Description
Book SynopsisIn this landmark volume, internationally recognized scholars address key intellectual and practical conundrums that not only trouble practical theology but also reflect biases and breakdowns in the construction of theological knowledge in academy and religious communities at large. With critical facility and unheralded honesty that includes reflexivity about their own lives in the academy, the authors tackle complex issues that refuse easy solutions— racism, hierarchy of theory over practice, devaluation of small case studies, risks of interdisciplinarity to scholarly identity, inequities between Christian traditions, unreflective Christian-centrism, and tensions between the production of scholarship and public service. Outcomes of these issues will have serious implications for the discipline and the study of theology for years to come. Contributors include Tom Beaudoin, Eileen R. Campbell-Reed, Faustino M. Cruz, Jaco Dreyer, Courtney T. Goto, Tone Stangeland Kaufman, Joyce Ann Mercer, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Katherine Turpin, Claire E. Wolfteich.
Table of ContentsContents Introduction Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore and Joyce Ann Mercer Why Does Practice Matter Theologically? Tom Beaudoin The Power and Danger of a Single Case Study in Practical Theological Research Eileen R. Campbell-Reed The Tension between Scholarship and Service Faustino M. Cruz Knowledge, Subjectivity, (De)Coloniality, and the Conundrum of Reflexivity Jaco Dreyer Writing in Compliance with the Racialized ‘Zoo’ of Practical Theology Courtney T. Goto From the Outside, Within, or Inbetween? Normativity at Work in Empirical Practical Theological Research Tone Stangeland Kaufman Interdisciplinarity as a Practical Theological Conundrum Joyce Ann Mercer The Theory-Practice Binary and the Politics of Practical Knowledge Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore Raced Bodies: Portraying Bodies, Reifying Racism Phillis Isabella Sheppard The Complexity of Local Knowledge Katherine Turpin Reframing Practical Theology: Catholic Contributions and Conundrums Claire E. Wolfteich Contributors Index
