Practical Theological Methodology Research Articles

Longing for (a Taiwanese) academy: practical theology as an essentially hospitable and balanced discipline

ABSTRACT This article argues for two things: the methodology of practical theology and its academic institutions intrinsically embody the concept of hospitality, and the Chinese principle of balance may enhance this understanding. The article begins with a personal reflection on the necessity of a Taiwanese practical theology academy and considers the encouragement received from the Asia Academy of Practical Theology Hong Kong (AAPTHK). It reconsiders the bridge metaphor of practical theology, suggesting a supplementary metaphor drawn from hospitality traditions – the interplay between the roles of host and guest. The article then introduces the Chinese cultural notion of balance to support this new metaphor and avoid some criticisms against intentional hospitality. This notion of balance is then applied as an interpretation tool to understand the dual ‘turns’ in practical theology methodology and the pastoral cycle, demonstrating how various cycle adaptations aim to maintain balance. Ultimately, the discussion culminates in a new vision for a future Taiwanese practical theology academy which is grounded in the principles of balance and hospitality.

Uniting Divided Religious Leaders to Democratize Zimbabwe

Following the presidential announcement of Zimbabwe’s harmonized 2023 electoral date, most Christian, African Traditional, and other religious leaders commendably resumed advocating for peaceful, free, and fair elections. However, as history usually repeats itself, the tables eventually turned. Some of the leaders regressively became divided, submitted to political infiltration, aligned themselves with oppressive politicians, betrayed their fellow leaders as well as God and humanity, and inadvertently supported totalitarianism. By employing Richard Osmer’s practical theological methodology and engaging with the existing literature, this paper reviewed the (dis)unity and (dis)engagement between Christian and African Traditional Religious (ATR) leaders. It also endeavored to address the underlying (dis)connections in view of Jesus Christ’s all-encompassing servant leadership model, diaconal mission, and the African Ubuntu philosophy. Observing that Zimbabwean religious leaders are retrogressively divided by their varying spiritualities, leadership styles, and political orientations, it is recommended to embrace inclusivity and unity amidst diversity. This can be achieved by resisting selfishness and promoting selflessness, unconditional love, generosity, hospitality, tolerance, peace-making, justice, and social cohesion. These values collectively play a role in the democratization of Zimbabwe and are imperative for its advancement.

Conspiracy Theories in Congregations: A Pastoral Response

Abstract Interest in understanding and responding to conspiracy theories has exploded in recent years. This article seeks to engage with a range of scholarship utilizing a practical theological methodology in order to discern an appropriate response. Because conspiracy theories often produce division in congregations, as well as isolate the conspiracists from their faith community, responding in a wise manner is clearly important. This article first surveys some of the theory and research related to the topic and then discusses the connections between religion and conspiracy theories. It then moves to recommend that a “pastoral” response, including a focus on caring and maintaining sense of belonging, is preferred to a rationalist response, aimed at convincing the conspiracists that they are wrong.

Preaching Addressing Environmental Crises through the Use of Scripture: An Exploration of a Practical Theological Methodology

This article considers the critical roles of preaching in addressing the environmental crises by way of engaging with Paul Ballard’s work as a particular practical theological methodology, namely the use of Scripture. This methodological consideration is followed by highlighting the work of the Earth Bible Team, which compliments Ballard’s work. Both works are used as an example of a homiletical practice as well as a learning exercise, demonstrating how Scripture can be used as a homiletical resource of and hermeneutical source for doing practical theology with an eye to address environmental crises.

The relevance of covenant theology to fatherlessness in Kenya: A youth and family ministry perspective

This article explores fatherlessness within the Kenyan society, as well as its causes and effects. The article uses a practical theological methodology that unpacks the doctrine of reformed covenant theology (RCT) and its implications for strengthening the church’s ministries to young people and families within the context of fatherlessness in Kenya. The articles argues that RCT strengthens the individual’s self-concept in light of family dysfunction; restores a covenantal understanding of marriage with implications for marital and family life, and provides a context for covenant communities of faith tofunction as nurturing families for young people who have been abandoned or isolated through fatherlessness or father absence. This article suggests that RCT offers a robust theology that can anchor practical interventions within the scope of the church’s ministry to its young people as well as its families.

The Openseminary Methodology: Practical Theology as Personal, Local and Transformative

Theological education continues to be subject to rapid social and technological change, which is further exacerbated by the recent global pandemic. Practical theology as a discipline continues to grow, being well placed methodologically to engage with diverse contexts and these global realities. The task for theological education is whether it can meet these challenges and be part of the transformation required. Openseminary as a methodology and program was developed in the early 2000s by Wynand De Kock to enable students to both learn practical theology as a methodology, as well as reflect theologically in their own context. Over the last two decades, it has run in South Africa, at Tabor College in Australia, as well as Palmer Seminary in the United States. In what follows, the methodology and program are explored in terms of their genesis, history, and current articulation. It is argued that it is a practical theological methodology well suited to the personal, local, and transformative goals of theological education today.

Ubuntu Apologetics in Faith Formation

Abstract Faith formation is a crucial area in youth ministry. Although the area of apologetics may be a helpful bridge, the theory and praxis of apologetics in the African context is scanty. The work of apologists such as William Lane Craig, John Frame, Ravi Zacharias, and John Lennox has responded to the post-Christian context of Europe and North America. Much needs to be done in light of the African contextual realities. Using a practical theological methodology, this paper considers how ubuntu apologetics – which honors both the cognitive and affective development of adolescents – can lead to holistic faith formation of African youth. This research paper will 1) consider youth ministry contextual realities in Kenya and Africa; 2) analyze foundational methods of apologetics; 3) utilize an ethnographic methodology in analyzing the data and 4) offer recommendations for youth ministry education and practice in Nairobi and Africa at large.

Anticipation in the Normative Task of Practical Theology

Abstract This essay seeks to make a contribution to Catholic practical theological methodology through a discussion of “anticipation” as developed in the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg. Its main thesis is that an understanding of the proleptic and anticipatory character of revelation and tradition can help articulate the role of tradition in the normative task of a Catholic practical theology. The first section of the paper looks at the normative task of practical theology and how this is reflected in the Whiteheads’ Method of Ministry. Then it seeks to explain the notion of “anticipation” and its implications for a theology of tradition. Finally it draws out the implications of incorporating this concept into practical theological method.

Doing theology with children through multimodal narrativity

Doing theology with children, in a systematic and focused way, is a new practice. This article contributes to this theological practice by examining its emergence, nature and mission and proposing multimodal narrativity as a practical theological methodology for doing such theology. The article argues, from a practical theological standpoint, that doing theology with children should be understood as a synodal event – a journeying together with children about their faith; as a way of seeing the mysteries of God through the eyes of the child and of encouraging a robust understanding of God and God’s plan for humanity and the entire creation; and as a way of seeing the faces of children and hearing their voices, thereby accounting for their suffering and hope. Children themselves are sources and disruptors of hope. The use of multimodal narrativity creates space for these narratives and disruptions of hope and encourages children to theologise their experiences in the midst of their different communities.

Keeping It Real: Decolonizing Christian Inter-Religious Practice as an Exercise in a Practical Theology of the Cross

“What is suffering? What is hope?” These are questions I have asked for years with classes full of students training for Christian ministry. Now, I ask these questions in classes with Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and ‘spiritual but not religious’ students, all in training to be spiritual care therapists. The institution where I serve is in the process of transitioning from a mono-religious Christian theological College to a centre for multi/inter-religious education. Those of us who teach in the program are disrupted continually by pedagogical challenges that both perplex and energize us. The multi-religious classroom decolonizes spaces long dominated by Christian theological discourse. Course content yields to a fluid and open-ended, interactive process. My “mastery of the field” gives way to an ongoing practice of surrender—a kenotic self-emptying—that usually leaves me shaken in overwhelming awe or angst-ridden questioning. Through a practical theological methodology that begins with lived human experience, this paper shares an autoethnographic account of my experience as a teacher in the multi-religious classroom. It presents key dimensions of the theology of the cross as an interpretive framework and closes by examining how the theology of the cross offers a practical Christian theological reflective process to empower decolonizing pedagogy.

Postcolonializing Practical Theological Methodology as Cartography of Boundary Dynamics

AbstractThis paper conceptualizes a postcolonializing practical theological methodology that maps out the boundary dynamics of spectrality that often characterize the lived experiences on the margin of the empire. It draws from the mathematical understanding of Brownian motion that calculates the random movements of particles, as exposed by quantum mechanics, to construct an image for the postcolonializing practical theology. Then the random movement is explored through the concept of spectrality, which is engaged in dialogue with a 17th century Korean novel, Jangwha Hongryun Jeon, cultural theories and theologies.

After God: Practical theology as public Christology from the margins of the market

This article is part of a research project, Conversations after God. The focus of this article is to reflect on the theory and methodology of practical theology in a post-metaphysical (After God) context. It will be suggested that practical theology can redefine itself as public theology, but specifically as Christology by engaging the public texts within their contexts, but from a Christ-science hermeneutical approach. The proposed approach is a hermeneutical approach where the Christ-Ereignis guides the inner- and inter-textual reading of texts within contexts. This Christ-Ereignis cannot be translated into a science or even a definable philosophy and therefore the logos is crossed out. Christology, as public theology is done from the margins of the dominant discourses and therefore it could be seen as a Christology from the margins of the market to create spaces of kingdom life: life in fullness.

The narrative turn in practical theology: A discussion of Julian M�ller�s narrative approach

The importance of narrative for practical theology is today widely recognised, both nationally and internationally. There is, however, disagreement amongst practical theologians regarding the scope and role of narrative in practical theological methodology. The practical theologian Julian M�ller made, and continues to make, an important contribution to the methodology of practical theology through his narrative approach. The aim of this article was to contribute to the ongoing methodological discussion about the scope and role of narrative approaches in practical theology. M�ller�s narrative approach was discussed against the backdrop of the narrative turn in the human and social sciences. It was concluded that M�ller�s narrative approach reveals some of the key tensions in practical theological methodology. His metaphorical narrative approach, as a representative of the poetic pole in the methodological debate, helps to guard practical theology from losing its transformative orientation and its vital connection with religious practice. Embracing a variety of approaches could help practical theologians to steer between the Scylla of a one-sidedly scientific practical theology and the Charybdis of the triumph of the immediacy of praxis.

Professional Praxis in Practical Theology: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

This article discusses the understanding of praxis in practical theology as well as the implications of this understanding for empirical research. It advocates a nominalist understanding of praxis and suggests that definitions of praxis must, in the present context, depend on the theological encyclopedia in use. If practical theology and ethics are organized in separate disciplines, human praxis in general will be the object of ethics while practical theology should concern itself with professional ecclesial praxis. The author understands this praxis in a very broad sense (beyond the church; beyond traditional forms of preaching, teaching, counselling; beyond the focus on professional pastors), not only in terms of the theoretical scope of the discipline but also in respect to the material object to be studied by practical theology. In line with this understanding, the author defines the formal object of practical theology as critically facilitating ecclesial praxis. The methodology of practical theology must be in agreement with this formal object but beyond this, practical theology should not make claims to any special research methods that would be particular only to this discipline. In conclusion, the author offers some answers to the question what practical theology may benefit from theoretical analyses of the present kind.

FIDES QUAERENS PULCHRUM: PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY

In this article, the notion of 'desire' is critically interpreted in terms of the classic theological notion of 'quaerens' (as for instance in: fides quaerens intellectum; faith in search of understanding). 'Quaerens' indicates the quest for (or paradox of) something that is not yet attained, although already experienced, here understood as a quest for beauty - fides quaerens pulchrum. The concept of beauty is multi-layered, but traditionally it is viewed in a romanticized sense, as something (or an experience) that is fine, excellent, noble and honourable. In this article this romanticized view is critiqued within an aesthetical understanding of practical theology, in which beauty is understood as the quest for a radically different (and paradoxical) form of proportion within the experience of pain, horror and destruction. In this sense beauty is not contradicted by the notion of ugliness, but rather indicates the quest for the healing of proportions and the connection between the visual and transcendent meaning. The article takes a brief look at the development of some paradigmatic shifts in practical theological methodology, before discussing possible aesthetical practical theological meanings of beauty. doi: 10.7833/108-1-1

FIDES QUAERENS PULCHRUM: PRACTICAL THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY

In this article, the notion of 'desire' is critically interpreted in terms of the classic theological notion of 'quaerens' (as for instance in: fides quaerens intellectum; faith in search of understanding). 'Quaerens' indicates the quest for (or paradox of) something that is not yet attained, although already experienced, here understood as a quest for beauty - fides quaerens pulchrum. The concept of beauty is multi-layered, but traditionally it is viewed in a romanticized sense, as something (or an experience) that is fine, excellent, noble and honourable. In this article this romanticized view is critiqued within an aesthetical understanding of practical theology, in which beauty is understood as the quest for a radically different (and paradoxical) form of proportion within the experience of pain, horror and destruction. In this sense beauty is not contradicted by the notion of ugliness, but rather indicates the quest for the healing of proportions and the connection between the visual and transcendent meaning. The article takes a brief look at the development of some paradigmatic shifts in practical theological methodology, before discussing possible aesthetical practical theological meanings of beauty. doi: 10.7833/108-1-1

Fides quaerens pulchrum : practical theological perspectives on the desire for beauty : general

In this article, the notion of 'desire' is critically interpreted in terms of the classic theological notion of 'quaerens' (as for instance in: fides quaerens intellectum; faith in search of understanding). 'Quaerens' indicates the quest for (or paradox of) something that is not yet attained, although already experienced, here understood as a quest for beauty - fides quaerens pulchrum. The concept of beauty is multi-layered, but traditionally it is viewed in a romanticized sense, as something (or an experience) that is fine, excellent, noble and honourable. In this article this romanticized view is critiqued within an aesthetical understanding of practical theology, in which beauty is understood as the quest for a radically different (and paradoxical) form of proportion within the experience of pain, horror and destruction. In this sense beauty is not contradicted by the notion of ugliness, but rather indicates the quest for the healing of proportions and the connection between the visual and transcendent meaning. The article takes a brief look at the development of some paradigmatic shifts in practical theological methodology, before discussing possible aesthetical practical theological meanings of beauty. doi: 10.7833/108-1-1

Fides Quaerens Corporalitatem: Perspectives on liturgical embodiment

In the light of a number of paradigm shifts that have taken place in practical theological methodology, this article proposes an integrative approach that takes the fundamental role of embodiment into account. A brief discussion of the theological understanding of embodiment is followed by a reflection on certain liturgical implications, inter alia liturgical embodiment as immediate participation; as multi-sensory interpretative act; and as broken presence and celebrated absence.

Practical Theology’s Contribution to Religious and Theological Education

this study aims at clarifying the nature, method, and goal of a re-created theological discipline currently known as Practical theology. although this Practical theology has been in the works for twenty-five years or more, it still remains in general poorly understood by many theologians who reject, or at least ignore, its potential value. these theologians seem to be turned away from considering Practical theology seriously, often apparently because of its historical background and frequently misunderstood title, Practical theology. But from the evaluation proposed in this study, Practical Theology could actually contribute significantly toward helping even these theology professors to profit positively from its theological approach to studying and understanding the good news. the purpose of this essay, then, is, by critical analysis, to foster a more accurate understanding of the origin, nature and characteristic methodology of Practical theology,1 and hence of its potential importance for

Pentecostal Experience: An Example of Practical-Theological Rescripting

This article offers a reflection on the nature of Pentecostal experience. The practical-theological methodology is used to explore, analyse, reflect upon and theologically rescript an account of a person's experience of Baptism in the Spirit. An interview with a person attending a New Church in the UK is used in order to demonstrate how disciplined attentiveness to a personal account can be an important step in appreciating the nature of spiritual experience for Christians. The analysis considers biographical, social and contextual information that enables the experience to be situated and understood via philosophical and sociological insights. The implicit or ‘ordinary’ theology contained in the account is rescripted in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christian life and sacramental theology.