This work is necessary to provide for practical theology a method and procedure (built at least in part on an ethic of principles) and help it to avoid the danger of associating the ethical core
of practical theology with an ethic of virtue and character.
Not exact matches
My first
practical response was to work
with others at the School
of Theology at Claremont to organize a conference in April 1970 to relate theology to thi
Theology at Claremont to organize a conference in April 1970 to relate
theology to thi
theology to this issue.
This vision
of doxological
theology is at odds
with the standard fourfold division
of seminary education in the West, which keeps «Bible,» «church history,» «
theology» and «
practical ministry» cordoned off from one another, For the Orthodox,
theology is simply commentary upon the saints» commentary on scripture for the sake
of the church's worship.
Professor David Wilkinson, Professor
of Theology, Principal
of St John's College, Durham University, said: «CODEC is unique in combining research on the digital environment within a world class University
with practical outputs to serve the Church.
In varying degrees, most
of them want
practical theology to become more critical and philosophical, more public (in the sense
of being more oriented toward the church's ministry to the world rather than simply preoccupied
with the needs
of its own internal life), and more related to an analysis
of the various situations and contexts
of theology.
Theology as a
practical discipline does not invite fascination
with the subjectivity
of the believer, for its primary concern is how the self should be shaped to correspond to the object
of religious language.
Theology understood as a
practical discipline should not» be confused
with those
theologies that make the question
of «faith» the starting point
of theological reflection.
In both
of these strictures, the role
of theological ethics or moral
theology in
practical theology was minimized, and the idea that
practical theology dealt
with the church's attempt to influence the order
of the public world subsided.
Practical theology has come to contain a good dose
of theory
of practice
with very few theological ingredients.
And most
of them want
practical theology to continue its close relation
with the social sciences, but to do this in such a way as not to become overidentified
with these secular disciplines.
In fact, it is precisely in Farley's discussion
of theologia as dialectic that one can see how Farley is trying both to bury the old
practical theology of the fourfold pattern and to replace it
with a
practical theology of an entirely different kind.
And it isolated the specific regions
of practical theology — pastoral care, religious education, homiletics, liturgics, etc. — from both fundamental and systematic
theology on the one hand and critical engagement
with world situations on the other.
Boulton, the president
of Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, spends the bulk
of his book «rereading» the Institutes
with a focus on the
practical dimensions
of Calvin's
theology.
I am relatively discouraged (although not despairing) about exactly how to take the next two steps: the development
of a model for a Christian systematic
theology that will be in continuity
with, but also a genuine development upon, the earlier model for a revisionist fundamental
theology; and the development
of a model for a public Christian praxis (or
practical theology) which will be in continuity
with, but also a genuine development upon, both «fundamental» and «systematic» concerns.
Methodologically speaking, however, systematics is a dialogue
with a different public than those
of philosophical and
practical theology, theirs being the academy on the one hand, and society at large on the other.
In the consonance
of their public policy proposals
with the comprehensiveness
of the process - relational vision, mutually transformed in its encounter
with the natural sciences, Cobb and Birch model a public
practical theology at its best.
The author provides a
theology of communication, a critique
of the Electronic Church, and concludes
with practical suggestions for those who are concerned about the impact
of American television worldwide.
Edward Farley has come up
with the best characterization
of Schleiermacher's picture
of «
practical theology»: the «normative field which critically apprehends the rules for carrying out the tasks
of ministry» (Theologia, p. 91).
In this connection, I have acknowledged my new sense that there is a
practical as well as a theoretical aspect to such credibility, and that
theology must concern itself
with the justice
of the Christian witness as well as the truth
of that witness if it is to vindicate the Christian claim.
With the glue gone that once held them together, Farley argues, the traditional disciplines — Bible, church history, systematic and
practical theology —
of the classic, fourfold curriculum will continue to function in a dispersed state until a new paradigm is located which can organize the pursuit and attainment
of theological education.
While I owe much to the stimulating ideas
of Don Browning, David Tracy and James Fowler in
Practical Theology, I wish to attempt a small, constructive personal contribution rather than to enter into dialogue
with them.
Browning suggests their relation
with a mixed image:
theology is the «outer envelope» and ethics the «inner core»
of strategic
practical theology.
What matters is a lively dialogue among the branches
of theology,
with full appreciation for the
practical interest that governs them all.
Likewise, the ethical dimensions
of practical theology would have been more persuasively developed had their integral relation
with the communal life
of congregations first been fully established.
At the same time, the other
theologies that have contributed most to explicating and justifying the metaphysical implications
of the Christian witness seem to have been typically preoccupied more
with theoretical questions
of belief and truth than
with practical issues
of action and justice, and so have contributed only indirectly to clarifying and answering our central question.
This allows Balthasar to disagree
with Barth's wholesale rejection
of natural
theology but transform this overly theologized insight into a
practical claim regarding the inefficacy
of modern Catholic appeal to the classical Western metaphysical and moral tradition in today's secular culture.
How do we reconcile the Christian
theology of a reign
of grace
with the
practical need to hold a higher standard for our leaders?
It may be an arrangement that factors out different aspects
of the school's common life to the reign
of each model
of excellent schooling: the research university model may reign for faculty, for example, or for faculty in certain fields (say, church history, or biblical studies) but not in others (say,
practical theology), while paideia reigns as the model for students, or only for students
with a declared vocation to ordained ministry (so that other students aspiring to graduate school are free to attempt to meet standards set by the research university model); or research university values may be celebrated in relation to the school's official «academic» program, including both classroom expectations and the selection and rewarding
of faculty, while the school's extracurricular life is shaped by commitments coming from the model provided by paideia so that, for example, common worship is made central to their common life and a high premium is placed on the school being a residential community.
Most
of the others were based more on favorite
theologies than any
practical or relevant strategies for successfully dealing
with addiction.
James Poling has written
with Donald Miller, Foundations for a
Practical Theology of Ministry (1985).
, Parenting
with Grace, Beyond the Birds and the Bees), Dr. Popcak is an expert on the
practical applications
of Pope John Paul the Great's
Theology of the Body.
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