“The methods employed in pastoral or practical theology are as varied as is demanded by the issues that are being considered. Different issues or phenomena require different approaches and methods.” (“Introduction to Pastoral and Practical Theology,” 9)
“All of which means that practical theologians need to be flexible in the methods they use. They must be prepared to engage in interdisciplinary learning, because the theological tradition does not in itself provide all the information about the modern world that is needed to have a good understanding of many issues. Furthermore, an important skill that is needed is that of selecting and interpreting appropriate evidence from many sources, including theological ones. Only thus can reasonably clear and well-informed judgments be reached.
In practice, practical theologians use a wide variety of sources and methods in their work. Historical and textual methods may be used to understand and interpret theological insights and sources. Empirical methods such as surveys and questionnaires may be used to establish the nature of contemporary beliefs and behavior, or the nature of a particular human need is a locality. The capacity to be able to reflect upon and articulate something of the theological significance of human experience is highly valued in practical theology, as is the capacity to interpret meanings, myths, and symbols that shape people’s views of themselves and their world. At all points, however, methods are only deployed if they are relevant to the task of arriving at the appropriate pastoral theological response to a situation. (“Introduction to Pastoral and Practical Theology,” 9-10)
“Here are some of the elements that may, or perhaps should, be typical of much contemporary practical theology:
1) Practical theology is a transformational activity…..
2) Practical theology is not just concerned with the propositional, the rational, and the logical in life and theology. It needs to find an important place for parts of human experience and date like the emotions, the symbolic, and the irrational if it is fully to address the human condition……
3) Practical theology is confessional and honest. This means that it is committed to looking at the world through the ‘lenses’ of a particular committed faith perspective or inhabited worldview…….
4) Practical theology is unsystematic…….
5) Practical theology is truthful and committed…….
6) Practical theology is contextual and situationally related. This means that practical theology is committed to being a kind of ‘local theology’ (Schreiter 1985). It gives priority to the contemporary context or situation in which it is involved rather than to other situations, other times, and other places. While historical data, classic texts such as the Bible, and experiences from elsewhere may help practical theology in its task, its main concern is to explore and contribute to immediate contexts, situations, and practices.
7) Practical theology is sociopolitically aware and committed……
8) Practical theology is experiential…….
9) Practical theology is often reflectively based…….
10) Practical theology is interrogative…….
11) Practical theology is interdisciplinary. That is to say, it uses the methods and insights of academic and other disciplines that are not overtly theological as part of its theological method. Theology in itself,. it is maintained, cannot reveal all that one needs to know adequately to respond to contemporary situations and issues. Thus economics, sociology, psychology, and other disciplinary findings and perspectives must be utilized (Pattison 1986).
12) Practical theology is both analytical and constructive. It helps people more fully to understand what kind of situation they are in, and the theological themes that may be relevant to it in its analytical phase. However, it may also help people to construct ideas about how they might change and where they might like to move in its positive, constructive, normative, or prescriptive role.
13) Practical theology is dialectical and disciplined. Proceeding by way of a kind of critical conversation, many contemporary practical theologies hold in creative tension a number of polarities such as
- theory and practice
- the religious tradition emanating from the past and contemporary religious experience
- particular situational realities and general theoretical principles
- what is (reality) and what might be (ideal)
- description (what is) and prescription (what ought to be)
- written texts and the ‘texts’ of present experience
- theology and other disciplines
- the religious community and society outside the religious community
Disciplined conversation and in the midst of these polarities allows practical theology to be both discerning and creative.
14) Practical theology is skillful and demanding.
(“Introduction to Pastoral and Practical Theology,” 13-16.)
Woodward, James, and Stephen Pattison, eds., The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999).
Many of these above elements are found in my thesis. In Chinese, I am just like ru meng chu xing如夢初醒.
