Abstract

Catholic pastoral theology has existed as a curricular heading in seminaries but not as a discipline in U.S. universities, at least not with the same meaning and intention as in Protestant schools. Catholic theology is largely produced by university theologians where the subject and teaching of ministry has not been a central feature. Scholarship pertaining to practice, sometimes linked with practical theology, is gaining attention among U.S. Catholics, though the way in which Catholics organize theology as a discipline, its ecclesial authority structure, and the numerous approaches to theology today, make practical theology one disciplined inquiry among many. Its appearance as a fully-formed discipline in Catholic thought is still not present.