Practical Theology Research Articles

From Zerfass to Osmer and the Missing Black African Voice in Search of a Relevant Practical Theology Approach in Contemporary Decolonisation Conversations in South Africa: An Emic Reflection from North-West University (NWU)

Rolf Zerfass’s operational scientific model for correcting Christian-ecclesiological praxis has been utilised in practical theological research for a considerable time at the North-West University. However, this situation changed with the adoption of Richard Osmer’s four practical theology tasks of descriptive, interpretive, normative, and pragmatic as the guiding practical theology approach. The question is this: to what extent does the Osmer approach and its application in research at NWU address African contextual issues? To progress beyond being ‘reactive’ and ‘pushing back’ on Western practical theology approaches, the NWU practical theology approach is evaluated, followed by proposing an approach that attempts to incorporate African contextual realities anchoring by the principles of ‘listening, observing, weaving, and offering’.

Practical Theology and Social Just Pedagogies as Decoloniality Space

Higher education institutions in South Africa are still dominated by colonial traditions, course content, staff with colonial privileges and attachments, and discriminatory structures and systems. Practical theology and theologians are no exception. This article seeks to investigate the correlations between social just pedagogies and social justice. Social just pedagogies consider the role of the students, lecturers, and non-human phenomena as contributing to epistemology and agency formation. Normative pedagogies remain important criteria for knowledge production and graduate attributes within the South African higher education landscape. Within practical theology, the pedagogies that are used to form students and impart knowledge are still dominated by classical teaching methods that are power-centred and biased towards the privileged. The aim of this article is thus not to replace the normative pedagogies but to challenge the normativity and essentialism that has characterised colonial, race-related, and top-down knowledge production. I will introduce a social just pedagogy of teaching practical theology that critically engages and challenges the privileged normative position of classical practical theology. A social just pedagogy will bring the centre of learning and teaching into the structure of the lecture room, a participatory method of knowledge production, students, and the lecturers. The hierarchical structure of the South African university system will be engaged with as an instrument of traditional classical knowledge production systems. Teaching practical theology through social just pedagogies will also contribute to social justice within democratic South Africa. The question that I will address is how teaching practical theology at higher education institutions can contribute to the agency of social justice in South Africa.

Autism Theology: Discussions from an emerging field

This multi-authored book review explores the current state of the field of Autism Theology through a discussion of four recent publications. A concluding section reflects on several key themes in the individual reviews, drawing particular attention to: Autism Theology's focus on the ideas and practices which enable autistic people’s thriving; the importance of the inclusion of different voices in the conversation (including those who are non- or minimally speaking); and the richness which autistic people’s presence and contributions bring to theology and to the Church as a whole.
 Reviewed works:Claire Williams, Peculiar Discipleship: An Autistic Liberation Theology (London: SCM Press, 2023), pp. 272, ISBN 978-0334063063.Ruth M. Dunster, The Autism of Gxd: An Atheological Love Story (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022), pp. xix + 420, ISBN 978-1725268357.Stewart Rapley, Autistic Thinking in the Life of the Church (London: SCM Press, 2021), pp. xiv + 178, ISBN 978-0334060871.Cynthia Tam, Kinship in the Household of God: Towards a Practical Theology of Belonging and Spiritual Care of People with Profound Autism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021), pp. x + 191, ISBN 978-1725274419.

Mobilising towards environmental sustainability – challenges and chances for churches in Germany

The current ecological crisis is considered a major challenge for humanity. Various scholars suggest that Christian congregations may contribute to the changes of mind-set and behaviour necessary to meet this challenge. The article presents the results of an empirical study on how Protestant congregations in Germany deal with this issue. Data were collected in an online survey and group discussions with members of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD), the Free Evangelical Church (FeG) and the Gnadau movement. The study showed that the environmental awareness of church members is similar to the population in general. Major pragmatic obstacles to mobilise congregations for environmental sustainability were the (1) views that it may compete with other tasks of the congregation, (2) that church members may feel excluded and (3) the lack of knowledge and competence regarding this topic. However, creation care was seen as a bridge to the community which allows the congregation to engage with people outside the church. The study shows which issues need to be addressed for Christian congregations to play a more active role in creation care.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research is concerned with church management fostering ecologically sustainable practices and is situated in the discipline of practical theology. As church management is based on the understanding of the mission of the church it is linked to ecclesiology. The practice of local congregations may have effects on the general public and can therefore be studied from a sociological perspective as well as in development studies.

Engaging with Religious History and Theological Concepts through Music Composition: Ave generosa and The Song of Margery Kempe

This article explores the intersections among music composition, religious history and spiritual texts, with their attendant concepts. It focuses on two works with medieval sources—the concert piece Ave generosa (1996) and the chamber opera The Song of Margery Kempe (2008)—which were featured in the online Gallery of the conferences in 2021 and 2022, respectively, of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT). Through the lenses of semiotics and intertextuality, it explores the ways by which theological concepts and spiritual contexts can be evoked and ‘translated’ into musical sound, both instrumental and vocal. A sampling of the literature on medieval monasticism and St Hildegard of Bingen, whose corpus forms the source of Ave generosa, supports a musical exegesis of its ‘spiritual programme’. In the case of The Song of Margery Kempe, recent scholarship on the text frames examples of the multiplication of meanings provided by dramatisation and musical setting. Art in general and music composition in particular are presented as a commentary, or gloss, on both religious history and enduring spiritual themes, and a different way of thinking about religion and spirituality.

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

The Three Sisters: the first three Beatitudes as guiding an embodied response to the discovery of the unmarked graves at residential schools across Canada in 2021

ABSTRACT Using the Indigenous Three Sisters gardening technique as a guiding metaphor, this paper will explore a wholly embodied response to the disturbing headlines of the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools across Canada in 2021. Just as the Indigenous Three Sisters cooperate together for mutual flourishing, the Beatitudinal trio of humility, grief, and meekness will be promoted as characteristics of a wholly embodied response to this specific issue and the large issue it represents, which is an oppressive and troubled historic relationship between Indigenous and white settlers. This paper will use Terry A. Veiling’s double exegetical approach of ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ as the underlying practical theology framework. Perspectives of various Indigenous Canadian theologians along with hopeful stories of white settler Canadian church leaders whose performative and incarnational responses resemble the three sisterly Beatitudes will be included throughout. I see the flourishing of the Three Sisters together as a helpful and practical metaphor for the Canadian church as we consider how humility, grief, and meekness can help us neighbour well with Indigenous people.

Lectio visceralis – embodied, online worship: praying, learning and liberation in the flesh at BIAPT 2022

ABSTRACT Lectio visceralis is form of prayer/reflection in which participants gently create sculptures with their own bodies, and then reflect on these sculptures to discern spiritual insight. While lectio visceralis originated during the COVID lockdown, its roots lie in Christian incarnationalism, and in the liberationist practice of Theatre of the Oppressed. This article describes an online lectio visceralis experience, ‘This Is My Body: An Interfaith Ritual of Embodied Reflection.’ (This was the public worship component at the 2022 annual conference of BIAPT, the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology.) The article explores the roots of lectio visceralis in Theatre of the Oppressed, which combines critical pedagogy, Brechtian theatre, and Stanislavskian emotional inquiry. It lays out the neuroscientific evidence for considering both prayer and reflection as thoroughly embodied. And it argues for the Christian bona fides of lectio visceralis, in light of a theology of ‘integral liberation’.

Table of Contents, Vol. 12, Special Issue 1, Intersectional Methods and Moral Theology

Intersectionality is a tool for theological analysis that invites sustained critical reflection on how gender, race, social class, sexual identity, citizenship status, and other forms of difference shape people’s perceptions of God, the human person, the church, and the moral life. Scholars of moral theology increasingly recognize how the biases of one’s lived experience integrally shapes one’s theological reasoning. Beyond the need to name, identify, and analyze our biases as an integral part of our theological methods, we also need to create space for discourse that seeks to bridge our differences. This special issue of the Journal of Moral Theology brings together seven essays that focus on intersectionality as a theological method and its implications for the practice of moral theology. Scholars in moral theology, liberation theologies, feminist and womanist theologies, and decolonial theologies demonstrate how intersectional methods are employed in constructive theological discourse.

The anti-eternal functional subordination versus the eternal functional subordination

This article is a follow-up of an article that describes the proponents of the eternal functional subordination (EFS). This evangelical movement was introduced by George Knight in 1977. The EFS refers to the relationship between God the Father and God the Son as an eternal authoritative position held by the Father, while the Son occupies an eternal subordinated position. This is not the position held by the mainline Protestant churches. The proponents of the EFS find the origin of their premise in the Bible as well as the tradition of the early church. Just like the Protestants, they refer to the Creeds and the Councils, as well as the Church Fathers to verify their arguments. Although the differences between the mainline Protestants and the EFS are seemingly insignificant, it can lead to interpretations that are detrimental for the growth of the church. In this article, the main opponents of the EFS are critically discussed in order to lay bare the shortcomings of the EFS and, to a lesser degree, the shortcomings of the anti-EFS proponents. Naturally, the scholars who are opposing the EFS, do not always speak from the same mouth, as each proponent has their own point of view. This emphasises the fact that a constant debate on the holy Trinity is imperative.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The EFS movement proposes the eternal submission of Jesus to the Father – contra the Christian Creeds. Anti-EFS proponents are opposing this movement, indicating the equality between the three Persons of the Trinity on both the ontological and/or immanent and the economic and/or functional side. Practical Theology, Church History and New Testament (NT) disciplines are utilised.

Nurturing agency in emerging adults of local churches: a case study from Soshanguve

Emerging adults (age 35 and below) are the majority of the African population. In South Africa, for example, emerging adults make 63.9% of its population. This age group seems to be marginalised in Christian congregations of the township of Soshanguve where this research was conducted. This research is a case study that interviewed 30 de-churched emerging adults from different denominations to make its conclusions. It is stressing how the church could see the emerging adults’ empowerment as its contribution to building an inclusive society. It was found out that many people under the age of 35 years are leaving their local churches because they feel that their voices are undervalued, and they do not have fulfilling roles to play. It was concluded that some de-churched emerging adults are eager to exercise their agency in making their voices heard and playing fulfilling roles in a missional community structure outside their previous congregations. Many others just complained about the marginalisation they experienced in their previous congregations, but they did not exercise their agency to help build a church they would love to be part of. Marginalisation could, therefore, be an opportunity to create an inclusive community. It could also remain an eternal wound for other people who may just be finger-pointing perpetrators of marginalisation without demonstrating a different praxis.Contribution: This is a practical theology article that is strengthened by sources from political sciences and development studies to stress the need for the church to model inter-generational inclusiveness in how it operates.

Adolescent Christian Discernment

Abstract Theoretically guided, evidence-based approaches to fostering Christian discernment among adolescents are limited. The context of mid-adolescence is one in which youth struggle to solidify identity. The discernment of vocational calling, career, and choice of college are among the major life decisions associated with this phase of life. As a component in Lubbock Christian University’s (lcu) Vocati: A Youth Theology Institute, this study utilized the four tasks described in Richard Osmer’s model of practical theology to engage youth in the crafting of a missional practice. Analysis of qualitative findings suggests the use of Osmer’s model may provide a framework for youth ministry programs to guide young people in the process of Christian discernment.

Theology’s Concern for Wellbeing and Human Flourishing: A Research Program

Abstract This article proposes a new perspective for theology calling for fresh studies on religion and coping, resilience, wellbeing and flourishing. These studies have grown far from theological areas and could be seen as quite strange to that tradition, its methods, and views. However, theology can learn a lot from these new studies when trying to update its message of salvation, endowing it with a more explicit content and can offer interesting points to other treaties, like Christian Anthropology and Practical Theology. To that end the article reports and briefly reviews those relevant developments, tries to address several doubts and to connect better theology with that research, after assuming a more pragmatic and empirical stance.

Hell: Educationally in post-secular societies

Many countries around the world, including Australia, have secularism expressed in their identity. However, as these secular nations (as they understand themselves) shift into post-secular societies, it raises questions around the place and content of religious education and instruction in secular settings: particularly in regard to the shadow side of theological views, such as on the matter of hell. Acknowledging the valuable contribution religious education offers by providing a space for children to question and search for meaning, how or indeed should hell be taught to children in public (secular) schools?Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In the context of the secular and/or non-religious public reflex in society, there is a tension on the place of religious thought in secular educational settings. As scrutiny increases of what, and how, religious material is shared and taught, especially to children, the role and place of hell in this space must be reviewed. This study provides a basis for Practical Theology in post-secular societies, utilising the Australian context, to do so.

Enkele teologiese uitdagings rakende diakonia in van die Afrikaanse Suid-Afrikaanse kerke

This article attends to the theological foundation of the diaconate from the missio trinitatis Dei and its implications, especially for the Afrikaans-speaking Reformed churches. The missio Dei, of the Father, Son, and Spirit is directed at the realities of this life. The new heaven and the new earth are not mutually exclusive. The earth is sanctified anew, man has created anew [recreated], and our bodies are raised anew [revived]. This new earth, a new man, and new life come through the merciful dikaiosune of the Father, the diakonia of the Son, and the koinonia of the Holy Spirit. The diaconate and the missionary ministry of the church are caught in the essence of God and therefore belong to the essence of missionary ecclesiology. From the trinitarian perspective, the purpose of the diaconate is described as well as the relationship between the diaconate, the church, and the kingdom. The last part of the article deals with salvation and diaconate and the implications of a trinitarian understanding of the diaconate for the understanding of salvation.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes an interdisciplinary contribution to the theological discussion within the Afrikaans-speaking churches from the perspective of systematic and practical theology.

Shepherding the Shepherd in the Midst of a Pandemic

Abstract This essay explores two key themes in practical theology. First, I offer an evaluation of how ministers fared through the COVID-19 pandemic and consider its impact on life and ministry via reflection on literature as well as on my own practice as a pastoral care worker who “shepherds the shepherd.” Ministers encountered in my line of work frequently display symptoms of burnout. In exploring whether pandemic-related stresses contributed to this burnout, I found that prepandemic studies consistently identified a higher risk of burnout in ministers than people in the general population. This begged the question, why are ministers more susceptible to burnout? Within the scope of this essay, I explore this question via theological reflection. Secondly, in exploring the importance of spiritual disciplines, specifically the Judeo-Christian idea of Sabbath in preventing burnout, I propose adding the idea of Sabbath rest to theological reflection models and present my rationale for how this contributes to health and flourishing in life, praxis, and theological reflection.

Rightly Applying God’s Law Makes Legalism Impossible

Abstract Legalism is, at its core, a wrong theology of the law. It is rooted in the conviction that God’s commands can be fundamentally kept with disciplined and earnest effort. A robust and practical theology of the law completely undermines this false faith. It shows how the law is spiritual (about the heart, not just behavior), comprehensive (addressing every similar situation), and perfect (requiring active love, not just avoiding harm). Grasping this makes Pharisaic piety impossible. God’s law is so demanding that only perfect holiness satisfies it, and the law shows how far we are from this holiness. Understanding this severs the root of legalistic pride and wonderfully drives us to the cross. KEYWORDS: Legalism, Pharisees, God’s law, works-righteousness, heart, sanctification, gospel, love, biblical counseling

Book Review: Art as Witness: A Practical Theology of Arts-Based Research by Helen T. Boursier

Book Review: <i>Art as Witness: A Practical Theology of Arts-Based Research</i> by Helen T. Boursier

Building Bridges Through Shared Spirituality: A Practical Theology of Fasting and Prayer Among Christians and Muslims in Mombasa

Building Bridges Through Shared Spirituality: A Practical Theology of Fasting and Prayer Among Christians and Muslims in Mombasa

Theological basis of community development: A public inquiry from a practical theological view

Development has become a central topic in theological discussions on a global scale. Poverty and underdevelopment have been the subject of ongoing discussion in theological circles over the role of the churches in addressing these issues. Hence, the controversy regarding theology and progress has emerged. While it has been widely understood in theological discussions that theology must confront public challenges, few works have evaluated the grounds that compel a theological reflection on development. To this purpose, there is a crucial point that must be investigated about theology and development: how substantial are the arguments for the theology and development debate? Furthermore, how are such arguments biblically supported? This essay evaluates the arguments for a theology of development through the lens of public practical theology in order to provide answers to the problems posed above. Through literary analysis, the study proceeds to analyse the basis for theology and development from a biblical perspective, so demonstrating that God’s aim for his creation is development that strikes a balance between economic, environmental, and social elements. This article contributes to the conversation of the necessity of theological reflection on development.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article contributes to the discussion between theological disciplines and development studies to provide a greater understanding of the significance of this debate to the church’s engagement with public issues such as development. The findings of this study are unquestionably valuable for churches in developing a public practical theology and enriching theological thought and church practice through community development.