering ordinary beliefs about God’s work in the pre-christian life

ABSTRACTIn the Classical Pentecostal movement, theologies of religion have historically been shaped by an adopted exclusivist model, whereby there can be no salvation apart from Christ. Since the end of the last century, Pentecostal scholars have been making headway in challenging this stereotype and exploring other possible avenues for a uniquely Pentecostal theology of religions. By exploring the ordinary theology of interview participants, this article contributes to the discussion in two main ways: (1) by mapping some of the ways that ordinary believers consider God to have been at work in their life before becoming a Christian, and (2) by critically analysing assumptions that emerge from this ordinary theology and the implication of these for an ever-developing Pentecostal theology of religions.

BAHALA NA: In Search of an “Ordinary Theology” for the Filipino Diaspora

Abstract In the contemporary theological landscape Filipino theology has remained marginal compared to Latin-American theologies. Hence, this paper attempts to present Bahala Na as a Filipino articulation of Astley’s Ordinary Theology in the context of Filipino diaspora. With this, we assert that the importance of ordinary Filipino migrants’ input in the current theological enterprise cannot be overlooked because the churches in the world are now phenomenally populated by the millions of Filipinos who possess a unique faith that has sustained them amidst the precariousness of their diasporic life. We believe that ignorance of this inculturated theology is ignorance of the real essence of “catholic” theology.

Some Ordinary Theology of Assisted Dying

This paper applies a small-scale research model to elicit the ordinary theology of a group of practising Christians within a local congregation on the issue of assisted dying (AD). Valid and informative data is produced which questions whether formal church opposition to AD is as clear, and as widely held among practicing Christians, as currently assumed.

“To Sey or Thinke Otherwise”: Ordinary Theology and Facing Death in Late Medieval Norfolk

This article explores how Jeff Astley’s work on ordinary theology can enrich historical study of late medieval lay religion. Ordinary theology provides scholars with a new set of vocabulary and methodological approaches for accessing the religious discourses of “everyday” Christians and allows medievalists in particular to reach beyond contested labels for lay belief. The article begins with a discussion of the promises and limitations of Astley’s theories for historians of religion and concludes with a test case of how they might guide future research, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 152 wills from fifteenth-century Norfolk. The results highlight the diversity of beliefs about the afterlife and associated doctrines among medieval laypeople even as they demonstrated commitment to orthodox Christianity and their local parishes.

Theology Mediating Social Capital: Ordinary Theology, Motivation and Relationships

The concept of social capital and its use as a sociological tool has received considerable attention and continues to provide insights into various aspects of community life. Social capital offers a means to study beneficial and detrimental aspects of relationships away from economic or rationalist reduction. Although social capital and religious affiliation has seen significant attention in the literature, there has been little research into the relationship between theology and social capital. In this article, theology and social capital is explored through a qualitative ethnographic study of an Australian faith-based organisation. It is argued that ordinary theology, defined as the beliefs found in the language of believers without scholarly religious education (Astley 2002) mediates social capital. The ordinary theology of the volunteers, which I callaction-driven theologywas found to mediate bridging social capital with refugees through developing theologically significant relationships.

People living in poverty and their relationship to local church communities: An exploratory qualitative study in Mechelen, Belgium

Much literature on church and poverty issues takes the church as the actor and people living in poverty as the acted upon, those who have to receive care or who will benefit from the church’s diaconal action. Not much is known about experiences of the church and the religion of people living in poverty themselves. The aim of this article is threefold: (1) To learn more about possible difficulties, also possibilities, for participation of people living in poverty in Catholic parishes in Flanders; (2) To give a voice to people living in poverty, to help them to express their ‘ordinary theology’ (Astley 2002) and to make their experiences visible to a broader ecclesial audience; (3) To discuss the ecclesial experiences of people living in poverty and people who know their experiences quite well, in light of church documents.This article presents the results of an exploratory qualitative study in Mechelen, a medium-tolarge city in Flanders, Belgium. We present the results of semi-structured interviews with 20 participants – 7 caregivers and 13 people living in poverty.We found both pragmatic difficulties and more religious difficulties for participation in parishes, named by people living in poverty, as well as by (voluntary and professional) caregivers. Pragmatic difficulties are, for example, mobility or time (in relation to working hours on Saturday/Sunday). More religious-related difficulties concern the doubts about God in relation to their own suffering, aspects of the moral teachings of the church (e.g. about homosexuality) and questions about the Eucharist itself, experienced in a non-satisfactory way. More positive experiences concern the silence or rest people experience in the church or the experience of a community. We discuss findings relating to experiences of ‘inclusion’ of people living in poverty within church communities and more private religious practices, named by people living in poverty.In a next step, we compare these results with other empirical research. Finally, we discuss what it can mean to be a ‘church of the poor’ and what ‘friendship with the poor’ might be and how this concept can be evaluated.

Race and Responses to Violence in Prayer Shawl Ministries

Abstract Prayer shawl ministries, overwhelmingly led and staffed by women, aim to give comfort to the bereaved. Shawl makers often want to respond to communal tragedy and grief such as mass shootings. This case study uses qualitative interviews with shawl makers from white and African-American ministry groups, placing their statements in the context of benevolent handwork, disaster response, and the culture of mass shootings. The ordinary theology of shawl makers is forged in a “chronic mode,” responding to individual instances of grief in the ministry’s neighborhood. “Crisis mode” operations, where shawls are part of multifaceted mobilization efforts to bring relief to a large number of victims, may clarify, test, extend, or alter these meanings. White shawl makers were appalled at the suffering inflicted by the Sandy Hook school shooting and took pride in their ability to make a difference, while black shawl makers were guided by concerns about discipline, process, and preservation of community. These results suggest that perceptions of normalcy influence the response of caretaking ministries to violence and trauma, revealing a distinction between restorative efforts and the development of resilience.

The Formal Act of Defection and U.S. Catholic Deconversion

Between 1983 and 2010, the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church permitted Latin Rite Catholics to defect “by a formal act.” This canonical innovation differed sharply from the church’s longstanding approach to the question of membership, and it was ultimately repealed by a motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, who cited both pastoral and legal reasons for eliminating the formal act of defection. Prior to the pope’s action, however, thousands of Catholics in multiple countries used the formal act of defection as a means to solemnize their departure from the church. This essay reviews the history of the formal act of defection and presents the results of the first published survey of U.S. Latin Rite diocesan administrators concerning defection. A majority of dioceses in the survey received requests from members wishing to defect; some continue to grant these requests today, notwithstanding Pope Benedict’s decree to the contrary. The phenomenon of defection exposes tensions within Catholic theology and practice concerning membership, tensions that are also felt between official teachings and the ordinary theology of many Catholics inasmuch as church categories concerning membership do not map effectively onto quotidian Catholic experience. These results contribute to a fuller understanding of deconversion from Catholicism.

Training Theological Reflectors to Facilitate Ordinary Theology in Churches

This paper argues that there are good reasons why church and academy need better to hear and take account of the ordinary theology (hereafter O.Th) of practising Christians. It is an important form of practical theology which not only can inform current theological debates and even challenge existing theological norms, but also provide deep learning experiences both for ordinary theologians and those ministering to them. To facilitate the articulation of O.Th, trained theological reflectors are needed who can listen to ordinary Christian people with a ‘theological ear’ and become ‘people’s theologians’. Also needed is a workable model for small-scale research into O.Th. Empirical research into O.Th has hitherto been undertaken by the application of significant resource, either by an individual researcher (often the doctoral thesis) or a team. Such resource-intensive endeavour has provided important data on various aspects of O.Th, and has put O.Th firmly on the research map. However, there is a clear need for O.Th research to become something which can be more easily undertaken by ministers and others in roles of pastoral responsibility and theological education. A research model based on an expanded pastoral cycle makes this possible.