Published since January 1, 1997

International Journal of Practical Theology

ISSN: 1612-9768

Edited by: Júlio Cézar Adam, Jaco Dreyer, Wilhelm Gräb, Solange Lefebvre, Swee Hong Lim, Vhumani Magezi, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, Richard Osmer, Friedrich Schweitzer, Terry A. Veling, Claire Wolfteich

In cooperation with: Nadine Bowers Du Toit, Nancy Ramsay, Kristin Merle

Managing Editors: Pamela Couture, Bernd Schröder

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.

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(* For periodicals not included in this agreement, please refer to the distribution address provided by the link "Back Issues" on the homepage of the periodical.)

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Supplementary Materials

Topics

Volume 26 Issue 1

July 2022

Frontmatter

Publicly Available June 11, 2022

Frontmatter

Page range: I-IV

Download PDF

Editorial

Open Access June 11, 2022

Vorwort – u. a. aus Anlass des 25-jährigen Bestehens dieser Zeitschrift

Bernd Schröder

Page range: 1-7

Download PDF

Open Access June 11, 2022

Remarks and Reflections on the 25^th Anniversary of the IJPT

Friedrich Schweitzer, Mary Elizabeth Moore, Wilhelm Gräb, Solange Lefebvre

Page range: 8-18

Download PDF

Research Articles

June 11, 2022

Poetic Listening in Pastoral Care: Listening to the Poems that People Are

Martin Walton, Kees Bregman, Els Deenen

Page range: 19-38

Abstract

Can listening as one listens to or reads poetry complement narrative approaches in pastoral care? The fragmented, open ended, metaphorical and episodic character of what people tell in pastoral encounters is often more like poetry than story. Applying instruments of poetic analysis to what people tell, opens new insights into those texts, whether originally written or oral. That experimental, heuristic practice in poetic reading finds a complement in reflections on characteristics of poetry and on narrative and poetic modes of practical theology. That results in a congeniality of theological and poetic reading in attention to metaphor, fragments, framing and reframing.

June 11, 2022

A Sense of Something Else for Me: Search for Meaning in Life and Transcendence in Spouses of People with Mental Illness

Jonna M. P. Ojalammi

Page range: 39-56

Abstract

In this article, I investigate search for meaning in life and transcendence in spouses of people with mental illness. Research related to the topic is scant. I interviewed 16 Finnish spouses and partners in narrative, semi-structured interviews, and analyzed the data narratively. The interviewees perceived mental illness as a threat to meaning. In the search for meaning, transcendence referred to hope, humor, wishing, and imagining. The search for meaning and transcendence were connected through the fragile “sense of something else for me” as detachment from the spouse’s illness reality. Implications for pastoral theology can be found above all in Christian hope.

June 11, 2022

Generalized Surrogacy and the COVID Crisis

Danielle Tumminio Hansen

Page range: 57-74

Abstract

This article examines how the systemic sin of neoliberalism affects pandemic relationships, specifically considering how its emphasis on autonomy can result in relational abuse and erode a recognition of our fundamental interdependence as human beings. To contextualize the argument, this article employs a case study of tip baiting in the United States during the COVID-19 crisis to explain how neoliberalism concretely results in harm that can be identified as a form of systemic sin.

June 11, 2022

The Process of Leaving the Church Revisited. A Replication of Ebertz’ Study on Types of Church Leavers

Tobias Faix, Ulrich Riegel, Marie Jäckel

Page range: 75-92

Abstract

In a qualitative study in 2012, Michael Ebertz and colleagues constructed characteristic types of processes of leaving the Roman Catholic Church in the Freiburg area of southern Germany. This article aims to replicate and supplement Ebertz’ findings through the analysis of problem-centered interviews of former Roman-Catholics in the north-western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. With one exception, the types of processes could be replicated, and four additional types were added. The results show that processes of leaving the church are diverse and in many cases result from a long and complex process.

June 11, 2022

Coloring Things Together: Experiences of Leading Together as Pastor Couples in the Norwegian Pentecostal Movement

Truls Åkerlund, Åse-Miriam Smidsrød

Page range: 93-110

Abstract

This article focuses on the growing, yet under-researched, phenomenon of co-leadership in which spouses lead congregations together as pastor couples. The study addresses the topic from the perspective of organizational leadership, probing the experiences of leading together among pastor couples in the Norwegian Pentecostal movement. Systematic text condensation of in-depth interviews showed that the participants described co-leadership as all-encompassing and tension-filled, constantly having to balance private and professional concerns in addition to managing expectations from congregants and global church culture. Amidst these challenges, they described unity in diversity and a sense of being called to lead the church together.

June 11, 2022

Segmented Secrecy as Catholic Ecclesial Practice: The Case of Gay Priests

Brett Hoover

Page range: 111-129

Abstract

While social scientists have long studied secrecy as a cultural practice, theologians have neglected it as an ecclesial practice. This article examines “segmented secrecy” as an ecclesial practice, that is, secrets kept or divulged in different social networks in a segmented manner. That secrecy is examined in the lives of gay priests in Roman Catholic ecclesial settings in the United States. After a brief sociological analysis of secrecy, the theological analysis reckons first with the ethics of segmented secrecy, arguing for segmented secrecy as a “burdened” form of the virtue of honesty. Next it turns to segmented secrecy as an ecclesial practice, a provisional way of securing protection for marginal persons amidst the larger eschatological protect of the church in the world, despite some moral hazards involved.

June 11, 2022

RICE 2020: Exploring the Inclusivity of European Churches towards LGBTI People

Rein Brouwer, Heleen Zorgdrager, Pilar M. d’Alò

Page range: 130-154

Abstract

Religion plays a major part in the changes that have taken place with regard to the recognition of rights of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual and Intersex (LGBTI) people. In today’s world, growing activism around sexual and gender diversity meets increased hostility towards LGBTI people. This research article presents the design of a collaborative research project to explore and investigate the empirical situation of European churches towards inclusivity of LGBTI people.

Research Report

June 11, 2022

International Cooperative Research: Experiences and Insights from the Project on Confirmation Work in Europe

Wolfgang Ilg, Friedrich Schweitzer, Henrik Simojoki

Page range: 155-178

Abstract

This article describes the long-term research project on confirmation work in Europe which is carried out in ten countries, and discusses it as an example of international cooperative and comparative research in practical theology. Against the background of an increasing demand for international research in practical theology on the one hand and the far-reaching lack of respective studies which is demonstrated by an analysis of the articles published in IJPT on the other, major results and methodological questions from the project on confirmation work are presented. In a final section, the advantages as well as the challenges of international cooperative and comparative research are discussed.

Book Reviews

June 11, 2022

Philipp Öhlmann, Wilhelm Gräb, Marie-Luise Frost. African Initiated Christianity and the Decolonisation of Development: Sustainable Development in Pentecostal and Independent Churches, Abingdon (Routledge) 2020, 354 pp., ISBN 9780367358686, £120.

Mookgo Solomon Kgatle

Page range: 179-181

June 11, 2022

Christoph Krummacher, Kirchenmusik (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), ISBN 978-3-159365-9, € 39,00

Johannes Greifenstein

Page range: 182-185

Open Access June 11, 2022

Andreas Kubik, Theologische Kulturhermeneutik impliziter Religion. Ein praktisch-theologisches Paradigma der Spätmoderne, Berlin / Boston (Walter de Gruyter), 2018, 405 S., ISBN 978-3-11-057612-2, € 99,95 (Praktische Theologie im Wissenschaftsdiskurs 23).

Bernd Schröder

Page range: 186-188

Download PDF

Volume 26 (2022)

Issue 1

Volume 25 (2021)

Volume 24 (2020)

Volume 23 (2019)

Volume 22 (2018)

Volume 21 (2017)

Volume 20 (2016)

Volume 19 (2015)

Volume 18 (2014)

Volume 17 (2013)

Volume 16 (2013)

Volume 15 (2011)

Volume 14 (2011)

Volume 13 (2010)

Volume 12 (2008)

Volume 11 (2007)

Volume 10 (2007)

Volume 9 (2005)

Volume 8 (2004)

Volume 7 (2003)

Volume 6 (2002)

Volume 5 (2001)

Volume 4 (2000)

Volume 3 (1999)

Volume 2 (1998)

Volume 1 (1997)

Cite Score	0.5
European Reference Index for the Humanities
Journal Citation Indicator	0.91
SCImago Journal Rank	0.148
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	0.410

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Editorial

Editors-in-Chief

Prof. Dr. Pamela Couture
Director, Toronto School of Theology
47 Queen’s Park Crescent
Toronto, Ontario M5S2C3
Jane and Geoffrey Martin Chair of Church and Community
Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto
75 Queen's Park Crescent
Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
e-Mail: pamela.couture@utoronto.ca

Prof. Dr. Bernd Schröder
Georg-August Universität Göttingen
Theologische Fakultät
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2
37073 Göttingen
e-mail: bernd.schroeder@theologie.uni-goettingen.de

Book Review Editors

Prof. Dr. Nancy Ramsay
Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care
Brite Divinity School
TCU Box 298130
Fort Worth, TX 76129
817-257-5807
e-Mail: n.ramsay@tcu.edu

Dr. Nadine Bowers Du Toit
Senior Lecturer in Theology and Development
Dept. Practical Theology and Missiology
University of Stellenbosch
e-Mail: nbowers@sun.ac.za

Prof. Dr. Kristin Merle
Universität Hamburg
Institut für Praktische Theologie
FB Evangelische Theologie
Gorch-Fock-Wall 7
20354 Hamburg
e-Mail: kristin.merle@uni-hamburg.de

Assistant Managing Editor

Moritz Emmelmann
Georg-August Universität Göttingen
Theologische Fakultät
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2
37073 Göttingen
e-mail: moritz.emmelmann@theologie.uni-goettingen.de

Prof. Dr. Stephen Simmons, retired
Moravian Theological Seminary
60 West Locust Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018 USA
Email: simmonss@moravian.edu

(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 1612-9768
Print ISSN: 1430-6921
Type: Journal
Languages: English, German
Publisher: De Gruyter
First published: January 1, 1997
Publication Frequency: 2 Issues per Year

International Journal of Practical Theology

Frontmatter

Vorwort – u. a. aus Anlass des 25-jährigen Bestehens dieser Zeitschrift

Remarks and Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of the IJPT

Poetic Listening in Pastoral Care: Listening to the Poems that People Are

Abstract

A Sense of Something Else for Me: Search for Meaning in Life and Transcendence in Spouses of People with Mental Illness

Abstract

Generalized Surrogacy and the COVID Crisis

Abstract

The Process of Leaving the Church Revisited. A Replication of Ebertz’ Study on Types of Church Leavers

Abstract

Coloring Things Together: Experiences of Leading Together as Pastor Couples in the Norwegian Pentecostal Movement

Abstract

Segmented Secrecy as Catholic Ecclesial Practice: The Case of Gay Priests

Abstract

RICE 2020: Exploring the Inclusivity of European Churches towards LGBTI People

Abstract

International Cooperative Research: Experiences and Insights from the Project on Confirmation Work in Europe

Abstract

Philipp Öhlmann, Wilhelm Gräb, Marie-Luise Frost. African Initiated Christianity and the Decolonisation of Development: Sustainable Development in Pentecostal and Independent Churches, Abingdon (Routledge) 2020, 354 pp., ISBN 9780367358686, £120.

Christoph Krummacher, Kirchenmusik (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), ISBN 978-3-159365-9, € 39,00

Andreas Kubik, Theologische Kulturhermeneutik impliziter Religion. Ein praktisch-theologisches Paradigma der Spätmoderne, Berlin / Boston (Walter de Gruyter), 2018, 405 S., ISBN 978-3-11-057612-2, € 99,95 (Praktische Theologie im Wissenschaftsdiskurs 23).

Remarks and Reflections on the 25^th Anniversary of the IJPT