Straw for the Bricks

Theological Reflection in Practice

Liz Shercliff, Gary O'Neill, O'Neill

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780334055006
• eBook ISBN: 9780334055020
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

"Straw for the Bricks" explores theological reflection as a tool for ministerial training and development. The book offers a new resource for theological conversation and breaks new ground in exploring how a model of conversation can be used to lay a foundation for learning for both academic curriculum and personal formation. This will become an important resource for those within theological education institutions, adult theological educators; those with responsibility for continuing ministerial development, mentoring and discipleship; and any lay person who seeks to live a life of faith in conversation with culture and the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Part one: Straw for the Bricks

1. Introducing the model

GARY O’NEILL

Just before lunch on an induction day for new students at All Saints, everyone gathers in a small hall, in which space has been created to wander around, and a member of staff outlines what will happen over the next 45 minutes. The students are invited to watch a short slide show of photographs of homeless people in and around the streets of Manchester – the images are accompanied by Ralph McTell’s 1969 song ‘Streets of London’, but no commentary is offered. When the short presentation concludes the students are asked to respond to what they see and feel, by wandering around the hall via each of its four corners, in any order they choose. In each corner there is a member of staff and large self-stick sheets of paper, together with large pens, on which to write responses. In one corner they are invited to share what they think Scripture has to say about homelessness or poverty. In a second corner they are invited to think about how the way the world we live in comments on homelessness: what, for example, would a Daily Mail headline say about homeless people; what would the Guardian comment; how would your favourite radio host deal with the issue? In a third corner people are gently invited, if they wish, to share their personal experience of homeless people or homelessness. In a fourth corner the participants are asked to discern what their instinctive or emotive reaction is to homelessness; it is explained that they do not have to justify or defend what they might vocalize.

It is suggested that when they have visited each corner once, they do so again to hear or read what other people are saying and join in the conversation there if they wish. Finally, they are encouraged to mingle in the centre of the room and share with each other their experience of the last 30 minutes or so. Instructions given, the music starts, and 18 pictures drift across the large screen at one side of the hall – some people remain standing to watch.

The exercise is ended after about 40 minutes by the same member of staff who offered the original invitation. ‘What we have just shared in together is what life is like at All Saints – together as staff and students we are a learning community. We all bring our extensive personal experience to the process of ministerial formation; some of us feel very strongly about certain issues; together we study the Scriptures alongside the Church’s ongoing response; and we are aware that we live in a specific time and place in a country with its own customs and practices. Now it is time for lunch!’

The exercise always creates a buzz among the students; presenting an opportunity to physically move about at will, choosing with whom to interact, and providing an excuse for people to talk with those to whom they have not previously spoken.

At no point is the phrase ‘theological reflection’ used. At no point is the four-source model mentioned. At no point are the sources of that model named: Tradition (the Judeo-Christian tradition); Culture (the world we live in); Experience (my personal experience); or Position (visceral or gut reaction). And at no point does anyone indicate that the four-source model of theological reflection is a conversation between the four sources of Tradition, Culture, Experience and Position.

That is one way to introduce – in a manner which is slightly under the radar – the principles and practice of this model of theological reflection to a large group of people. If we were to do this in class, we might do it in a different way. A group of six to eight students are seated around a table on which there are several large flipchart-size pieces of paper and some pens. The group are asked if someone would be willing to offer up a credit or debit card for a few minutes and place it in the middle of the table (‘Don’t worry – we are not going to cut it up!’). In four distinct places on the paper, the group are asked to write and discuss: (a) what you recall the Scriptures say about money and finance; (b) how the world we live in relates to financial institutions, banks and credit; (c) what your own personal experience of credit or debit cards is; and (e) what do you feel very strongly about with regards finance and credit? The ensuing conversation can run for as long as time permits. The exercise concludes with making sure the card is returned safely to its owner!

In the context of a class introduction, rather than a gentle taster like the induction day above, the conversation would move on quickly to an introduction of the four-source model and an explanation of the sources involved.

It is the conviction of the authors of this book that the four-source model of theological reflection is both nimble and robust. It can be used in an exercise such as the one using a credit card to explore theological aspects of finance in a short space of time; or it can be used over several weeks or months to explore a community or national issue. It can be used to underpin an educational approach, as, for example, in the teaching and forming of people for licensed and ordained ministry; or it can facilitate the lifelong learning of the people of God – a tool to be used for setting God’s people free.

Before we explore the model in detail, let us consider the wider context in which the practice of theological reflection locates itself.

Practical theology and theological reflection

The publication of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology (Miller-McLemore, 2012) is an indication that the discipline of practical theology has come of age. Within the wider academy, developments that increasingly place an emphasis on practice, combined with the work of philosophical, political and social theorists, have nudged practical theologians into a reassessment of their own field, resulting in richer conversations between many sub-disciplines. This breadth and variety brings its own conundrum: what is practical theology? Bonnie Miller-McLemore defines it thus:

Practical theology refers to an activity of believers seeking to sustain a life of reflective faith in the everyday, a method or way of understanding or analysing theology in practice used by religious leaders and by teachers and students across the theological curriculum, a curricular area in theological education focused on ministerial practice and subspecialties, and, finally, an academic discipline pursued by a smaller subset of scholars to support and sustain these first three enterprises.

She then shows how each understanding points to eight different spatial locations:

from daily life to library and fieldwork to classroom, congregation and community, and, finally, to academic guild and global context. The four understandings are connected and interdependent, not mutually exclusive, however, and reflect the range and complexity of practical theology today.

(Miller-McLemore, 2012, 5)

The glue that holds together the four areas described by Bonnie Miller-McLemore is theological reflection, the process whereby believers, religious leaders, teachers, students and scholars make connections between their experience and their faith.

When outlining the rise of practical theology over the last 25 years Elaine Graham describes theological reflection as being ‘at its very heart’ (Graham, Walton and Ward, 2007, 1), echoing the phrase used by Paul Ballard and John Pritchard that ‘theological reflection is at the heart of the nature and task of practical theology’ (2006, 127), and Judith Thompson identifies it as the ‘defining element’ of practical theology (Thompson, Pattison and Thompson, 2008, 18). Stephen Pattison describes it as the ‘lodestone and distinguishing mark’ (Pattison, Thompson and Green, 2003, 119) and Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, working in the Latina context of north Philadelphia, an area hurt badly b...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part one: Straw for the Bricks
• 1. Introducing the model
• 2. Researching the model
• 3. Using the basic model in practice
• 4. Developing skills and understanding
• Part two: Theological Reflection in Practice
• 5. Teaching biblical studies
• 6. Theological reflection and exegesis
• 7. Reflective preaching
• 8. Using group theological reflection to prepare sermons
• 9. Poetry
• 10. Theological reflection as praxis
• 11. Theological action research
• 12. Final thoughts
• Glossary
• Bibliography