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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Supplementary Materials

Topics

Volume 26 Issue 2

November 2022

Frontmatter

Publicly Available November 22, 2022

Frontmatter

Page range: I-IV

Download PDF

Editorial

November 22, 2022

Editorial

Page range: 189-189

November 22, 2022

Children’s Agency in Worship

Lydia van Leersum-Bekebrede, Ronelle Sonnenberg, Jos de Kock, Marcel Barnard

Page range: 190-209

Abstract

Children help create and shape their social worlds, including that of worship. This article explores how children negotiate and appropriate worship practices and incorporate their own values, understandings and creative ideas into their worship. This analysis of children’s agency relies on qualitative data drawn from direct observation of Dutch Protestant worship services designed for and/or attended by children. Recognising that children have agency in worship encourages practitioners and practical theologians to identify how children already help shape the worship they take part in and enhance opportunities to strengthen their agency and influence.

November 22, 2022

Homo pandemicus – homo solitarius

Symptoms of pandemic loneliness among Polish Catholics

Krzysztof Jaworski, Justyna Stecko, Wojciech Wojtyła

Page range: 210-222

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the phenomenon of loneliness that was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. As this is a very broad issue, it was just limited locally to the Polish society, and thematically to the religious aspect. Pandemic loneliness was mainly the result of social isolation to contain the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, causing the Covid-19 disease. In terms of religion, loneliness was caused by separation from public religious practices and the feeling of a lack of Providence. This paper presents three faces of religious loneliness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: liturgical loneliness, doctrinal loneliness and loneliness related to the feeling of lack of full religious freedom.

Open Access November 22, 2022

When a Crisis Empties Mosques: A Case Study of Muslim Responses to the Pandemic’s Challenges in Regards to Spiritual Care and Communal Rituals in Austria and Germany

Mahmoud Abdallah

Page range: 223-239

More Download PDF

Abstract

Cases from both Germany and Austria exemplify how the COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly changing traditionally held ideas of Islamic community, religious congregations, and pastoral care. These cases were collected during Ramadan 2020, as this particular period signifies a time of paramount spirituality, social solidarity, and communal festivity. They reflect the rich and vibrant efforts and responses of Muslim leaders, organizations, and institutions to the challenges posed by the current pandemic. Different initiatives and solutions Muslim communities have developed as a response to COVID-19 are characterized as “caring communities.” Muslim chaplains, despite their highly limited personal access to secluded, lonesome, and distressed individuals in need of support, overcame the restrictions. Muslim leaders have striven to make use of the virtual space to fulfil the ordinary function of mosques as places of worship and communication. They have thus attempted to uphold social solidarity ( zakat) . Their responses to the pandemic raise questions about the future of religiosity and its manifestation as well as possible forms of religious communities and their ethical values.

November 22, 2022

Who Is My Neighbour?

A Moral Reflection on Human Dignity and Xenophobia

Sarah Piketh, Hendrik G. Stoker, Martha S. van der Walt

Page range: 240-257

Abstract

Xenophobic attitudes towards migrants and refugees reflect a sentiment which rejects strangers as the Other. In response to Pope Francis’ appeal to educate conscience and using the normative and pragmatic tasks of Osmer’s framework of Practical Theology as a basis, this paper aims to outline the construct of human dignity as found in three dominant moral views in Africa, viz., Christianity, Islam and Ubuntu. Furthermore it investigates the use of the metacognitive strategy of critical reflection to effect a recognition of a shared core humanity and explores the translation of conscious awareness to praxis as envisaged by Paulo Freire in conscientisation .

November 22, 2022

White Supremacy as Counter-Telos: Pastoral Formation in the White Habitus

John E. Senior

Page range: 258-275

Abstract

This paper develops a model of pastoral formation that acknowledges the relentless formative pull of whiteness and centers the work of dismantling white supremacy. It critiques three related framings of pastoral formation: excellence in ministry, pastoral imagination, and Christian practical wisdom. These framings orient pastoral formation around an a-contextual telos or goal, an approach that ultimately reinforces markers of white normativity. Teleological framings of pastoral formation need not be abandoned altogether, but they do require a more nuanced reckoning with white normativity. The paper offers a preliminary re-framing of pastoral formation as a process that requires an ongoing negotiation of the terms of pastoral formation even as practitioners deepen their pastoral expertise, wisdom, and imagination.

November 22, 2022

Conspiracy Theories in Congregations: A Pastoral Response

Ian Hussey

Page range: 276-293

Abstract

Interest in understanding and responding to conspiracy theories has exploded in recent years. This article seeks to engage with a range of scholarship utilizing a practical theological methodology in order to discern an appropriate response. Because conspiracy theories often produce division in congregations, as well as isolate the conspiracists from their faith community, responding in a wise manner is clearly important. This article first surveys some of the theory and research related to the topic and then discusses the connections between religion and conspiracy theories. It then moves to recommend that a “pastoral” response, including a focus on caring and maintaining sense of belonging, is preferred to a rationalist response, aimed at convincing the conspiracists that they are wrong.

November 22, 2022

Creativity Unleashed: Building a Practical Theology for Christian Leadership in a World in Flux

David M. Csinos

Page range: 294-310

Abstract

Discourse surrounding Christian leadership is often influenced by colonialistic assumptions and theology that centralizes the role of the leader as change agent. In this article, the author uses Gordon Kaufman’s conception of God as serendipitous creativity as a resource for moving toward a practical theology of leadership that acknowledges colonialistic undercurrents within leadership discourse and responds to the shifting place of the church in our world. Naming God as uncontrollable, unplanned creativity engenders practices of Christian leadership that focus on the power of the community, discern divine creativity in one’s midst, and embrace the mysterious emergence of new realities.

November 22, 2022

Resonance in a Theopoetics of Practice in Practical Theology

Erik Olsman

Page range: 311-328

Abstract

The objective of this study is to describe resonance as concept in a theopoetics of practice in practical theology. Resonance is the vibration that takes place when practitioners (1) sense a deep relation with practice, frequently at a pre-verbal level, (2) recognize the alterity of the other and are willing to be transformed by it, and (3) use poetics to redescribe a practice in which reality itself may appear as resonance. Resonance is exemplified in chaplaincy and lived religion. I conclude that resonance should be part of a theopoetics of practice in practical theology because it helps to sense the sacred and make sense of the sacred.

Research Report

November 22, 2022

Climate Violence and Earth Justice: A Research Report on Practical Theology’s Contributions

Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore

Page range: 329-366

Abstract

Several scholars in practical theology have lamented inattention in the field to environmental crises, raising the question: what is the state of research on climate? This report analyzes the scholarship with the hope of raising consciousness about contributions and sparking greater political and moral engagement. Contrary to initial impression, the review concludes that practical theologians have written more than people realize, offering up-close analysis of human proclivities toward climate violence and religious practices of earth justice. If anything, practical theologians need to do a better job drawing on past research in the field and honing what we have to offer.

Book Reviews

November 22, 2022

HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018), 171 pp., ISBN 9781532617249, $9.92

Eunjoo Mary Kim

Page range: 367-369

November 22, 2022

Miller-McLemore, B.J (ed)., The Wiley Blackwell Reader in Practical Theology (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 424pp., ISBN: 978-1-119-40849-9, $38.95

Shantelle Weber

Page range: 370-372

November 22, 2022

Jin Young Choi and Joerg Rieger, eds., Faith, Class, & Labor: Intersectional Approaches in a Global Context (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020), 271 pp., ISBN 9781725257160, $35.00 / £26.00

Bruce Rogers-Vaughn

Page range: 373-376

Volume 26 (2022)

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