SCM Study Guide

Judith Thompson

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780334040552
• eBook ISBN: 9780334048084
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Practical in emphasis, this textbook offers newcomers an introduction to understanding theological reflection and helps those training for ministry to explore which of the methods introduced best suits them and their particular situation.

Part 1. What is PTR?

Part 1 describes and explores the process of PTR and provides a number of definitions and worked examples.

• Chapter 1 describes, a variety of approaches to TR generally, and specifically, the process of PTR and how it relates to reflective practice in other professions, to liberation theology and to ministerial practice. Definitions and marks of good practice are considered.
• Chapter 2 consists of worked examples of PTR to stand as simple paradigms and provide a point of reference for the core process understood and developed in this book.
• Chapter 3 brings together a variety of models and formulae which have been used for PTR and invites you to begin to adopt and develop an approach for your own use.

1. What Theological Reflection is – and what it isn’t

Approaching an understanding of TR and introducing PTR. PTR and reflective practice in other professions. PTR and liberation theology. PTR and ministerial practice. Defining and refining. Transformation and other marks of good practice in PTR. PTR and transferability.

1. Approaching an understanding of TR and introducing PTR

It is difficult to date precisely the birth of theological reflection as a discrete methodological form within the field of practical theology, but it seems to have developed through the coming together of insights from three parallel, though not contiguous, related movements in the twentieth century: liberation theology, which evolved in Latin America in the 1950s and 60s; the Clinical Pastoral Education Movement, which grew from the work of Anton Boisen (see also Aden, 1990) in the 1920s onwards; and various attempts to formalize and enhance the application of reflective practice in professional training programmes developed from the work of the philosopher John Dewey (1991). This crystallized in the experiential learning cycle developed by Daniel Kolb (1984) and others in the 1980s, and within the growing discipline of practical theology, to the development of the pastoral cycle as a core model for reflective practice (see pp. 51ff).

The development of practical theology as a distinct theological field is itself recent. Theology as taught in theological colleges for ministerial formation at least until the 1960s consisted almost entirely of historical, biblical, doctrinal and ethical studies. The newly ordained were left to their own devices to bridge the temporal, conceptual and cultural gap between their studies at college and the life and events of the individuals and communities among whom they were then sent to minister. Gradually ‘pastoralia’ and then ‘pastoral studies’ were tacked on as an extra to the main body of material studies. It wasn’t until the late twentieth century that it was more generally recognized as a significant part of ministerial training and formation and even then it remained – and still remains – optional in some routes or courses.

Theological reflection is central to, and perhaps even the defining element of, practical theology, but is not synonymous with it. It is the means by which connections are made between other aspects of theological discipline and its application in pastoral practice, and the process by which pastoral events and situations are reviewed in the light of theological understanding. The implications of this are explored further in the sections which follow.

A recent book that is particularly useful in illustrating different approaches to TR is Theological Reflection: Methods (Graham et al, 2005). This work begins with a plea for a more holistic approach in the teaching and learning of theology such that biblical, historical and systematic theology should be presented and assimilated contextually and integrated with TR at all levels. It then distinguishes seven different approaches to TR, most of which have long antecedents (see box).

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Seven approaches to TR summarized

1. ‘Theology by heart’: the living human document

Experiences of God mediated and evaluated through personal experience, particularly through journalling and the telling of personal stories and attempts at self-understanding.

2. ‘Speaking in parables’: constructive narrative theology

Listening to a variety of accounts from alternative and unexpected sources and stories and relating these imaginatively to traditional perspectives.

3. ‘Telling God’s story’: canonical narrative theology

Looking at the world in the perspective of God’s revelation and discernment as suggested and illustrated in the biblical narrative.

4. ‘Writing the body of Christ’: corporate theological reflection

An examination of the ways in which congregations could, or do, create their own corporate narrative by consciously or unconsciously using particular themes, practices and metaphors, such as that of ‘the body of Christ’ and other particular images and symbols in discussion and liturgy.

5. ‘Speaking of God in public’: correlation

Theological reflection understood as a critical conversation between the Christian tradition and culture as expressed in the fruits of intellectual, technological, artistic and social development.

6. ‘Theology-in-action’: praxis

The work of discipleship understood as perceiving God’s work in history and enabling it in the present through making his incarnational love real in pastoral and practical care and in working for justice alongside the suffering and the marginalized.

7. ‘Theology in the vernacular: local theologies

This approach attempts to enable the understanding and expression of Gospel truths, stripped of dominant cultural accretions, to be translated and developed in different local and temporal cultures.

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The approaches to TR outlined in the box are descriptive rather than prescriptive. The authors of Theological Reflection: Methods are not setting out to demonstrate what TR is and how it should be practised, but rather to examine, classify and shed light on processes already at work in historical and contemporary situations and identify and describe what they have observed.

The purpose of this present book is different. It is to make guidelines available to experienced and inexperienced students of practical theology, and anyone preparing for ministry, or wanting to examine the integration of faith and practice in their lives more systematically; guidelines in the practice of the kind of TR which will help them to engage with ‘lively ecstatic theology that dances, puzzles, stimulates, delights, strikes sparks from contemporary experience and transforms individuals and communities’ (Pattison, 2000 p. 219).

The most helpful approach for this purpose, of those outlined above (Graham et al. 2005), is that described as ‘Theology-in-action’ (though there is some overlap in the detail, with some of the other approaches described). This TR approach we have here refined and defined more closely in order to distinguish it clearly from other forms of theological reflection, and have called it PTR, or ‘Progressing Theological Reflection’, for short. We have tried to encapsulate its key characteristics under the ‘Five Ps’ as in the box below.

PTR : Theological Reflection with five Ps PTR denotes theological reflection which is: Progressing – moves on, transforms, starts at one place and leads on to another; enables new life. Particular – focused on specific events and situations rather than general ideas and theories. Potent/Prophetic – seeking to know and be and do God’s truth, mediated through scripture, tradition, prayer and, perhaps, revelation, for this particular situation. Practical – rooted in the here and now and resulting in definite action.

To appreciate the full richness of this ‘praxis’ tradition, and its practical value, it is helpful to relate it to its cousins in other professions, and to its antecedents in liberation theology. These subjects form the nucleus of the rest of Part 1 of this book. Part 2 considers the elements and resources for PTR. In Part 3 there is a shift from focusing on PTR as the gold standard of pastoral practice to a consideration of its wider contribution in the context of theological wisdom and political struggle.

2. PTR and reflective practice in other professions

Figure 1: Kolb’s learning cycle (simplified).

PTR is, among other things, a specific approach to theological reflection from a critical distance, with as much objectivity as possible. Reflection with a critical perspective has, of course, existed for as long as human beings have been able to think about and articulate what they do and why they do it: but, with the work of philosopher John Dewey in the 1930s, in the field of education reflective practice began to be a conscious and deliberate part of professional training. Gradually, other writers refined and developed Dewey’s rather linear and individualistic pattern...

Table of contents

• SCM STUDYGUIDE TO THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1. What is PTR?
• 1. What Theological Reflection is – and what it isn’t
• 2. PTR in Practice: Some Simple Paradigms
• 3. Ways and Means: A Variety of PTR Approaches and Models
• Part 2. The Elements of PTR and its Basic Resources
• 4. The Place of Scripture in PTR
• 5. God, Gaps and Glory – The Kairos Moment
• 6. PTR in the Context of Daily and Community Life – Chronos
• 7. PTR and Personality: Differences in Thinking, Feeling, Learning and Doing
• Part 3. The Wider Perspective
• 8. PTR and Theology
• 9. PTR, Ethics, Institutions and the Wider World
• 10. PTR for Life – Not Just for Courses
• Part 4. A Toolkit for PTR
• Core Texts