International Journal of Practical Theology

Published by De Gruyter

Volume 24 Issue 1

Issue of International Journal of Practical Theology

Contents
Journal Overview

Frontmatter

July 22, 2020

Interjection / Zwischenruf

July 22, 2020

COVID-19 Demands Theological Reflection: Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Present Pandemic

Jianhui (Jane) Xiong, Nazila Isgandarova, Amy Elizabeth Panton

Page range: 5-28

Abstract

What are some ways that people from the Buddhist, Muslim and Christian faith traditions can reflect upon the coronavirus pandemic using a theological lens? How can Buddhist, Muslim and Christian practitioners respond in practical ways to the coronavirus pandemic, utilizing resources from their faith traditions? This contribution offers reflections on the worldwide suffering and challenges that the pandemic has caused from the perspectives of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian practitioners. Each writer offers practical resources and theological reflection from their vantage point as spiritual care providers and as people of faith.

Research Articles

July 22, 2020

Listening for the Cries of the Earth: Practical Theology in the Anthropocene

Pamela R. McCarroll

Page range: 29-46

Abstract

This paper presents the gap in practical theological research in relation to the devastating effects of the environmental crisis. The paper argues that, because of its silence, the field of practical theology is complicit unwittingly in perpetuating the environmental crisis. The paper identifies three potential causes that predispose the field to fall silent before the enormity of the crisis: 1. The human-centricity of its methodology, telos and theological anthropology; 2. The anthropocentricism of its theology based on dominant Western formulations, and; 3. The power of eco-anxiety to trigger defense mechanisms that foreclose acknowledgement of the crisis. Importantly, the paper also identifies interdisciplinary resources and conversation partners with whom the field of practical theology may re-construct creation-centered pathways forward.

July 22, 2020

The Social Practice of Being Born Again: Historical and Cultural-Sociological Perspectives on Conversionist Piety

Katharina Krause

Page range: 47-70

Abstract

What kind of practices, emotions and self-understandings are linked to conversion? This contribution offers a set of analytical tools which help to understand processes of constructing, performing and maintaining conversionist identity. In doing so, it builds on both, source material related to 17 th and 18 th century New England and conversion research in the area of sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. Holistic in its approach, it reconstructs conversionist piety as a social practice that builds up into pious cultures of body, emotion, and meaning-making. The analytical concepts developed on the way may prove to be a starting point for further empirical research on lived religion in Practical Theology and Religious Studies.

July 22, 2020

Anticipation in the Normative Task of Practical Theology

Theodore James Whapham

Page range: 71-88

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.

July 22, 2020

Potential Roles of Churches and Ecclesiology for Disability Inclusion

Koos Sieger Tamminga, Hans Schaeffer, John Swinton

Page range: 89-110

Abstract

This article describes which possible roles that (theological reflections on) the church can play in societal debates around disability and inclusion. A turn to inclusion is sketched out and a number of different ecclesiological responses are mapped out. We argue that an ecclesiology which is informed by church practices can contribute to reflection on the concept of inclusion, which, in turn, helps the church in its quest for inclusive practices. It also reflects on the implications of such a quest. Additionally, church practices and reflections on them may serve society at large in its quest for inclusion.

July 22, 2020

The Search for Happiness, Towards a Practical Theology of Joy: Faith Seeking Beatific Happiness – Fides Quaerens Beatitudinem

Daniel Louw

Page range: 111-134

Abstract

In the light of the eudaimonic principle of pleasure/enjoyment, the question is posed: What is meant by a spirituality of happiness? In terms of the eucharistic perspective of graceful living, and the view that human beings are actually playful artists (homo ludens), a practical theology of joy is proposed: fides quaerens beatitudinem – faith seeking joyful happiness. In the light of the Christian connection between a benevolence of grace and the biblical notion of the beatitudes, happiness is presented as a kind of makariology: the interplay between the benediction of a blessing and the fortitude of a peaceful mind. “Beatific enjoyment” (fruitio beatifica) is proposed as a practical theological conceptualisation of the “praxis of God”.

International Report

July 22, 2020

Practical Theology in the United States 2000–2020 with Attention to Its Emergence in the Twentieth Century

Nancy J. Ramsay

Page range: 135-164

Abstract

Practical Theology (PT) in the US emerged in the latter half of the 20 th century shaped by the epistemological turn toward a critical postmodernity and liberation theologies. This article traces the emergence of PT in the 20 th and first two decades of the 21 st century including attention to the emergence of several constitutive fields and the Association of Practical Theology. I will attend to several trajectories: epistemological and related liberative political influences, effects of privilege and marginalization for the integrity of the discipline and the knowledge it constructs, methodological innovations, and strategies for research. The article describes emerging trajectories.

Research Report

Open Access July 22, 2020

Religious Speech as Resource. A Research Report

Ruth Conrad, Roland Hardenberg

Page range: 165-195

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Abstract

Religious speeches aim at social efficacy. They are therefore an important resource for religious communities and groups. The article pursues a cultural concept of resources, which does not ask about the benefit of a resource, but about its values in and effects on societies. The crucial elements are the social dynamics, actions and relationships that are closely related to culturally shaped interests in and use of resources. This concept is brought into conversation with more recent research on Christian and Islamic preaching cultures. Anthropological research in particular has repeatedly pointed to the social value attributed to preaching. This interdisciplinary article shows the yield of the dialogue between anthropology and practical theology.

Book Reviews

July 22, 2020

Barbara J. McClure, Emotions: Problems and Promise for Human Flourishing. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019), xvi + 349pp. ISBN 978-1-60258-329-0, $59.95.

Elaine L. Graham

Page range: 196-199

July 22, 2020

Elaine Graham, Apologetics without Apology: Speaking of God in a World Troubled by Religion. (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017), 172pp., ISBN 978-1-4982-8413-4 (pbk), 978-1-4982-8415-8 (hbk), 978-1-4982-8414-1 (ebk), $24.00.

Clive Pearson

Page range: 200-202

July 22, 2020

Frank Thomas Brinkmann, Praktische Theologie. Ein Guide (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2019), ISBN 978–3825251413, € 26,99.

Andreas Kubik-Boltres

Page range: 203-205

July 22, 2020

Bernd Schröder, Göttinger Religionspädagogik. Eine Studie zur institutionellen Genese und programmatischen Entfaltung von Katechetik und Religionspädagogik am Beispiel Göttingen. Unter Mitarbeit von Florian Dinger, Moritz Emmelmann, Monika E. Fuchs, Urte M. Götte, Elisabeth Hohensee und Lukas Steinbeck (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018), ISBN 978-3-16-155840-5, € 84,00.

Henrik Simojoki

Page range: 206-208

About this journal

The International Journal of Practical Theology is an academic journal. It is intended for practical theologians and teachers of religious education, scientists specializing in religion, and representatives of other cultural-scientific disciplines. The aim of the journal is to promote an international and interdisciplinary dialogue.

The journal contains contributions on an empirically descriptive and critically constructive theory of ecclesiastical and religious practice in society. Primarily, it deals with descriptions of religion as it is practised. Religion in this context can be understood in the broad sense of the word according to which all appreciative tendencies towards an ultimate view of oneself and of the world can be described as being religious. Thus the many different forms of religion as they are lived today are applied in a critically constructive manner to the normative self-image of churches, ecclesiastical groups and denominations. As contributions towards practical theology, they ultimately pursue the structure of practically orientated theories of ecclesiastical and ecclesiastically conveyed religious practice.

The spectrum of themes is divided into five groups. First, the articles deal with the global and regional different changes in religious practice in relation to the processes of socio-cultural modernization processes (individualization and pluralization). Second, they study the development of new forms of public religion (civil religion). Third, they analyse the life history of the formation and transformation of religion (religious development). Fourth, they examine the intercultural and interreligious dimensions of religion on an individual, social and ecclesiastical level (interreligious dialogue, syncretism). Fifth, they attempt to give a critical and constructive interpretation of the ecclesiastical fields of action (church service and sermon, religious instruction, pastoral care and spiritual guidance, organization and management).

In addition to essays, the International Journal of Practical Theology also offers research reports which provide information on the current state of affairs of interdisciplinary and international research of religion as far as this is relevant from a practical and theological point of view. Furthermore, the journal also contains situation reports which reveal the state of discussion of practical theology in various countries, regions and confessions. Finally, it also includes a review section which gives information on important new publications in the field of practical theology.

The International Journal of Practical Theology is neither the organ of a specific theological school nor of a particular ecclesiastical organization. The journal does not aim to present biased opinions of theological schools or confessional organizations but rather place in the foreground of discussion the differences between ecclesiastical and ecclesiastically conveyed practice of religion, the documentation and discussion of its development within its regional context, its international interweavement and different normative orientations. – The contributions are in English or German. A summary (abstract) is given in the other language respectively to give the reader a general idea of the article.

Volume 24 Issue 1

Issue of International Journal of Practical Theology

Frontmatter

Vorwort

COVID-19 Demands Theological Reflection: Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Present Pandemic

Abstract

Listening for the Cries of the Earth: Practical Theology in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The Social Practice of Being Born Again: Historical and Cultural-Sociological Perspectives on Conversionist Piety

Abstract

Anticipation in the Normative Task of Practical Theology

Abstract

Potential Roles of Churches and Ecclesiology for Disability Inclusion

Abstract

The Search for Happiness, Towards a Practical Theology of Joy: Faith Seeking Beatific Happiness – Fides Quaerens Beatitudinem

Abstract

Practical Theology in the United States 2000–2020 with Attention to Its Emergence in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Religious Speech as Resource. A Research Report

Abstract

Barbara J. McClure, Emotions: Problems and Promise for Human Flourishing. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019), xvi + 349pp. ISBN 978-1-60258-329-0, $59.95.

Elaine Graham, Apologetics without Apology: Speaking of God in a World Troubled by Religion. (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017), 172pp., ISBN 978-1-4982-8413-4 (pbk), 978-1-4982-8415-8 (hbk), 978-1-4982-8414-1 (ebk), $24.00.

Frank Thomas Brinkmann, Praktische Theologie. Ein Guide (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2019), ISBN 978–3825251413, € 26,99.