Volume 9, Issue 2

The delight of this issue of IJPT is its focus on posing questions and exploring depths of practical knowledge. The essays represent considerable diversity, as is typical of international discourse in this broad field of study. On the other hand, the diversity is held together by common efforts to plumb depths of knowledge and bring fresh insight to the surface. In particular, the essays in this volume engage readers in rethinking traditions, diving into the depths of religious experience, exploring culture, and debating the theology-culture relationship.

Friedrich Schleiermacher is the founding father of practical theology as one of the disciplines of theological studies. To understand this, one has to consider his broader concept of theology and his understandings of religion and of Christianity. We will therefore discuss all of these matters in this essay, and will do so especially in regard to Schleiermacher’s Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study . The thesis is that Schleiermacher, understanding practical theology as a technical discipline, overcame tendencies to form practical theology as a type of applied science. In his construction of theology, Schleiermacher conceived the entirety of theology as a practical science. Within that larger context, practical theology involves reflection particularly on rules of Church leadership, but is based upon a larger theory of Christianity within modern society and is developed in cooperation with all other theological disciplines.

Friedrich Schleiermacher made a biological fact of the human organism a foundational fact of his practical theology. He called this fact of human nature Affekt (affect) and defined it as the physical side of spiritual life. Schleiermacher used his work on aesthetics to delineate this ‘affective’ fact of human experience. By so doing, Schleiermacher explained the foundation of his theological revolution in Protestant thought in non-theological terms. The lack of scholarly attention to this non-theological aspect of Schleiermacher’s theological work, his Affekt Theology , has made it difficult for scholars to understand the organic, structural foundation of modern theology as established by Schleiermacher. Scholars have also mistakenly concluded that his practical theology lacks an adequate experiential component. As I demonstrate in this essay, attention to the actual affective references in Schleiermacher’s practical theology will give scholars a concrete way to describe the link between theological praxis and the organic structures of human experience.

Given the experiential nature of religion and faith, practical theologians all over the world have made considerable efforts during the last decades to investigate the empirical side of religion with appropriate scientific research instruments. The increasing use of various social science methods and strategies has enlarged theological knowledge considerably, especially regarding the social dynamics, conditions and contexts of religious life. These methods have also helped develop more effective strategies for pastoral work. During the same period, the growing interest in the empirical side of religion has stimulated discussion about standards and criteria for appropriate empirical research in theology. Growing use of social scientific instruments has sharpened reflection about the implications of religion research for understanding its very object – “religion.” Likewise, there is a growing need to reflect on the theological impact and consequences of using concepts and research models from the humanities in religion research. The intention of this report is to evaluate recent developments in empirical theology from a methodological point of view and to highlight new possibilities. For this purpose, the later parts of the article provide an introduction to phenomenology as a specific methodology of empirical theology. Phenomenology offers key concepts and research strategies for research on “living religion” beyond conventional social and theoretical limits of religious research. To use phenomenological methods within empirical theology invites theological reflection on essential notions, principles and assumptions that are at stake in empirical sciences, such as reality, praxis, action, objectivity, validity, and life. Likewise this leads to a new and enlarged model for interpreting faith. The first section makes some initial observations regarding the methodological background for contemporary empirical research in theology, and especially in practical theology. It explicates the theological motivation for empirical research, introduces the distinction between methods and methodology, and analyzes the possibility of an empirical methodology beyond positivism. In the final analysis, I evaluate especially Johannes van der Ven’s work, stressing the necessity to reflect critically on methods, thus to overcome a naïve positivistic empirical approach to religion.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the influence of African spirituality and cosmology in shaping how African people understand life and formulate God-images, and how this challenges the formulation of practical theology, particularly pastoral theology, and the practice of pastoral ministry in Africa. The presupposition is that the effectiveness of doing pastoral ministry in Africa depends heavily on a deliberate accommodation of African cultural understandings of life and African world-view(s). I contend that these cultural understandings of life, broadly shared among African people, are embedded within a framework of African spirituality. Thus the following basic questions form the core arguments of this article: – How are practical theology and pastoral ministry informed by the ways African people understand God, life, and human relationships? This question is a step toward defining African spirituality . – In what ways are practical theology and pastoral ministry among African people influenced by their understanding of the cosmic life-force, the living dead (ancestors), and ancestral spirits? This question helps to define the composition of African cosmology . – How are God-images defined within an African spirituality and cosmology? With this question, we begin to define a theological ethos that is intertwined with African spirituality and cosmology. – And most important, how do these understandings influence the practice of pastoral ministry in Africa? This question builds on the former ones to outline challenges for conceiving pastoral theology and practicing ministry .

Roland J. Campiche, Die zwei Gesichter der Religion. Faszination und Entzauberung ( Mette  ) Gordon D. Kaufman, In the beginning … Creativity ( Graham ) William F. Storrar/Andrew R. Morton (eds.), Public theology for the 21st century ( Ganzevoort  ) Wolfgang Grünberg, Die Sprache der Stadt. Skizzen zur Großstadtkirche ( Mette  ) Robert L. Browning/Roy A. Reed, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Moral Courage: Motives and Designs for Ministry in a Troubled World ( Larsson  ) Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Let the Children Come: Reimagining Childhood from a Christian Perspective ( Schweitzer  ) Hee-Chun Kang, Contemporary Philosophical Issues in Christian Education ( Lee  ) James Newton Poling/Christie Cozad Neuger, Christie Cozed (eds.), Men’s Work in Preventing Violence Against Women ( Anderson  ) Nicola Slee, Women’s Faith Development: Patterns and Processes ( Neuger  ) Zoe Bennett Moore, Introducing Feminist Perspectives on Pastoral Theology ( Stevenson-Moessner  ) Daniel S. Schipani, Paulo Freire: Educador Cristiano ( Irizarry  ) Norvell Northcutt/Danny McCoy, Interactive Qualitative Analysis. A Systems Method for Qualitative Research ( Menken-Bekius  )