EMERGING ADULTS AND A-HA MOMENTS: PRACTICAL

THEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES

INVOLVING CRISIS, RELATIONSHIPS, AND PRACTICES

By

Karla D. Van Zee

Dissertation

Submitted to the Faculty of the

Graduate School of Vanderbilt University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

in

Religion

May, 2011

Nashville, Tennessee

Approved:

Professor Bonnie Miller-McLemore

Professor Barbara McClure

Professor Volney Gay

Copyright 2011 by Karla Van Zee
All Rights Reserved

ii
To my family, my friends, and emerging adults everywhere.

In memory of Don Browning.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful to the many people and organizations that helped me to see this

project through to completion. First, I would like to offer great thanks and appreciation to

my advisor Bonnie Miller-McLemore. My project was made infinitely better by her wise

counsel and I appreciate all her time and consideration of my project over the years.

Next, I would like to thank PTEV and Lilly Endowment Inc. for their influence in my

project. In particular, I am grateful to Dr. Chris Coble for his steady presence and

encouragement. I likewise offer appreciation to my committee members Dr. Barbara

McClure, Dr. Volney Gay, and Dr. Paul DeHart for their input into my project.

The actual writing of this dissertation was an immense joy. It was the thinking

about writing and the clearing of space to write that made life difficult. To quote a song:

"I've been to hell and back. I can show you vouchers." This section serves as an

acknowledgement to those who provided me with a voucher for a one-way ticket back

from a proverbial hell.

First, I am indebted to Bill and June Rogers. Their home, Birdhaven in Hanover,

Indiana, was my home during most of my writing. Likewise, I thank Evon Flesberg and

Norm Nelson for the key and passcode to Querenica that I used as a haven over the

summer to write. I am incredibly grateful for the hospitality provided by both of these

couples who gave me a home when I had none. They offered me refuge and retreat and

without which, this project could not have been completed.

iv
 Next, I want to thank my parents, Rod and Jan Van Zee. Their steady

encouragement and ultimate belief in me have taught me the meaning of unconditional

love. They have never said I told you so, although I have given them many

opportunities to do so. To my big brother, Wade, and my younger sister, Janna, who is

my biggest fan. To my sister-in-law Tracey, and my niece Abby, whose happiness and

enthusiasm for life was a constant reminder of life outside of the dissertation.

Next, I am indebted to my two sistas from another mother: Lindsay Gray and

Stef Knoblauch. Lindsay was there for me the entire long way with daily e-mails and

encouraging comments. She printed drafts for me and also proved to be a five-star editor

who edited two chapters and more. Stef was there when I made a major living transition

and was also one to send cards in the mail urging me along. I am very lucky to have two

best friends; they have taught me the very best things about friendship and exemplify the

quote, a friend is someone who knows all about you, but likes you anyway.

Next, I offer thanks to Hanover College and its community. I am particularly

grateful for Dr. Michael Duffy for his constant support and encouragement, which

includes reading and editing most of my dissertation. The Hanover College theology

department was on hand to egg me on and they supplied me with office space on campus.

Next, I offer appreciation to Hanover Colleges Duggan Library where I was able to do

ILLs and hide out in a third floor conference room. Also, the Hanover Presbyterian

Church offered its own kind of support and community during my writing with many

hands pushing me along. Overall, being surrounded by a community of people who had

all been through a PhD program gave me perspective and encouragement far beyond my

expectations.

v
 Finally, to the RPC gals and my writing group, whose steady weekly checks-ins

cheered me on during the good weeks and offered consolation for the bad weeks. Thanks

to Eileen Campbell-Reed, Nichole Phillips, Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Leanna Fuller, Beth

Toler, Kaye Nickell, and Diane Segroves for weekly accountability. And many thanks to

the RPC gals, which includes many of the aforementioned women, plus Liz Zagatta,

who is such a friend and hung out with me at Querencia, and Kate Lassiter who read and

edited a chapter for me. Thanks also to Chris Paris at the Writing Studio for going

through several drafts with me and whose simple advice made me a better writer.

In closing, I would like to thank Ann Harris and all the folks at the Lander library

for all their support and encouragement (and ILLs). David Buchman kept me moving

forward by saying things like, No one else really thinks you can do this, but I do. I also

give great thanks for Marie McEntires support and knowledge of the administrative

aspects, especially as she helped to see my dissertation through to the very end. And in

the end, I want to acknowledge the passing of Don Browning on June 3, 2010. I wrote

most of this dissertation assuming that one day, he would read my work. Although he and

I never met, I felt a certain kinship since he was the advisor of my advisor, a kind of

academic grandfather. His thought and influence permeates almost every page of my

dissertation. Labeled as one of the great architects of practical theology, his presence

will surely be missed.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSiv

INTRODUCTION..1

Listening Love .......3

Don Browning and Listening...4
Descriptive Theology.......5
Good Social Science....9
A-ha Moments 10
Formation and Formative Moments...11
Important Conversations 12
Lenses.15
Overview of the Chapters.. 18

I. STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORY AND PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

Practical Theology and Student Development Theory.. 24

Part One: Student Development Theory.. 27
Positivistic Paradigm..33
Call for New Methods 40
Part Two: Practical Theology... 43
Practical Theology: Effective History48
Clerical Paradigm...52
Shaking the Tree: Practical Theology 1980s-2010 55
Hermeneutic Approaches... 67

II. CRITICAL HERMENEUTICAL METHODOLOGY..71

Step One: Descriptive Theology.74

Thick Description75
Methodology...77
Hermeneutics: Interpreting Interpretive Theory..78
Methodology: Epistemological and Ontological Claims.80
Brownings Four Core Ideas of Hermeneutic Theory.....82
Critical Hermeneutical Theory....90
Critical Hermeneutical Theory and Practical Theology..92
Methods...94
Gadamers Effective History...95
Effective Historical Consciousness or Historically Effective Consciousness?
Ricoeur and Distanciation..103

vii
 Examining the Essays: Constructing the Lenses...110

III. THE ESSAYS AND ME...........117

IV. PSYCHOSOCIAL LENS......138

Effective History: Psychosocial Theory.139

Erik Erikson............... 140
Erikson and Identity... ... 141
Adolescence: A Cultural Construction.. ... 144
Emerging Adulthood: Bridging the Gap.... ... 147
Other Researchers and Emerging Adulthood.150
Examining the Essays: Emerging Adulthood 153
The age of identity exploration.. 154
The age of instability. 158
The self-focused age...162
The age of feeling in-between164
The age of possibilities....166

V. OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY171

Effective History: Object Relations Theory...172

Melanie Klein.174
Donald Woods Winnicott...177
Examining the Essays: Object Relations Theory.. 182
Adults. 184
Peer Groups 187
Friends... 189

VI. CRISIS...192

Sharon Parks and Shipwreck. 193

Effective History: Pastoral Theology.196
Pastoral and Practical Theology.199
Gerkin and Crisis 202
Whitehead and Whitehead. 206
Examining the Essays: Crisis. 208
Crisis: Death.. 209
Crisis: Loss 211
Crisis: Confrontation with the Unknown.. 212

VII. PRACTICES..217

Problems with Practice. 218

Effective History: Practice. 221
Practice: A Bifurcation.. 223

viii
 Theories about Practice. 229
The Middle Ground: Graham, Smith, Neiman, and Mercer. 239
Examining the Essays: Practice. 247
Practice of Social Service. 248
Practice of Fellowship250
Practice of Work 255
Practice of Reading and Reflection257
Practice of Conversation... 260

VIII. PRHONESIS 264

Aristotle and Phronesis.. 260

Gadamer, Phronesis, and Hermeneutics 270
Browning, Phronesis, and Practical Theology....273
Phronesis, Flourishing, and Practical Theology..278
Seven Suggestions
Mentors...286
Social Service..288
Work Study and Internships289
Support Fellowship Groups.290
Resources and Staff for Crisis..291
Encourage Student to Explore and Dream...292
Get Students Reading and Talking About Books293

Bibliography....296

ix
 INTRODUCTION

These are the voices of college students who answered the question: What has

been your biggest a-ha moment in college?

This year my Aha moment came when one of my good friends suddenly
died. My friends death was hard to deal with. It filled my mind with
questions, anger and sadness. Through all the emotions that I was feeling, her
death made me realize that tomorrow is not promised. I may be here today,
but I dont know about tomorrow. For that reason, I need to live my life to the
fullest.
The atmosphere that college engenders is exactly the atmosphere where aha
moments are born. For the first time, we are independent from our families,
making decisions on our own, and away from everything familiar. Not only
this, but we are asking questions about ourselves: who we are, who we want to
be, and what the purpose is for our lives.
College is a time where you do an incredible amount of growing in a short
period of time. Sometimes huge discoveries are made and other times
circumstances change so rapidly that you can barely keep up with yourself.
College seems to be a time full of aha! moments for most young adults. In
fact, sometimes I wonder if its not more that were young adults entering a
new phase in life than that were college students. Whatever the case, almost
all college students I know (specifically those whove gone away to school)
have dealt with the same issues. The same feelings crop up at about the same
time for thousands of students all over the country each year.
It was a big struggle for me coming to college and knowing only one other
person. To make matters worse, the one person I knew was my girlfriend of
two years who had just broken up with me. Also, within the very first week of
classes, I found out that one of my very close friends from back home had
committed suicide. So I found myself at college, not knowing anyone, two
hours from home, and heartbroken over the loss of my girlfriend and very dear
friendThis time in my life became a deep valley and the lowest of lows for
me. I didnt want to eat. I stayed in my room constantly. And I slept a lot
because I couldnt feel the pain when I was asleep. I was hurting and I needed
help.
College and University studies today have come to be seen almost as a rite of
passage. Most people have gone through this rite have experienced moments
in their studies that have formed, shaped and ultimately changed them. In my
own journey of studies, I too have had experiences that have left a lasting
impression on me... My formative moment did not end in the discovery of
these early texts though. My exposure to these early texts helped blaze a trail

1
 on the path of my own spiritual renewal. Merely reading a text was not
enough for me. I began to realize that although these texts were ancient,
they were far from dead. I found that the practices I was reading about were
alive with meaning and symbol.
I have had many experiences in my college career that have shaped the way I
view my life and my calling, but none have been as formative to my
understanding of my calling as the knowledge I gained in a class I took my
sophomore year at blank .

A central claim of this dissertation is that the voices in these essays have

something significant to add to the growing interest in the lives of college students. My

main argument is that we need a rich, thick, and complex set of lenses to understand the

experiences described within these essays; furthermore, the inherently interdisciplinary

approach of practical theology, grounded in critical hermeneutical theory, will guide this

search. Critical hermeneutical theory, as both a method and methodology, offers a

framework for holding together multiple theoretical lenses to allow comparative analysis

with religious and scientific sources. My hypothesis is that a study of the lives of college

students, as expressed in their own words, has some explanatory power for interpreting

and understanding college student development and formation.

By constructing a set of critical lenses to view the essays, a richer, deeper, and

thicker understanding of these formative moments of college students can emerge. By

uncovering the wisdom in the reported experience of these essayists, the hope is that

insight can be gained into the lived experience of others. The voices in the essays are

from sources not always well-represented in current theory; furthermore, I claim that

these voices have important lessons and insights to share, a kind of phronesis. A study of

these essays has some explanatory power for understanding pivotal moments of

formation of college students as well as offering lessons of interest to those in higher

education.

2
 Listening Love

It is important for me to approach these essays theologically, rather than

scientifically, and to listen to the voices embedded within the essays. Theology offers

particular perspectives and approaches to the topic of listening. For example, twentieth-

century theologian Paul Tillich develops the concept of listening love in Love, Power,

and Justice. For Tillich, the ultimate challenge of faith is how to put love into action

where the first task of love is to listen.1 He states: Listening love is the first step to

justice in person-to-person encounters. In order to know what is just in a person-to-

person encounter, love listens. It is its first task to listen.2 Listening love becomes the

first task of love because no human relation is possible without listening. Listening love

is not love as an emotional state, but instead reflects God as the source of love, power,

and justice.3 For Tillich, Love in its attempt to see what is in the other person is by no

means irrational and instead should use the tools provided by psychology which give

unexpected possibilities of discovering the intrinsic claims of a human being.4 He adds:

All things and all men, so to speak, call on us with small or loud voices. They
want us to listen, they want us to understand their intrinsic claims, their justice of

1
I was introduced to Tillichs concept of listening love by the Reverend William Warr Rogers. Bill and
his wife June are so taken by the concept that they erected a garden and display dedicated to listening love.
This spot of beauty sits in the front of their house, Bird Haven, which was also my home during much of
the writing of this dissertation.
2
Paul Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications (Oxford University
Press, 1960), 84-85. Tillich discusses the different dimensions of love: agape, eros, philia, libidio, and
epithymia where agape cuts through and into libidio, eros, philia and epithymia and elevates them above
self-centeredness. See, Tillich, 28-34, 116.
3
Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice, 109.
4
Ibid., 85. Tillich adds that It (love) uses all possible mean to penetrate into the dark places of his motives
and inhibitionsThrough it (psychology) we have learned that human expressions can mean something
quite different from what they seem or are intended to mean. 84-85.

3
 being. They want justice from us. But we can give it to them only through the
love which listens.5

Listening love is the first task of love, a love that is grounded in the basic assertion that

love is one.6 Love listens. By listening to the voices in the essays, according to Tillich, I

am taking up the first task of love.

Don Browning and Listening

Don Browning also reflects on the importance of listening and love. Browning

echoes Tillichs perspective when he discusses the fundamental need for people to be

understood and the power of love to do so. Using Reinhold Niebuhrs insights into the

nature of love as agape, Browning reflects upon love as mutuality and equal regard.7

Furthermore, according to Browning, if anything has been learned from hermeneutic

theory and psychotherapy, it is that human beings have a deep hunger to be understood.8

Because of this, Browning affirms the act of listening:

When we listen, we do not simply receive information passively. We listen in

order to describe, and the description comes from a particular perspective. We
hear, listen, and empathize out of a particular social and historical dialogue.
Listening is the first part of conversation and dialogue. Listening is never
perfectly neutral, objective, or internal to what the other person or group is
saying.9

Listening involves an active sense of empathy and is fundamental to the conversation

process. For Browning, listening is a fundamental characteristic of all the practical

5
Ibid., 84.
6
Ibid., 27. Tillich focuses on an ontology of love and declares that if love is understood in its ontological
nature, then love is the drive towards the unity of the separatedLife is being in actuality and love is the
moving power of life. 24-25.
7
Ibid., 147-155, 158.
8
Don Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press, 1995), 284.
9
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 286.

4
ministerial arts and should be understood under the rubric of descriptive theology.10

Through listening, descriptive theology attempts to describe a deep understanding of

others, their situations, and their identities.11

According to Browning, doing descriptive theology helps implement love and

positive regard. He states: The very act of doing descriptive theology is restorative.

Individuals and groups like to be understood.12 Furthermore, descriptive theology

attempts the deep understanding of persons and their situations as an act of empathy. He

states: Descriptive theology, in attempting to understand people and groups in their

concrete situations, communicates affirmation, preserves the cohesion of selves and

identities, and builds on strengths.13 And towards this goal, descriptive theology can

integrate the moments of listening and description characteristic of all the practical

ministerial arts.14 He affirms that the listening and empathy so fundamental to pastoral

counseling should be understood under the rubric of descriptive theology.15 In short, for

Browning, it is important to see listening as an act of descriptive theology an act that

in itself witnesses to Gods grace in creation and redemption.16

Descriptive Theology

Descriptive theology is the first step in Brownings four-fold method of a

fundamental practical theology. He outlines this method in A Fundamental Practical

10
Ibid., 286.
11
Ibid., 285.
12
Ibid., 284.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid., 286-7. These practical ministerial arts are listed as: counseling, education, preaching, worship,
church development, social ministries of various kinds, and so on.
15
Ibid., 286.
16
Ibid.

5
Theology where I argue that theology as a whole is fundamental practical theology and

that it has within it four submovements of descriptive theology, historical theology,

systematic theology, and strategic practical theology.17 Each of these submovements is

very complicated; Browning refers to his process as monumentally complex and

probably requires the efforts of finely tuned research teams.18 Bonnie Miller-McLemore

confirms the monumental effort involved when she writes that serious practical theology

takes time, requires a rich and variety of complex resources, and works best, despite the

vast complications, with multiple authors.19 For this reason, and others, I attempt to take

only one step of Brownings full theological methodology, the first step of descriptive

theology.

Descriptive theology, as the first movement, is interested in all situations that are

part of life. Furthermore, the task of descriptive theology is to advance multidimensional

descriptions of situations. In this sense, Browning advocates that the primary task of

descriptive theology is to render a thick description of the contemporary situation.20 He

states: The task is to describe it in its thickness so that the situation can be made to be

seen in all of its situated richness.21 The term thick description will be expanded

upon later in Chapter One, but a good example of descriptive theology can be seen in

From Culture Wars to Common Ground. Specifically, Part One is an attempt to do

descriptive theology by rendering a thick description of the contemporary situation of

17
Ibid., 8, original emphasis.
18
Don Browning, Equality and the Family: A Fundamental Practical Theology of Children, Mothers, and
Fathers in Modern Society (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 35.
19
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Feminist Theory in Pastoral Theology, in Feminist and Womanist Pastoral
Theology, ed. Bonnie Miller-McLemore and Brita Gill-Austern (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999), 93.
20
Don Browning, Congregational Studies as Practical Theology, in American Congregations: Volume 2
New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations, ed. James Wind and James Lewis (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1994), 206 and Browning, Fundamental Practical Theology, 94.
21
Browning, Fundamental Practical Theology, 94.

6
families. Towards this end, the authors state that we first listened at length to a number

of real families.22 In this way, the authors tried to utilize a principle consistent with

hermeneutic social science and used within the methods of practical theology as

exemplified by the writings of Miller-McLemore, Couture, Lyon, and Franklin.23 This

first part of Culture Wars presents demographic trends and causal factors that help

explain marriage and family trends in contemporary America.24

One more important aspect of descriptive theology needs highlighting. Browning

advocates that good theology, especially good practical theology, should somehow

address problems, situations, and conflicts in contemporary society: It should try to

describe these conflicts and, to some extent, explain what is producing them. All of this is

part of descriptive theology.25 In order to address these problems, other resources found

outside of theology, and specifically in the human sciences, must be used in descriptive

theology. Browning states, The vision of descriptive theology that I propose makes a

place for the special foci of the human sciences. These sciences are treated as moments

within a larger structure of understanding conceived as dialogue and conversation.26 The

descriptive tools of sociology, anthropology, history, and psychology offer power to the

22
Browning, Equality and the Family, 396.
23
Bonnie Miller-McLemores work with listening to mothers is in Also a Mother: Work and Family as a
Theological Dilemma (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994). See also, Pamela Couture, Blessed Are the Poor:
Womens Poverty, Family Policy, and Practical Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991); K. Brynolf
Lyon, Toward a Practical Theology of Aging (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985); and Robert M. Franklin,
Another Days Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1997).
24
The central question of this first part is are there signs of increased family disruption in North American
society, and, if so, how should they be understood from the perspective of Christian ideals and classics?
See Browning, The Relation of Practical Theology to Theological Ethics, Equality and the Family, 396.
25
Don Browning, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Pamela Couture, K. Brynolf Lyon, and Robert M. Franklin,
From Culture Wars to Common Ground (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 337, original
emphasis.
26
Browning, American Congregations, 200.

7
insights of descriptive theology.27 For Eileen Campbell-Reed, the movement of

descriptive theology is one where the practical theologian attempts to describe and by

various means, including theories from the social sciences, the richness and multiple

textures of the practices, events, contexts or crises which are under study.28 One of

Brownings central claims in Culture Wars, and in other texts, is the following:

When done rightly, good theology will look a lot more like good social science;
that is, it will describe the world it is addressing with much more care and nuance
than theology generally does. The converse is also true. When done rightly, good
social science will look a lot more like good theology; that is, it will take more
responsibility for revealing and critically defending the implicit norms and ideals
that unwittingly guide its descriptions of the social world.29

For Browning, theology and the social sciences are very similar. If both are done rightly

then only a thin line separates such hermeneutically conceived social sciences and

theology.30 As an example of a good social science approach, Browning refers to

Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah.31 A central methodological move of Habits is to

locate itself within some historical tradition and that its own descriptions and

explanations of contemporary trends must always to some extent be influenced by the

27
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 112.
28
Eileen Campbell-Reed, Anatomy of a Schism: How Clergywomens Narratives Interpret the Fracturing
of the Southern Baptist Convention, (PhD dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 2008), 31.
29
Browning et al., From Culture Wars and Common Ground, 335. Browning adds that these propositions
silently inform almost every page of From Culture Wars to Common Ground.
30
Don Browning, Congregational Studies as Practical Theology, in American Congregations: Volume 2
New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations, ed. James Wind and James Lewis (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1994), 195.
31
Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swindler, and Steven Tipton, Habits of the Heart
(Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1985.) Browning states that the central argument of
Habits is that social science inevitably must locate itself within some historical tradition and that the social
sciences should acknowledge this truth and be more accountable for acknowledging its rootedness in
tradition. Browning also states that A Fundamental Practical Theology converts Gadamers hermeneutic
circle into a comprehensive theological method that also has similarities with the social science method that
Bellah describes. For more on Bellah, see Browning, The Relation of Practical Theology to Theological
Ethics, in Equality and the Family, ed. Don Browning et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2007), 394-6 and Browning et al., From Culture Wars to Common Ground, 334-337,
Browning, American Congregations,194-195 and Browning, Fundamental Practical Theology, 85-89.

8
ideals informing that tradition.32 Bellah demands that social scientists and historians

must not only acknowledge that tradition plays a role in their disciplines but also take

responsibility for the critical conversation about the relative adequacy of their tradition-

saturated beginning points.33 For Browning, if these concerns are taken seriously, then

only a thin line separates a good hermeneutically conceived social science and a

good hermeneutically conceived theology.

Good Social Science

If I were to choose a good social science approach analogous to my own

theological approach, it would be the one used by Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy

Goldberger, and Jill Tarule in Womens Ways of Knowing. By conducting numerous

interviews with female college students, the authors understanding of the development

of women was fundamentally changed after listening to their stories. The authors

concluded that womens epistemological assumptions are central to their perceptions of

themselves and their worlds.34 Many women defined themselves in terms of relationships

and connections. For example, women were drawn to the role of caretaker and nurturer,

often putting others needs before their own, which matched a pattern described by Carol

Gilligan.35 Furthermore, these findings significantly differed from the prevailing theory

on intellectual development and directly challenged models that were based on largely on

32
Browning, From Culture Wars to Common Ground, 336.
33
Browning, American Congregations, 195.
34
By listening to these women, five basic epistemological perspectives emerged from which women know
and view the world: silence, received knowledge, subjective knowledge, procedural knowledge, and
constructed knowledge. See, Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, and Jill Tarule, Womens
Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1997), xiii.
35
Carol Gilligan. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Womens Development (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1982).

9
mens experience.36 The team pored through transcriptions of interviews and through

these words, the team found themselves emerged from this long process with an

extraordinary sense of intimacy and collaboration with all the women, even though each

of us had met face to face with only a few.37 By listening to and reading numerous

interviews, particular patterns were detected. Belenky and others approach inspired me

and I wanted to approach the essays much in the same way they approach their

interviews. Furthermore, the final sentence of Womens Ways of Knowing is: These are

the lessons we have learned in listening to womens voices.38 I, too, wanted to learn

from the lessons in the essays and listen to their voices.

A-ha Moments

Each essay answers the question: what has been your biggest a-ha moment in

college? No student answered in the negative: either that they had never had an a-ha

moment or that the moment resulted in an overall negative outcome.39 The central theme

of the essays is change: a change in perception, a change to self, a change of status, a

change in worldview or change in thought process. By its very nature, the a-ha moment is

a positive event. In their own words, the essayists describe an a-ha moment as: a

36
According to Adrianna Kezar:Finally, Belenky et al.(1986) found that for women, confirmation and
community are prerequisites rather than consequences of development(p. 194) and that contextual learning
(from firsthand experience or observation) was more meaningful than the abstract learning process that
takes place in a classroom. This new theory of a more connected way of learning provides a contrast to
Perrys (1970) widely accepted theory that has portrayed cognitive development as more linear and
separate. See: Kezar, Adrianna and Deb Moriarty, Expanding our Understanding of Student Leadership
Development: A Study Exploring Gender and Ethnic Identity, Journal of College Student Development
41, no.1 (Jan/Feb 2000), 56
37
Belenky et al., Womens Ways of Knowing, xxv.
38
Ibid., 229.
39
Negative events, specifically crises, were mentioned in the essays, but as will be discussed, these crises
occurred in the context of the a-ha moment and in some case, a crisis precipitated the a-ha moment.

10
significant lesson, a perspective gained, a moment that really changes ones way of

thinking, or a change in perception. An a-ha moment results in: a deeper level of

understanding, personal growth, a deeper understanding of who I am, or even

increases self knowledge and revolutionizes thought processes. A-ha moments are:

Moments that have made me think of who I am as a person, a student, and a

future educator. Aha moments, I believe have helped to shape me into who I
am. They help me learn and better myself so that I may make a difference in
the world.
A-ha moment that have helped me to come to a deeper understanding of who I
am and what my life is asking of me.
Moment so little as to be virtually invisible, yet significant enough that each
one build upon the last in order to bring us farther than be had intended upon
or even imagined going.
Experiences that have shaped the way one views life and calling, formative
experiences.
Most people have gone through this rite have experienced moments in their
studies that have formed, shaped and ultimately changed them experiences
that have left a lasting impression. My formative moment

The essayists are candid about their a-ha moments and their formative power. A-ha

moments help to shape and change lives through a deeper understanding of self. And

many of them, about twenty percent of the essays, refer to their a-ha moment in terms of

being formed and formation. The last student quoted above used the term formative

moment and it was the first time I had really heard the phrase. I thought it fitting. The

concept of formation offers another way of approaching and understanding the essays.

Formation and Formative Moments

Throughout the dissertation, I use the term formative experience and a-ha

moment interchangeably. Again, many of the essayists used the language of formation,

but also as a practical theologian, the concept of formation is important concept. Lewis

11
Mudge and James Polings Formation and Reflection: The Promise of Practical

Theology define formation as the process by which a person comes to be and perdues in

the world.40 For Mudge and Poling, there are complex elements involved in formation

and their fundamental question is: how are persons and communities being formed

today?41 Nancy Ramseys pivotal Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the

Paradigms contains essays that each highlight the concept of formation and its

significance for the field. One essay by Joretta Marshall states that Use of the word

formation, has come to symbolize the breadth and depth of an essential component of

education.42 Furthermore, in the Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling,

formation refers to terms like vocation, moral development, the call to ministry,

theological education, spiritual discipline and pastoral care. In short, the term formation

is important to the field of practical theology. For the purpose of this dissertation,

formation connotes forward development and growth; formation reflects the active sense

of the molding and shaping of the whole person, biologically, psychologically, and

culturally. I use formative moment and a-ha moment as transposable terms.

Important Conversations

I will briefly highlight four important conversations that help shape the context of

this dissertation. The first conversation was a large and on-going conversation that began

40
Lewis Mudge and James Poling, Formation and Reflection: The Promise of Practical Theology
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), xvii. According to the authors, there are many types of formation:
intellectual formation, ethical formation, personal formation, community formation, which demonstrates
that the word formation is multivalent.
41
Mudge and Poling, Formation and Reflection, xix.
42
Joretta Marshall, Method in Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling, in Pastoral Care and Counseling:
Redefining the Paradigms, ed. Nancy Ramsey (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 149, original emphasis.

12
when I started working for Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation

(PTEV) in 2002. PTEV was a grants initiative funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. to

encourage college programs on vocation at 88 colleges and universities. As part of three

member coordination team, I was involved in the world of college students on a very

wide and concentrated level; I met with students, college presidents, faculty, and staff all

about the topic of vocation. A student conference in 2005 asked a group of students to

write an essay in response to the question: What has been your biggest a-ha moment in

college? The answers to that question started me on a path of research and writing, a

journey of which I will expand upon in Chapter Three.

The second conversation was with writer and teacher Sharon Parks at the final

PTEV conference. She is noted for her book Big Questions, Worthy Dreams and when I

told her about the essays, she remarked that it sounded like a goldmine. Because the

essayists were from schools across the nation, I essentially had a national survey from

which to draw compelling conclusions. Parks also anticipated my question about crisis

moments and correctly predicted their appearance. I expand more on this conversation

and its impact in Chapter Six, Crisis.

The third conversation was with Hanover College President, Sue DeWine. I was

deeply immersed in my research on student development theory and need some guidance

from someone in higher education. I explained my research and that I was having

difficulty finding connections between a-ha moments and higher education. Quite

unprompted, Sue exclaimed: The goal of the liberal arts education is to have a-ha

moments!43 DeWine believes that a good college education should change the way in

which students live their lives and in the process, they become better world citizens who
43
This conversation took place in Sue DeWines office at Hanover College August 5, 2010.

13
can help solve the worlds problems. If this is true that the goal of college is to have a-

ha moments then the essays should be of interest to those in higher education,

particularly liberal arts colleges. Like my conversation with Parks, it helped fortify my

hunches: the essays were important not only for other students, but for anyone interested

in college students: parents, administrators, faculty, chaplains, and anyone in higher

education.

Finally, I had an important conversation with Dorothy Bass that encouraged me

to look at these essays in terms of their formation.44 I remarked that I didnt necessarily

want to examine the essays theological statements or beliefs about vocation. Bass

encouraged me that looking at the essays in terms of formation was theological. Practical

theology is inherently interested in formation. According to both Bass and Craig Dykstra,

practical theology attends to the following question: How might a way of life that is life-

giving in and for the sake of the world be best understood and described, and how might

contemporary people come to live it more fully?45 For both, practical theology

seeks not only to clarify the contours of a way of life but also to guide and
strengthen persons and communities to embody this way of life, attention to the
education and formation of people of faith and their leader is integral to practical
theology.46

Therefore, practical theology has an inherent interest in the formation of people and is

interested in how to form a life-giving way of life be lived more fully. In order strengthen

and form persons and communities, for Bass, practical theology requires a particular kind

of vision: Thus practical theology requires stereoscopic attention to both the specific

44
This conversation with Dorothy Bass took place in 2007 at a PTEV Final Plenary Conference during
lunch.
45
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra, Introduction, in For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological
Education, and Christian Ministry, ed. Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 14.
46
Bass and Dykstra, For Life Abundant, 14.

14
moves of personal and communal living and the all-encompassing horizon of faith.47

Stereoscopic refers to seeing space three-dimensionally from two-dimensional images

(made famous by the ViewMaster). Practical theology views situations from a wider

perspective which requires a special kind of vision that sees depth and profundity, beyond

normal two-dimensional reality.

Lenses

A guiding image for this dissertation is located in Bass claim that practical

theology requires stereoscopic vision. Following this image, I suggest another metaphor

for a special kind of enhanced vision: the microscope. An optical microscope uses light

and refractive glass to see objects too small for the human eye; different magnifications

are available by changing lenses for different fields of vision. For four years, throughout

much of my graduate career, I worked as a lab technician in a developmental biology lab

that studied diabetes. My job was to cryogenically section paraffin encased mouse

pancreases and mount them with coverslips for the microscope. By applying particular

antibodies and immunoflorescence, I could determine how the genetically altered

pancreas functioned.48 Using one lens, islets were transformed into amazing colors and

patterns: blue represented glucagon and orange was insulin. Using another lens and a

black light, fluorescent greens and reds appeared, and together with the pink tissue,

beautiful batik like patterns formed. My job was to examine these slides closely and

47
Ibid., 13.
48
My results were published in the journal Development and one of my photographs was considered for the
cover of the issue: Maureen Gannon, Mike Gibson, Karla Van Zee, and Chris Wright, Persistent
expression of HNF6 in islet endocrine cells causes disputed islet architecture and loss of beta cell
function." Development. 127: 2883-2895.

15
submit for review those with particular characteristics and patterning. In the meantime, I

became very adept at operating a microscope and would sit for hours using different

lenses at different magnifications, looking for patterns and taking photographs. Although

a scientific approach, this experience ultimately guides this project. My hope is to

construct lenses through which to examine these essays because by using different lenses,

different patterns become clear.

Practical theology also uses different lenses to look at situations. Pamela Couture

uses a camera and its lenses as a metaphorical approach to pastoral care. She uses

different camera lenses to analyze the dysfunctional areas of society. Couture states:

The camera creates a frame so that I can focus more clearly on a part of the
whole, seeing details I would otherwise miss. The adjectives feminist, Wesleyan,
and practical are like lenses I attach to the camera through which I observe
individuals, families and society. These lenses create overlapping and yet distinct
angles of vision.49

Couture uses lenses to see more clearly particular details from a distinct angle of vision,

while acknowledging that the lenses also overlap. The camera and the lenses create a

frame for focused viewing.

Because lenses offer a particular point of view, James Nieman uses the term

frame to discuss his approach to practices in practical theology. For Nieman, five basic

features compose the concept of practice: the what (actions), who (common), why

(meaningful), how (strategic), and where (purposive).50 These five features, for

Nieman, might be better described as frames. Nieman states:

49
Pamela Couture, Feminist, Wesleyan, practical theology and the practice of care in Liberating Faith
Practices: Feminist Practical Theologies in Context, ed. Denise Ackermann and Riet Bons-Storm (Leuven:
Peeters Publishing, 1998), 28.
50
James Nieman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, in Teaching Preaching as a Christian Practice, eds.
Thomas Long and Leonora Tubbs Tisdale (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 19-20.

16
 A frame is simply a way of adopting one perspective on group work in order to
notice it more deeply. Each frame foregrounds a special aspect of such work than
others might diminish or ignore. At the same time, no frame is utterly discrete
from the rest, so that all are required in order to provide an ensemble account.51

Finally, Joyce Ann Mercer constructs and uses different interpretive lenses to examine

the subject matter of children. Mercers lens comes from the vantage point of feminist

practical theology and takes on its critical principle the liberation, thriving, and well-

being of all children.52 In this way, practical theology takes seriously its lenses and is

explicit about how the subject matter is viewed.

Again, I wanted to listen to the voices embedded in the essays because I believe

there are important lessons to be learned and passed on for others. I wanted to use

different theories to analyze the essays, including theories from both religion and science,

to elucidate the patterns I recognized. By using different lenses and frames of view, I

could test the utility of the theory with actual lived experience. Practical theologians are

encouraged to thoroughly describe the context by advocating for thick description.

Browning states:

To describe situations thickly, it is useful to understand the formal pattern of

practical thinking. To describe situations is to describe how people think and act
practically in specific contexts. To describe situations is to describe the forms of
phronesis that actors use in concrete situations.53

My conclusion focuses on this concept of phronesis and makes suggestions for higher

education, as well as for all those interested in college students, based on the wisdom

unconvered in the essays.

51
Nieman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, 20.
52
Mercer, Welcoming Children, 5.
53
Browning, Fundamental Practical Theology, 97.

17
 Overview of the Chapters

Chapter One begins with the field of student development theory. In Part One,

several criticisms from within the field are highlighted, particularly that the field of

student development theory operates within a positivistic paradigm. Overall, the majority

of research and knowledge about college students has come from positivistic

methodologies. Positivism as a mode of inquiry is often associated with the scientific

method which assumes an objective, external, and singular reality that can be known and

described by an objective outsider. As a counterpoint, I introduce an unlikely

conversation partner: practical theology. In Part Two, I argue that practical theology

answers the call of student development theory in its search for new methods and

approaches to college students. Drawing upon the current literature in practical theology,

I construct a definition of practical theology that is grounded in hermeneutical theory.

Chapter Two begins with hermeneutic theory and expands this concept into

critical hermeneutical theory, with the help of Don Browning. He is clear that the field of

practical theology and critical hermeneutical theory are very similar; furthermore, he

demands that practical theology can only maintain its identity and fulfill its potential by

recognizing itself as an exercise in critical hermeneutics. Locating my methodology

firmly in critical hermeneutical theory, I elaborate on two methods: Gadamers concept

of effective history and Ricoeurs concept of distanciation. These two methods allow me

to construct four different lenses with which to view the essays.

Chapter Three is about the essays. I reveal how I came across the essays and what

their purpose was in PTEV. I disclose information about the essayists and give an

18
account of their social location. I also reveal more about my situation as a researcher,

which is an important methodological step for Browning, Gadamer, and Ricoeur. I use

this chapter to describe an effective history of the essayists as well as of myself, the

researcher.

Chapter Four focuses on psychosocial theory. Psychosocial theory is one of two

fundamental theories in student development theory. Based on the work of Erik Erikson,

psychosocial theory postulates development in a series of sequentially-linked stages

influenced by biological and cultural forces. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett proposes a new life

stage, what he calls emerging adulthood, that occurs in industrialized countries which

bridges the gap between Eriksons stage five (adolescence) and stage six (young

adulthood). This chapter asks: are the essayists better described as emerging adults?

Using Arnetts five developmental markers, I examine the essays for evidence of

emerging adulthood.

Chapter Five focuses on object relations theory (ORT). ORT postulates that the

fundamental human drive is towards relationship and all development and formation

takes place within the context of relationships. Using Melanie Klein and Donald

Winnicott, I describe how ones primary drive is towards relationships, not towards

pleasure or power. Humans are fundamentally relational creatures driven to seek

relationships with others and the primacy of relation-seeking drive occurs throughout life.

Using an ORT theoretical lens, I test the utility of this theory with the experiences

described in the essays. If relationships are so important, what kinds of relationships are

present in the essays? Furthermore, what kinds of relationships are reported in relation to

their formative moment?

19
 Chapter Six focuses on pastoral theology and the concept of crisis. Pastoral

theology, as a field under the general area of practical theology, is explored in-depth.

Using Charles Gerkin, Evelyn Whitehead, and James Whitehead, a crisis is a boundary

experience that confronts the unknown and brings change and awareness of contradiction,

finitude, and vulnerability. Often unexpected and unpredictable, crisis disrupts life and

reveals a fundamental contradiction between human aspirations and finite possibilities.

Looking to the essays, I ask: Are these negative or inimical experiences of the essays

better understood and described as a crisis? If so, are there particular crisis patterns that

appear? Three basic crisis categories emerge from the essays: crisis as death, crisis as

loss, and crisis as confrontation with the unknown.

Chapter Seven focuses on practices. Over ninety percent of the essays describe

doing something within the context of their a-ha moment. By reviewing the literature

on practices, I borrow from different practical theologians in order to construct my own

definition of practice. A practice is a communal and contextual, purposeful activity

strategically undertaken by embodied persons. I use this definition of practice as a lens

with which to view the essays. From this practice lens, five basic categories (or

congeries) of practice emerge: practices of service, practices of fellowship, practices of

work, practices of reading and reflection, and practices of conversation. I argue that the

essayists offer stories of the person-forming power of practices; furthermore,

embedded in these essays are important lessons about practices that can be learned and

taught.

Chapter Eight is my conclusion. I turn to the concept of phronesis and investigate

its original use by Aristotle. Phronesis requires a deep knowledge of human beings in

20
order to enhance conditions for the possibility of individual and communal

transformation; the end goal of phronesis is human flourishing. Gadamer makes

important connections between phronesis and his model of understanding as conversation

and dialogue. For Gadamer, there is a close association between hermeneutics and

phronesis. Browning follows up on Gadamers claims to state that phronesis suggests an

entirely new structure for theology that is practical and guided from the start by a broad

concern with application. Overall, significant associations are made between phronesis,

hermeneutics, and practical theology. Drawing on the practical wisdom of the essayists, I

end with seven recommendations for higher education.

21
 CHAPTER I

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORY AND PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

That is the situation that we face now: a changing set of student concerns and commitments, some
hunger and thirst for better ways to approach those questions, but perplexity about how to find those
ways. Theres a need and opportunity for liberal education to respond with imagination and fresh
54
approaches.

A central claim of this dissertation is that the voices in the essays have something

significant to add to the growing interest in the lives of college students. My hypothesis is

that a study of college student essays, as expressed in their own words, has some

explanatory power for interpreting and understanding college student development and

formation. As I read the essays, I wondered: what sort of theories might help me better

understand and explain the patterns and dynamics I had begun to discover? This is the

key question of the interpretive task.55 I was interested in using theory to understand and

examine the experiences of the essayists as they encountered a fundamental moment of

change; I was also interested in testing the utility of theory against actual experience.

I initially turned to the field of student development theory for two reasons. First,

the field of student development theory exclusively studies college students, usually 18-

25 year olds, and aims to apply human development concepts in postsecondary settings.

Second, I had some experience in student development research. Working for PTEV for

five years, I was the person responsible for the content on our website, including a

bibliography of over 300 texts on college students.56 I reviewed and evaluated texts on

54
Robert Conner, The Right Time and Place for Big Questions, Chronicle of Higher Education 52, no.,
40 (2006): B9.
55
Richard Osmer, Practical Theology: An Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2008), 6-10.
56
The Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) website is www.ptev.org with links
to my bibliography and interviews I conducted. More will be said about PTEV in Chapter Three. However,
it should be noted that Dorothy Bass in For Life Abundant states that the PTEV bibliography is an

22
developmental theory, higher education research, identity theory, student assessment,

mentoring, and other areas in student development. I felt competent to engage with

student development theory more fully as a viable resource for engaging the essays. More

so, I could imagine that any suggestions or conclusions might be of interest to those in

the wider arena of higher education.

One particular theory in student development that I dialogue with in Chapter Four

is the psychosocial developmental theory of Jeffery Jensen Arnett. He bases his work on

Eriksons life stage theory, but augments the theory to include a new stage which he calls

emerging adulthood. However, as I delved further into student development theory, I

discovered the same criticism being repeated from within the field: criticism about its

own positivistic perspective. For example, many in the field reference that positivism, as

a mode of inquiry, has produced much of the knowledge to date about the development

and formation of college students. They are critical of their own methods that rely on

objective quantifiable measurements and find them too constraining, especially as a

method of studying college students. Student development researcher Nancy Evans

states: Student differences are too vast and college experiences too varied to look at

development phenomenon from the universal view of the positivist.57 Overall, the

typical research done in student development is largely positivistic and is based on

particular epistemological assumptions about objectivity; consequently, many researchers

are self-critical about the positivist paradigm under which most of the research has taken

place.

excellent bibliography. Dorothy Bass. For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological Education,
and Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 9, fn 15.
57
Nancy J. Evans, Deanna S. Forney, Florence M. Guido, Lori D. Patton, and Kristen A. Renn, Student
Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 18.

23
 Beyond this kind of macro criticism of the positivist paradigm which dominates

the field, others are actively searching for ways to embrace postmodernity, or at the very

least, resist positivism. Some researchers are struggling to find methodologies that can

support multiple theoretical perspectives in order to analyze the same data. Student

development researcher Elisa Abes asks: How can multiple theoretical perspectives be

used in combination with one another? More specifically, how can one apply competing

assumptions of conflicting theoretical perspectives to the same data?58 Marylu McEwen

affirms the importance of social location, but struggles to find a framework that can

support the social location of the researcher alongside the subject of study.59 Other

researchers call for interdisciplinary experimentation, the importance of voice, eclectic

approaches, discarding ideological allegiances, and in particular, the importance of

saying yes to the messiness, to that which interrupts and exceeds versus tidy

categoriesthinking difference differently.60

Practical Theology and Student Development Theory

I suggest that practical theology can answer the call of student development

because practical theology has reflected on issues of social location, the importance of

voice, issues with messiness, and how to use multiple theoretical approaches with

competing claims. The work of Bonnie Miller-McLemore exemplifies a practical

58
Elisa S. Abes, Theoretical Borderlands: Using Multiple Theoretical Perspectives to Challenge
Inequitable Power Structures in Student Development Theory, Journal of College Student Development
50, no. 2 (March/April 2009): 142.
59
McEwen, Marylu K. The Nature and Uses of Theory, in Student Services: A Handbook for the
Profession, ed. Susan Komives, Dudley Woodward and Associates, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003).
60
Abes, Theoretical Borderlands,142.

24
theological approach that gives an answer to some of the questions raised in student

development theory. First, Miller-McLemore is decidedly postmodern when she states

that one should refuse the pretense of objectivity.61 She states: Recognizing the

pretense of objectivity and identifying ones particular context and perspective

characterizes the work of many current scholars in pastoral theology62 Miller-

McLemore has done considerable work with issues of social location and has pushed the

field to recognize the political and ideological underpinnings in policies and practices.

Second, Miller-McLemore would say yes in response to Abes desire to

embrace saying yes to the messiness, to that which interrupts and exceeds tidy

categories.63 Miller-McLemore perceives that theology is about the messy particularity

of everyday lives examined with excruciating care as well as understanding lived

subjective experience.64 Understanding this lived subject experience of the other

requires acknowledgement that life lived in engagement with this world, is messy,

conflicted, rough, dynamic, and weatherbeaten.65 For this reason, Miller-McLemore

states: Adequate theological method in practical theology must attend to the messy,

dirty, earthy side of life.66

61
Miller-McLemore borrows this phrase from Mary K. DeShazer, A Poetics of Resistance: Women Writing
in El Salvador, South Africa, and the United States (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994) p. 271
62
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The subject and practice of pastoral theology as a practical theological
discipline: pushing past the nagging identity crisis to the poetics of resistance in Liberating Faith
Practices: Feminist Practical Theologies in Context, ed. Denise Ackermann and Riet Bons-Storm (Leuven,
1998), 187.
63
Abes, Theoretical Borderlands,142.
64
In the first quote, Miller-McLemore cites a student book report on church historian Roberta Bondis
Memories of God: Theological Reflections on a Life (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995) who states that
theology is about the messy particularity of everyday lives examined with excruciating care and brought
into conversation with the great doctrines of the Christian tradition. See, Miller-McLemore, The Subject
and Practice of Pastoral Theology, 180, 181.
65
Miller-McLemore quotes Carol Hess, Education as an Art of Getting Dirty, in The Arts of Ministry:
Feminist-Womanist Approaches, ed. Christie Cozad Neuger (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox,
1996), 75-76. See, Miller-McLemore, The Subject and Practice of Pastoral Theology, 191.
66
Ibid., 191.

25
 Third, and finally, Miller-McLemore envisions and articulates the core concept of

the living human web. This foundational metaphor represents the connectedness and

the interconnections that link individuals, families, communities, and larger societies.

Miller-McLemore contends that the living human web suggests itself as a better term

for the appropriate subject for investigation, interpretation, and transformation.67 This

image reinforces the view that understanding any situation goes beyond the individual

interpsychic realm to include social location and cultural sensitivities. Important for this

discussion is that the living human web offers one framework for understanding how

multiple theoretical perspectives can be used to analyze the same data. Competing claims

and differences are held in tension by the many different interconnections of the living

human web. Richard Osmer reflects on this image of the living human web and

concludes: Practical theological interpretation, thus, is deeply contextual. It thinks in

terms of interconnections, relationships, and systems.68

Again, I claim that practical theology has resources that can help answer many of

the questions posed in student development theory; moreover, practical theology is an

important, and as of yet untapped, conversation partner with student development theory.

Although these two disciplines appear to be unrelated, they do have some important areas

of overlap. First, both are relatively young in that both secured their place in the

academy with the rise in authority of the personality sciences. Second, both practical

theology and student development theory share important theorists. For example, my

qualifying exam bibliography included work done by Erik Erikson, Carol Gilligan,

67
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Living Human Web: Pastoral Theology at the Turn of the Century, in
Through the Eyes of Women: Insights for Pastoral Care, ed., Jeanne Stephenson Moessner (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress, 1996), 16.
68
Osmer, Practical Theology, 17.

26
Thomas Kuhn, Mary Belenky, Blythe McVicker, Nancy Goldberger and Jull Tarule;

these theorists are also used in the field of student development theory. However unlikely

these conversation partners might appear at first glance, I assert that the resources of

practical theology can inform and expand the field of student development; in addition,

practical theology has yet to directly approach the topic of college students as a viable

source of interest. This dissertation challenges this oversight and asks: how can practical

theology address and describe the formative moments of college students?

Chapter One, Part One, begins with student development theory and a brief

history of the field is given. Within this overview is a description of the fields reliance

on and critique of positivistic modes of inquiry. The positivistic paradigm has produced

most of the knowledge to date about the development and formation of college students.

Other criticisms of the field are highlighted, as well as the need for imaginative and fresh

approaches and methods towards understanding college students. In Part Two, I give a

substantial overview of the field of practical theology in order to situate this perspective

in its historical tradition. Next, I turn to contemporary approaches of practical theology to

demonstrate the rich variety of perspectives within the field. Drawing from these

approaches, I construct a definition of practical theology: an inherently interdisciplinary

quest with postmodern sensibilities that uses thick description to examine the messy

particularities of everyday lives with excruciating care in order to understand lived

subjective experience by beginning with the situation and starting small. Ultimately,

practical theology ultimately seeks to clarify and cultivate phronesis; in order to do so,

practical theology should be grounded in critical hermeneutical theory.

27
 PART ONE: Student Development Theory

Student development theory, in general, refers to research on late-adolescent and

adult development.69 Student development is defined as the ways that a student grows,

progresses, or increases his or her developmental capabilities as a result of enrollment in

an institution of higher education.70 Student development theory is an attempt to use

human, educational, and cultural development to predict behavior and offer insights into

college life.71 The purpose of student development theory is to encourage student

learning and growth in higher education; for this reason, the field often guides student

affairs practices at colleges and universities. The basic assumption behind the field is that

students learn, develop, and grow in certain predictable ways and its the responsibility of

colleges and universities to create environments that facilitate development.72 The hope is

that research done in student development will help to create intentional interventions

designed to enhance student learning and development in higher education.

Student development theory is a contested term. Some refer to student

development as a slippery term that reflects an eclectic mlange of concepts without

theory.73 Others state that the term is more of a depository that is used interchangeably

to refer to the process of growth and change, the outcome of this process, intervention

69
Cunningham, Jack, review of Student Development and College Teaching, by Rhonda Beaman, Book
Reviews Review and Expositor, 94 (1997): 153.
70
Evans, Student Development in College, 4.
71
Cunningham continues: Current literature normally treats student development theory as a tool to be
used to assist administration in planning student life and affairs, housing and other student groupings, and
activities where cohort differences matter. The cohort group of most importance to most colleges is the
young adults. See, Cunningham, Student Development and College Teaching, 153.
72
Maureen Wilson and Lisa Wolf-Wendel, ASHE Reader on College Student Development Theory (Boston:
Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005), xv.
73
Patricia M King, Theories of College Student Development: Sequences and Consequences, in ASHE
Reader on College Student Development Theory, ed. Maureen E. Wilson and Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel
(Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005), 43.

28
strategies designed to promote development, and student serviced administrative offices

in higher education.74 The field is highly individualistic, as the focus of many student

development theories and of many higher education mission statements is on individual

development.75 Student developmental theorist Patricia King sees student development

as an interesting concept: it is complex and rich, has multiple meanings, is open to

argument and disagreement, and connotes a variety of ideas and images to those who use

(or avoid) the term.76 Although the direction and definition of the field is sometimes

contested, there has been a veritable explosion of research on college students in the past

fifteen years.77

I refer to area of student development theory, directly, and as the field of student

development theory. I refer to it as a field because that is how those within student

development refer to their area of study. I also borrow from Kathleen Cahalan and James

Niemans exposition of a field:

a field pertains to an open space in which activities which have something in

common take place this pertains to researchers, writers on popular subjects,
and practitioners, all of whom are interested in a variety of activities that fall
under this category.78

Further, no account I reviewed in student development ever referred to the area as a

discipline or as a discourse.

74
King, Theories of College Student Development, 43-44.
75
Ibid., 45.
76
King notes that the term student development is used interchangeably to refer to the process of growth
and change, the outcome of this process, intervention strategies designed to promote development, and
student serviced administrative offices. See, King, Theories of College Student Development, 43.
77
Ernst T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terezini, How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research
(San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2005), xi.
78
Kathleen Cahalan and James Nieman. Mapping the Field of Practical Theology 64. The authors borrow
from Sanda Schneiders discussion of spirituality as a discourse, a field, and a discipline. Sandra
Schneiders, The Study of Christian spirituality in the context of the academy. In Minding the Spirit: The
Study of Christian Spirituality, ed. Elizabeth A Dreyer and Mark S. Burrows (Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 2005) 6-7.

29
 According to student development theorist Carney Strange, student development

theory is a relatively young field and is a result of the development of the personality

sciences.79 A short history serves to situate the perspective of student development theory

and briefly chart its own development as a field. Two different resources give mirroring

histories of the field: 1) Nancy Evans Student Development in College: Theory,

Research and Practice and 2) an article by Carney Strange, Student Development: The

Evolution and Status of an Essential Idea. Evans and Strange independently give a

similar historical account of the field of student development. Both begin with the 1920s

Progressive Education Movement and cite the impact of two world wars that ultimately

increased college enrollment. Both then skip to the 1960s, which saw the beginning of

significant focusing of the field by the personality sciences that continued to further

shape this student development framework in higher education.80 Both point to scholars

like Nevitt Sanford (psychologist), Douglas Heath, Kenneth Feldman, and Theodore

Newcomb (sociologists) as researchers who began to methodically address questions

about how the college experience influences personality development and student

attitudes and beliefs.81 According to Evans, two basic approaches typify the field of

student development: psychosocial and cognitive-structural approaches.82 Furthermore,

three foundational theorists comprise the basis of student development theory. This first

is developmental psychologist Authur Chickering, who bases his theory on Erik

79
According to Strange, with the inception of personality and behavioral sciences a vision of human
development emerged that focused on complex, measurable traits and systems of thought, emotions,
motivations, and capacities, presumed to culminate in an integrated state of maturity. The human
personality was seen as a function of numerous underlying dimensions that manifested themselves in a
variety of observable behaviors and actions. See, Carney Strange, Student Development: The Evolution
and Status of an Essential Idea, Journal of College Student Development 35 (November, 1994): 399.
80
Strange, Student Development, 400.
81
Strange, Student Development, 400.
82
Evans, Student Development in College, 12.

30
Eriksons ideas on identity development.83 The second is educational psychologist

William Perrys theory on the intellectual development of college students. The third is

psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, who built upon the work of Jean Piaget on moral

development and moral reasoning.84 Out of this, both Evans and Strange agree that the

field emerged into four basic models: psychosocial, cognitive development, typological,

and person-environment interaction models.

However, in the 1980s the field experienced some harsh criticism, particularly

from feminist perspectives. Strange states:

The student development movement, though, was not without its critics during
this period, with scholars such as Gilligan (1982), Josselson (1987), and Belenky,
Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) identifying perceived biases of extant
developmental models, especially as they pertained to patterns of womens
growth and development.85

It became clear that these earlier models, foundational to the field and used as

developmental frameworks evolved largely from studies of Caucasian, middle and upper

income men (Chickering 1969, Erikson, 1968, Kohlberg, 1971, Perry, 1970).86 And

although these models have been and continue to be challenged,

the major theories that have been (and still are) used as frameworks for designing
most programs and services to enhance student development have evolved largely
from studies of Caucasian, middle and upper income men.87

83
Evans states, his book, Education and Identity (1969), quickly became the mainstay for professionals
interested in student development. Evans, Student Development in College, 12.
84
Ibid.
85
Strange, Student Development, 27.
86
Adrianna Kezar and Deb Moriarty, Expanding our Understanding of Student Leadership Development:
A Study Exploring Gender and Ethnic Identity, Journal of College Student Development 41, no.1
(Jan/Feb 2000): 56.
87
Kezar is referencing directly the following texts and theorists: Chickering, 1969; Erikson, 1968;
Kohlberg, 1971; Perry, 1970. See, Kezar, Expanding our Understanding of Student Leadership
Development, 56.

31
Carol Gilligan remarks that, the so called objective position which Kohlberg and others

espoused..was blind to the particularities of voice and the inevitable constructions that

constitute points of view.88 Marcia Baxter Magolda states that student development

scholars were raising questions about the relevance of existing theory for diverse student

populations, suggesting that generalizing theory over-looked gender, race, ethnicity, and

sexual orientation.89 Finally, researcher Adrianna Kezar adds that evidence is

mounting that earlier models developed using mostly Caucasian, male students cannot be

generalized to other students.90

Beyond criticizing foundational models, new criticisms have emerged from within

the field that call into question not just the models of student development theory, but

also its basic methodological principles. In short, the field of student development theory

has operated under positivistic assumptions and worldviews. Often associated with

science and the scientific method, positivism assumes an objective external reality that

can be known and described by an objective outsider. Positivism assumes that the

objective outsider is able to study a phenomenon without influencing the outcome or

being influenced by the object of study. Evans, whose text provides an in-depth overview

of the field and a comprehensive evaluation of its theories, states: Much of the theory

and research reviewed in this book has a positivist perspective.91 She highlights the

work of Perry, Kohlberg, King and Kitchner and states that their work is excellent

88
Gilligan states: However well-intentioned and provisionally useful it may have been, it was based on an
inerrant neutrality which concealed power and falsified knowledge. Carol Gilligan, Letter to Readers, in
ASHE Reader on College Student Development Theory, ed. Maureen E. Wilson and Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel
(Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005), 581.
89
Marcia Baxter Magolda, Complex Lives, in ASHE Reader on College Student Development Theory, ed.
Maureen E. Wilson and Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005, 35.
90
Kezar, Expanding our Understanding of Student Leadership Development, 55.
91
Evans, Student Development in College, 18.

32
within the context of the positivist tradition.92 However, Evans echoes many researchers

and theorists when she states that the positivist paradigm is too restrictive, especially as a

method of analyzing college students. She writes:

Meaning in positivist research is often limited and generalizable findings difficult

to apply to all categories (for example, all students in higher education). Student
differences are too vast and college experiences too varied to look at development
phenomenon from the universal view of a positivist.93

Evans is critical of her fields reliance on the positivist tradition, particularly because of

its one-reality-fits-all approach to development. She argues that the positivist paradigm is

too constraining; in order to expand upon the limitations of positivism, she uses Thomas

Kuhn and the work of Guba and Lincoln to highlight the limitations of the positivistic

paradigm.

Positivistic Paradigm

The term paradigm refers to a set of basic beliefs or worldview that guides

theory and research. The term paradigm was elucidated by Kuhn as he dealt with

competing modes of scientific activity and how they provide models from which spring

particular coherent traditions of scientific research.94 In The Structure of Scientific

Revolutions, Kuhn attacks empiricism by demonstrating how the scientific community is

dominated by its paradigms, those standard examples of scientific work which embody a

92
Ibid., 18.
93
Ibid.
94
Kuhn maintained that observational data and criteria for assessing theories are paradigm-dependent.
See, Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1962), 10.

33
set of conceptual, methodological, and metaphysical assumptions.95 Paradigms represent

a cluster of conceptual and methodological presuppositions that transmit fundamental

assumptions about reality; a paradigm consists of three components: epistemology,

ontology, and methodology. Ian Barbour observes that a paradigm implicitly defines for

a given scientific community the types of questions that may legitimately be asked, the

types of explanation that are to be sought, and the types of solutions that are

acceptable.96 Guba and Lincoln use the concept of paradigm to define the basic belief

system or worldview that guides the investigator. In turn, they analyze four competing

paradigms that guide research, one of which is the positivistic paradigm.97

Using Guba and Lincolns rubric, the field of student development theory and

research rests in a positivistic paradigm. Under this paradigm, logical positivism and

empiricism are the standard methodological approaches used for the basis of theory.

Evans articulates the positivist paradigm as the existence of an objective reality where

the researcher is assumed to be independent of the object investigated and able to study

a phenomenon without influencing the outcome or being influenced by the object of

study.98 Methods are experimental and quantifiable. Hypotheses are formulated and

subjected to empirical test for verification. Conditions that could interfere with the results

are carefully controlled.99 The positivistic paradigm is characterized by an

apprehendable and knowable singular reality that is both reductionistic and deterministic

95
Ian G. Barbour, Myths, Models and Paradigms (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 93.
96
Barbour, Myths, Models and Paradigms, 103.
97
Guba and Lincoln analyze four competing paradigms: positivism, postpositivism, critical theory, and
constructivism. Each paradigm is outlined and they highlight eachs respective epistemology, ontology, and
methodology, the three crucial dimensions of paradigmatic thinking. It also should be noted that Guba and
Lincoln firmly express their commitment to a constructivist paradigm.See, Egon Guba, and Yvonna
Lincoln, Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research, in Handbook of Qualitative Research, ed. N.K.
Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 1994), 107-113.
98
Evans, Student Development in College, 17.
99
Ibid., 18.

34
where the aim of inquiry is explanation, ultimately enabling the prediction and control

of phenomena, whether physical or human.100 Ultimately, research in student

development, as well as most of the social sciences in general, has been guided by this

received view of the positivist paradigm, which has dominated discourse for the past

400 years.101

This positivistic paradigm in student development theory is highlighted in another

foundational text: Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzinis How College Affects

Students.102 This 800-page text looks specifically at the impact of college by examining

an expansive body of research. Pascarella and Terenzini describe theories and models

of student change in college and highlight specific college impact theories underlying

much of the research on college effects. The authors pose six questions as a way to think

about college effects.103 However, the evidence presented is organized in terms of

different types of outcomes rather than in terms of potential sources of influence on

100
Guba and Lincoln go on to describe the positivist perspective as Dualist and Objectivist. The investigator
and the investigated object are assumed to be independent entities, and the investigator to be capable of
studying the object without influencing it or being influenced by it. When influence in either direction
(threats to validity) is recognized, or even suspected, various strategies are followed to reduce or eliminate
it. Inquiry takes place as through a one-way mirror. Values and biases are prevented from influencing
outcomes, so long as the prescribed procedures are rigorously followed. Replicable findings are, in fact,
true. Guba and Lincoln, Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research, 110-113.
101
Guba and Lincoln point out: Positivist tend to control publication outlets, funding sources, promotion
and tenure mechanisms, dissertation committees, and other sources of power and influence. They were, at
least until about 1980, the in group, and continue to represent the strongest voice in professional decision
making. Guba and Lincoln, Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research, 116.
102
Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini, How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of
Research (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005).
103
The six questions are as follows: 1) What evidence is there that individuals change during the time in
which they are attending college? 2) What evidence is there that change or development during college is
the result of college attendance? 3) What evidence is there that different kinds of postsecondary institutions
have a differential influence on student change or development during college? 4) What evidence exists on
effects of different experiences in the same institution? 5) What evidence is there that the collegiate
experience produces conditional, as opposed to general, effect on student change or development? 6) What
are the long-term effects of college? See, Pascarella and Terezini, How College Affects Students: A Third
Decade of Research, 8-9.

35
college outcomes.104 Their measurements include net effects, direct effects, indirect

effects, and total effects.105 In other words, the authors do not focus on the influential

factors that might cause students to change and develop, but instead focus solely on the

outcomes. Other researchers lament that approaches like this focus on the structural

characteristics of development while ignoring the questions of what experiences in

college facilitate or impede development.106

By their own admission, Pascarella and Terenzini are clear: the scientific

positivism reigns supremely as the methodological framework of choice throughout their

research. The authors state:

To be sure the positivist, quantitative paradigm still dominates the total body of
research we reviewed, with true experiments, quasi experiments, and correlational
designs with statistical controls for salient confounding variables being the
methodological tools of choice.107

They cite advantages in using quantitative techniques, such as meta-analysis, in order to

synthesize a large body of research which as a result gives an objective method for

resolving conflicting findings in a body of evidence.108 Furthermore, other studies that

might use more naturalistic inquiries were largely excluded because their results were

simply not amenable to computation. However, the authors do suggest that there is

warrant for an expanded repertoire of methodological approaches for estimating and

understanding the impact of college on students.109 Pascarella and Terenzini, two key

researchers in the field of student development, clearly state that the positivistic paradigm

104
Pascarella and Terezini, How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research, 6-7.
105
Ibid., 12-13.
106
Krumrei E., Cindy Miller-Perrin, and Don Thompson, Crisis and commitment: Applying concepts of
identity development to faith maturity. Submitted to Journal of Psychology and Christianity (2006), 10.
107
Pascarella and Terezini, How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research, 4.
108
Ibid., 11.
109
Ibid., 5.

36
reigns supremely and dominates the total body of research we reviewed.110 Because of

this, the authors call for new methodological approaches towards understanding college

students.

Marylu McEwen not to be confused with the previously mentioned researcher

Nancy Evans also raises concerns about the positivism as the dominant mode of inquiry

in student development theory. Positivism as a mode of inquiry has produced most of the

knowledge to date about the development and formation of college students. In The

Nature and Uses of Theory, McEwen states:

Part of the dominant, conventional paradigm, the mode of inquiry that has
traditionally been used in both education and psychology is logical positivism,
also known as the natural scientific method, which has provided important and
significant contributions to the theory and research base of student affairs. It is
this mode of inquiry that has produced most of our knowledge to date about the
development of college students, how individuals and environments interact, and
how organizations are function.111

McEwen echoes the same sentiment as Evans, Pascarella, and Terenzini: positivism as a

mode of inquiry has dominated student development theory and has produced most of the

models and theories about college students. Accordingly, McEwen raises questions about

the nature and uses of theory in student development. Theory, she says, serves to simplify

the complex and connect what appears to be random. But theory is:

developed through the lenses, or perspectives, of those who create or describe it.
Thus theory is not objective as frequently claimed, but evolves from the
subjectivity of the theorist or researchers.112

She reaffirms the observation that all theory is autobiographical that is, theory

represents the knowledge, experience, and worldviews of the theorists who construct

110
Ibid., 4.
111
Marylu K. McEwen, The Nature and Uses of Theory, in Student Services: A Handbook for the
Profession, ed. Susan Komives, Dudley Woodward and Associates, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003),
17-18.
112
McEwen, The Nature and Uses of Theory, 15.

37
it.113 McEwen states that knowing and examining oneself is especially important in

using and constructing theories in human development. She adds: Who each of us is,

including the experiences and history we carry within us, creates the filters and

frameworks through which we interpret others experiences and perspectives and the

theories we use in our work.114

In order to take these claims seriously, McEwen looks for a framework that can

support the social location of the researcher alongside the subject of study. McEwen puts

out a call: researchers need to adopt an eclectic model. Eclectic use of theory means a

professional draws on the useful and relevant aspects of multiple theories and combines

those aspects into a meaningful whole.115 She calls for new methods and approaches that

step outside of logical positivism and instead, embrace the social location of the

researcher and the objects of study. Additionally, McEwen calls for the use of eclectic

methods that can draw on aspects of multiple theories into a meaningful whole.

Elisa Abes resonates with McEwens call for new methods and approaches. Abes

goal is to use multiple theoretical perspectives to analyze the same data in spite of

inevitable competing assumptions. Her central question is: how can multiple theoretical

perspectives, despite inevitable competing assumptions, be used in combination with one

another?116 This is a key question that this dissertation seeks to answer as well. Abes has

no answer to this question, but instead advocates for a framework that can hold multiple

theoretical perspectives which, thereby, directly challenge the positivist stance of the

113
Ibid.
114
Ibid., 21.
115
McEwen, Student Development in College, 21.
116
Abes, Theoretical Borderlands, 142.

38
existence of one reality.117 Instead, she suggests that a kind of methodolatry has

occurred where the tail of the methodology wags the dog of inquiry.118 To counter this,

she embraces the importance of saying yes to the messiness, to that which interrupts and

exceed versus tidy categoriesthinking difference differently.119

Instead of being paralyzed by theoretical limitations or confined by rigid

ideological allegiances, Abes advocates for interdisciplinary experimentation. Her

ultimate goal is to use multiple theoretical perspectives to analyze the same data in spite

of inevitable competing assumptions. She calls for interdisciplinary experimentation

which has the potential to benefit the student affairs profession by revealing new

possibilities for how student development theories can be more inclusive of marginalized

student populations.120 Abes highlights other researchers in the field who are looking to

understanding students experiences and ways of making meaning more so than

positivist approaches that assume one reality and boxed students into preexisting

developmental categories.121 She continues that rather than submit to ideological

allegiances, the field should be open to interdisciplinary experimentation which can

lead to rich new research results and possibilities.

Greg Tanaka also raises important questions about the methods used in the field

of student development and higher education research. He states that there is growing

empirical evidence that current approaches are no longer adequate to explain the

117
Abes asks: How then can multiple theoretical perspectives be used in combination, deviating from the
typical paradigmatic categories into which studies are generally categorized, such as positivist,
constructivist, critical, and poststructural? Abes, Theoretical Borderlands, 142.
118
Ibid.
119
Ibid.
120
Ibid.,141.
121
Ibid., 145.

39
increasingly complex experience of contemporary college students.122 He is critical of

modern constructs and approaches with their interest in measuring and their tendency

not to examine underlying ideologies and cultural attitudes. His intention is not to bring

an end to modernist efforts at assessing student development but instead Tanaka

believes that in our worlds growing diversity, new methods are needed to reflect on

these issues which are increasingly fecund.123 Adding, this writing should be taken to

heart as a call for higher education researchers to rearticulate the world of modern

theorists and give fresh impetus to the fields future practice.124 Tanaka is clear that

current positivistic approaches are no longer adequate to explain the increasingly

complex experiences of college students and he issues a literal call for new methods to

examine these experiences.

Call for New Methods

Overall, within the field of student development, there is a call for new methods

and approaches towards college student populations. The dominant mode of inquiry is

positivism and this positivistic paradigm has dominated research in student development

theory. Maureen Wilson and Lisa Wolf-Wendell state:

Many of the policy and practice decisions made by professionals in the field are
based on the belief that students learn, develop, and grow in certain predictable
ways and that it is the responsibility of colleges and universities to create
environments that facilitate that development.125

122
Greg Tanaka, Higher Educations Self-Reflexive Turn: Toward an Intercultural Theory of Student
Development, The Journal of Higher Education 73, no. 2 (March/April 2002): 264.
123
Tanaka, Higher Educations Self-Reflexive Turn, 287.
124
Ibid., 289.
125
Maureen E. Wilson and Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, ASHE Reader on College Student Development Theory
(Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005), xv.

40
Here, the emphasis is on the assumption that human behavior can be predicted and

controlled, a particularly strong tenet of scientific positivism. Again, according to Guba

and Lincoln, the aim of inquiry in the positivistic paradigm is explanation, prediction, and

control.126 Researchers base their generalizations on quantitative data in order to

construct laws and theories that will predict human behavior.127 As Schulze points out,

the aim of research is to collect evidence to formulate generalizations or laws that

govern human behavior. Thus, human behavior can be predicted and controlled.128

Many are critical of their own fields reliance on positivism because this kind of approach

ultimately restricts the view of human beings to merely repetitive and predictable aspects

of human behavior. According to Abes, positivist approaches assume one reality and

boxed students into pre-existing developmental categories.129 Human beings are more

complicated than pre-formulated categories or well-formed formulas; furthermore,

positivism assumes that human behavior can be controlled and predicted. Some insist that

this positivistic approach overlooks critical features of human phenomena and, because of

this oversight, it is ultimately characterized as de-humanizing in its restrictive approach.

Despite the restrictive and constraining effects of this perspective, positivism as a mode

of inquiry has produced much of the current knowledge on college students.

For many researchers, this criticism of current methods and assumptive

worldviews as well as the search for new methods and approaches is problematized

further by the growing diversity of college student populations. Student populations in

126
Guba and Lincoln, Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research, 113.
127
Salome Schulze, Views on the Combination of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Approaches,
Progressio 25, no. 2 (2003): 8-9.
128
Schulze, Views on the Combination of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Approaches, 9.
129
Abes, Theoretical Borderlands, 145.

41
college settings are more diverse and complex than ever before and that trend continues

to increase each year.130 Higher education is continually facing new challenges in an ever

expanding and shifting tapestry of contemporary student demographics. Laura Rendon

explains: In stark contrast with yesterdays uniform profile of college students as white

males from privileged backgrounds, todays student body represents a tapestry of

differentiation in social background, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, lifestyle, and

sexual orientation.131 This tapestry of many different colors and kinds is a growing trend

in college student populations as more and more people from many different backgrounds

go to college each year.

The National Center for Education Statistics offers some interesting numbers in

regards to the growing number of college students and their diverse backgrounds. For

example, enrollment in degree granting institutions increased 26% between 1997 and

2007, from 14.5 million to 18.2 million.132 Since 2002, the rate of high school students

directly entering college has fluctuated between 64 and 69 percent.133 In 2006, 69% of

whites, 55% of blacks, and 58% of Hispanics enter college directly after high school.134

Of this group, 58% of students seeking a bachelors degree graduate within six years.135

In total, there were 1.5 million bachelors degrees conferred in 2006-07.136 Of the

130
Evans, Student Development in College, 19-21.
131
Rendon continues, This has resulted not only in the colorization of the academy, but in the proliferation
of a constellation of students that challenge traditional values, assumptions, and conventions which have
long been entrenched in the academy. See, Laura Rendon, Validating Culturally Diverse Students:
Toward a New Model of Learning and Student Development, Innovative Higher Education 19, no. 1 (Fall,
1994): 33.
132
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics
(2008) (NCES 2009-020), Chapter 3.
133
Interestingly enough, the statistics are broken down by race in 2006: 69% of whites, 55% of blacks, and
58% Hispanics enter college directly after high school. See, U.S. Department of Education, National Center
for Education Statistics (2009) The Condition of Education 2009 (NCES 2009-081), Indicator 24.
134
National Center for Education Statistics, (NCES 2009-081), Indicator 24.
135
Ibid., Indicator 22.
136
Of the bachelors degrees conferred, 21.5% were in business, 10% in social sciences, 10% education, and

42
bachelors degrees conferred, 21.5% were in business, 10% in social sciences, 10%

education, and 7% health sciences. Females currently earn 62% of the bachelors

degrees.137 From 2006-07, females of each racial/ethnic group generally earned more

degrees than their male counterparts for each type of degree.138 In another recent study,

results demonstrate that American universities are accepting more minorities than

ever.139 Robert Connor sums up the predicament of student development theory and the

larger field of higher education:

That is the situation that we face now: a changing set of student concerns and
commitments, some hunger and thirst for better ways to approach those
questions, but perplexity about how to find those ways. Theres a need and
opportunity for liberal education to respond with imagination and fresh
approaches.140

One new and imaginative way to approach college student population is practical

theology.

PART TWO: Practical Theology

True theology is practical. Speculative theology belongs to the devil in hell.--
Luther141

Like the field of student development, practical theology is a contested term and

has a fuzzy identity.142 I often stumble and struggle to explain what practical theology

7% health sciences. Ibid.

137
The statistics go on to say that for 2006-07, females of each racial/ethnic group generally earned more
degrees than their male counterparts for each type of degree. Ibid., 24.
138
Ibid.
139
Thomas Evan and Pat Wingert. Minority Report Newsweek (March 1st, 2010): 42.
140
Conner, W. Robert. The Right Time and Place for Big Questions Chronicle of Higher Education 52,
no. 40 (2006), B9.
141
Martin Luther, Luthers Works trans. Jaroslav Pelikan (Concordia: St. Louis, 1972), 54.

43
is exactly, to those within theology and those outside, and particularly with people who

have no notion of the disciplinary divisions of the academy. Quite simply, practical

theology sounds like an oxymoron. Sometimes I get wisecrack reactions, like Serene

Jones conversation with her plumber: What about impractical theology? 143 Sometimes to

break the awkward silence, I tell a joke from Joyce Ann Mercers Welcoming Children:

A pilot parachutes out into unknown territory and gets hung up in a tree. He asks a

passer-by: Where am I? You are in a tree. The pilot remarks: You must be a theologian.

Why, yes remarks the passer-by, how did you know? The pilot responds: Because

what you told me is true and absolutely useless. 144

In the early 1990s, Alastair Campbell remarked that practical theology has an odd

sound perhaps seeming like a contradiction in terms which leds him to ask: Is

practical theology even possible?145 In the end, Campbell concedes that practical

theology is indeed possible, because it seems that some branch of theology must be

concerned with matters which directly affect human well-being in whatever future awaits

us.146 Because of its concerns, particularly with specific social situations and individual

initiatives, says Campbell, practical theology can be expected to be fragmentary and

poorly systematized.147 More recently, others agree that the field of practical theology is

a diffuse and fragmented subject area in terms of basic understandings, concepts, and
142
Miller-McLemore states As my own publication attest, I joined the chorus in complaining about the
fields multiple personality disorder some years back (BMM, 1998, 176-179) and then later recanted
(BMM2001, 185). I recanted because I became convinced that our discipline was no worse off than others.
An overly self-critical posture did not serve us well. Many disciplines have fuzzy identities. Miller-
McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 2.
143
Jones tells the following story: Al, a contractor working on her bathroom, asked what are you writing?
Jones replied, A piece on practical theology. Al then asks: Do you also write about impractical
theology? See, Serene Jones, For Life Abundant, 195.
144
Joyce Ann Mercer, Welcoming Children (New York: Chalice Press, 2005), 10-11.
145
Alastair Campbell, The Nature of Practical Theology, in Theology and Practice, ed. Duncan B.
Forrester (New York: Epworth Press, 1990.), 78.
146
Cambell, The Nature of Practical Theology, 87.
147
Ibid.,. 85.

44
methods.148 For example, Stephen Pattison refers to practical theology as existing on the

margins of theology, a marginalized minority discipline within the modern academy

and that it needs to develop its own identity and purpose.149

Ed Farley wondered if practical theology is even a salvageable term.150 In the

Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Farley adamantly states that the situation

of practical theology in this last quarter of the 20th century is clearly one of turmoil,

ambiguity, and explorations of new paths.151 Even historically, Farley points out that

practical theology too has a long history, but its status as an unwelcome and

embarrassing adopted child in some schools and as the queen of the theological sciences

in others suggests that all is not quiet on that front.152 Don Browning counters this

position, and in the same book Practical Theology: The Emerging Field in Theology, he

asks:

Wasnt it the case that practical theology appeared confused and soft-headed
because it was indeed the most difficult branch of theology, requiring the widest
range of theological skills and judgments, and because the challenging intellectual
work needed to clarify its logic and methods had simply not been sufficiently
attempted?153

It is not that practical theology itself is confused and ambiguous; instead, this is the most

difficult branch of theology and requires a wide range of skills that most theologians lack.

148
Woodward, James and Stephen Pattison, The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), xiv.
149
Stephen Pattison, The Challenge of Practical Theology (Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
2007), 283-287.
150
Farley states that he is not ready to abandon the term of practical theology; however, its particular nature
and its methods call for continued clarification. See, Edward Farley, Interpreting Situations in Formation
and Reflection: The Promise of Practical Theology, ed., Lewis Mudge and James Poling (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1987), 3.
151
Edward Farley, Practical Theology, Protestant in Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, ed.
Rodney Hunter (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1990), 935.
152
Edward Farley, Theology and Practice Outside the Clerical Paradigm in Practical Theology: The
Emerging Field in Theology, Church, and World, ed. Don Browning (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row,
Publishers, 1983), 21.
153
Don Browning, Practical Theology: The Emerging Field in Theology, Church, and World, ed. Don
Browning (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1983), 1.

45
The challenging intellectual work that is needed to clarify the methods of practical

theology is a task that Browning has dedicated substantial scholarly work in attempting to

codify. Much of Chapter Two will address Brownings work.

In 2008, Kathleen Cahalan and James Nieman unfolded a conceptual map of

practical theology and elaborated on several connected claims in their essay in Life

Abundant.154 In short, practical theology claims the particularity of contexts in order to

understand the realities and demands of life; its sustained attention embraces actual and

concrete perspectives while holding a storehouse of critical perspectives available for

contemporary situations.155 Practical theological work is distinctive because it is

interpretive and employs multiple approaches to discern from actual participants what is

happening.156 Because practical theology is a field where there are many different players

spread across a variety of settings, contexts, and challenges, the field can be persistently

fascinating and occasionally frustrating.157 Miller-McLemore sums it up quite

succinctly: Practical theology has expansive borders.158

Practical theology does have expansive and ever-expanding borders. Said in

another way, practical theology has soluble boundaries, which I believe strengthens the

field to dialogue with areas and subjects that appear to be outside of its purview. In order

to construct my own definitional stance, I turned to several contemporary examples of

work in practical theology. Borrowing words and nuances, my definition becomes a bit

154
Kathleen Cahalan and James Nieman, Mapping the Field of Practical Theology, in For Life Abundant,
ed. Dorthy Bass and Craig Dykstra (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company,
2008),
155
Cahalan and Nieman, Mapping the Field of Practical Theology, 79-81.
156
In other words, a further act of interpretation is required in order to clarify what has been encountered
and to convey the significant meaning evident in a particular situation. See, Cahalan and Nieman,
Mapping the Field of Practical Theology, 82.
157
Ibid., 85.
158
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology, in Encyclopedia of Religion in America, eds. Charles
Lippy and Peter Williams (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2010).

46
lengthy but very descriptive of those contemporary approaches that I look to and admire.

I define practical theology as an inherently interdisciplinary quest with postmodern

sensibilities that uses thick description to examine the messy particularities of everyday

lives with excruciating care in order to understand lived subjective experience by

beginning with the situation and starting small. Practical theology ultimately seeks to

clarify and cultivate phronesis; and in order to do this, practical theology should be

grounded in critical hermeneutical theory which offers a framework to hold multiple

theoretical perspectives from both religious and scientific sources.

Besides offering a contemporary definition of practical theology, it is also

important to situate my perspective of practical theology and to acknowledge the history

behind the term. In the next section, I trace back to the first use of the term practical

theology and offer what Gadamer calls an effective history. For Gadamer, true

understanding begins by first acknowledging the effective history of ones perspective.

Effective history includes the inherited ideals, images, texts, and presuppositions and

making these visible and explicit deepens the understanding process. Gadamers key

point is that we must become aware of our own embeddedness or historical situatedness

and constantly reflect on the ways in which this situatedness influences the way that we

interpret our world.159

This section also serves another purpose: In her article on The Subject and

Practice of Pastoral Theology as a Practical Theological Discipline, Miller-McLemore

states:

159
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 111.

47
 anyone who wants to write a comprehensive text in the general area of religion
and personality must first address and in some fashion dispel the persistent
identity crisis of the field or at least situate ones work in relation to this crisis.160

The following section addresses practical theology, including its identity crisis, and

firmly situates my work in relation to its history.

Practical Theology: Effective History

According to Ed Farley, the term practical theology was first used by the Dutch

theologian Voetius in the sixteenth century to describe a group of studies in moral

theology and church government.161 However, most accounts trace the history of

practical theology to Friedrich Schleiermacher in his posthumously published Brief

Outline of the Study of Theology.162 In this text, Schleiermacher develops his foundational

model of theology and his understanding of theology entails a view of theology as a

complex process across various theological fields and sub-disciplines which nevertheless

implies the aim of theological unity as a complex process across fields.163 These fields

are philosophical theology, historical theology and practical theology and the interplay

between these three makes theology possible. Schleiermacher invoked the image of tree

in order to visualize the process: philosophical theology constitutes the roots, historical

theology (including biblical theology) composes the trunk, and practical theology

160
Miller-McLemore, The subject and practice of pastoral theology as a practical theological discipline,
179.
161
Farley, Theology and Practice Outside the Clerical Paradigm, 31.
162
Frederich Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of the Study of Theology, trans. William Farrer (Eugene, OR:
Wipf and Stock), 1850.
163
Friedrich Schweitzer, Which Normativity and What Kind of Empirical Research? in Normativity and
Empirical Research in Theology ed. Johannes van der Ven and Michael Scherer-Rath. (The Netherlands:
Brill, 2005), 89.

48
comprises the branches, leaves, and fruit (crown).164 These three parts are interdependent,

yet sequential and dissimilar from one another. This organic metaphor of a tree implied

how these three disciplines might be understood to be different, yet interconnected into

one grand flowering tree of theology. Here, practical theology is the crown of an

interrelated process of inquiry. Schleiermacher states, Practical Theology, therefore, is

for those only in whom an interest in the welfare of the Church, and a scientific spirit,

exist in combination.165

Yet John Burkhart remarks that Schleiermachers text was meant to be an

introductory guide for theological students where theology could be envisioned as not a

matter of seeing some special realities, but of seeing some ordinary realities

differently.166 According to translator William Farrer, Schleiermacher had no intention

of founding a school in the ordinary sense of the term.167 In fact, Schleiermacher states in

the preface that, these few sheets contain the whole of my present views with regard to

the study of theology, and that these views, whatever their specific character, may,

perhaps, even by their deviation from those which are held by other men, operate in the

way of stimulus, and generate something better.168 That something better, according to

Burkhart, is Schleiermachers implicit vision of the imaginative, futurist discipline of

practical theology that seeks to understand in both theory and practice, using both the

resources of philosophical and historical theology, the ways to overcome the distance

164
Polk, John. Practical Theology in Donald Mussre and Joseph Price. A New Handbook of Christian
Theology. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 375.
165
Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of the Study of Theology, 187, original emphasis.
166
John E. Burkhart, Schleiermachers Vision for Theology, in Practical Theology: The Emerging Field
in Theology, Church, and World, ed. Don Browning (San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, Publishers,
1983), 51.
167
William Farrer, Translators Preface in Friedrich Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of the Study of
Theology (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2007), viii.
168
Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of the Study of Theology, 91.

49
between what human life is and what human life is meant to be.169 Schleiermacher

wanted to emphasize the essential quality among these three dimensions of the

theological task, and according to John Polk, he worried he would be mistakenly accused

of subordinating the lower two activities to their more lofty partner of practical

theology.170 As it turns out, just the opposite happened.

Regardless of Schleiermachers aims, by the second half of the 18th century a shift

occurred that would shape the future of practical theology: the development of

theological studies in the German university of the Enlightenment into the four-fold

structure of biblical, dogmatic, church historical, and practical theology.171

Schleiermacher is responsible for the definitive categorization of theological studies in

the academy and for the past 150 years, his legacy has dominated.172 For example,

Thomas Long condemns Schleiermacher as a villain who isolated the practical from the

philosophical and the historical and who located practical theology in the functionings of

clergy only.173 Others like Friedrich Schweitzer defend Schleiermacher because he was

simply trying to publically claim a new place for religion and his real critical thrust was

against the dehumanizing influence of rationalist culture.174 Practical theology comes into

existence, says Schweitzer, as an attempt of overcoming the narrowness of rationalist

anthropologies in science and ethics.175 However, even Burkhart admits that

169
Burkhart, Schleiermachers Vision for Theology, 56.
170
John Polk, Practical Theology, in A New Handbook of Christian Theology, ed. Donald Mussre and
Joseph Price (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 375.
171
Farley, Practical Theology, Protestant, 935.
172
Elaine Graham, Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty (Eugene, OR: Wipf
and Stock Publishers, 1996), 59, 61.
173
Thomas G. Long, "Moses, Aaron, and Practical Theology," Theology Today 42, no. 1 (April 1985), 2-3.
174
Friedrich Schweitzer, "Creativity, Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimensions of Practical
Theology," in Creativity, Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimensions of Practical Theology, ed.
Paul and Pamela Couture Ballard (Cardiff Academic Press, 2001), 7-13.
175
Schweitzer, "Creativity, Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimensions of Practical Theology,"

50
Schleiermachers actual discussion of practical theology is not only sketchy, but comes

something of an anticlimax.176

Nonetheless, according to Kathleen Cahalan, North American theological schools

inherited Schleiermachers notion that practical theology is an applied discipline that

brought knowledge from philosophy and history to practical theology, but not the

reverse; in this sense, traffic was decidedly one-way.177 In this sense, practical theology

as a discipline has its roots within the academic settings of universities, seminaries, and

colleges.178 However, for Alastair Campbell, practical theology far from being the

crown of divinity it became its poor relation.179 Practical theology became the practical

application of theological understandings obtained by the other two areas. For Farley,

after Schleiermachers suggested theological system, the field of practical theology was

increasingly narrowed: first to a discipline devoted to churchly and ministerial activities

and second, to that of a clergy science where the focus was exclusively on the

individuality, career and office of the minister.180 According to Randy Maddox, that is,

practical theology became pastoral theology, a discipline aimed at preparing ministers to

handle the technical aspects of their profession.181 This emphasis on practical theology

as the discipline that trains pastoral leadership with the technical skills they might need in

11.
176
Burkhart, Brief Outline of the Study of Theology, 47.
177
Kathleen Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical Theology, Theological Education, and the Church's
Ministry." International Journal of Practical Theology 9 (2005): 64.
178
Woodward and Pattison. The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology, 11.
179
Campbell, The Nature of Practical Theology, 79.
180
Farley, Interpreting Situations, 31-32.
181
Randy Maddox, The Recovery of Theology as a Practical Discipline. Theological Studies 51 (1990),
659.

51
parish ministry inevitably led to what Ed Farley has called the triumph of the clerical

paradigm.182

Clerical Paradigm

For Farley, the influential character of Schleiermachers contribution to theology

from his seminal work Brief Outline is the proposal of a teleological solution to the unity

of theology, what Farley calls the clerical paradigm.183 Again, Schleiermacher argued

that theology was a legitimate science, like medicine and law, designed for the promotion

of social goods.184 Educating clergy in scholarly work and in theories of preaching is

similar to the work done in educating those in law and medicine. In this sense, practical

theology became a culminating cluster of courses directed toward the tasks and

functions of ordained ministry.185 In a footnote, Farley clarifies that this expression,

clerical paradigm, will be used to refer to the prevailing (post-Schleiermacher) Protestant

way of understanding the unity of theological education.186 In this way, says Cahalan,

the discipline of practical theology and hence theological education, had become

consumed by the narrow interest of professional preparation for ordained ministers.187

182
Edward Farley, Theologia: the Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1983), 85-90.
183
Farley gives two insights, the first is mentioned. The second insight is a proposal of a substantial solution
to the unity of theology due to the destructive effect of the collapse of the traditional bases of theology.
See: Farley, Theologia, 85.
184
Farley, Theologia, 88 and Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm: A Fallacy of Misplaced
Concreteness? International Journal of Practical Theology 11, no.1 (2007): 23
185
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm:, A Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness?
International Journal of Practical Theology 11, no, 1 (2007), 23.
186
Farley, Theologia, 98, original emphasis.
187
Kathleen Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical Theology, Theological Education, and the Church's
Ministry." International Journal of Practical Theology 9 (2005): 64.

52
 It becomes clear that although Schleiermacher is hailed as the father of practical

theology, he also set up the field for a narrow focus that would be played out later in the

academy and perhaps, ultimately could have led to its demise. Most scholars almost

universally agreed that previous eras, dating back to Schleiermacher in the nineteenth

century, had defined the field too narrowly.188 Although Schleiermachers intent was for

practical theology to be the crowning discipline organizing theology, it instead ends in

the unhappy captivity of practical theology into a rather narrow vision of clerical

education.189 Farley adds:

This clerical narrowing or exclusive focus on the individuality, career, and

office of the minister is not simply the clerical paradigm. The clerical
paradigm is a way of interpreting theology itself as located in theological
(seminary) studies, and a way of understanding those studies as united and
directed toward clergy tasks and activities.190

Farley proposes the phrase clerical paradigm as a way to represent the troubling

preoccupation with the learning and teaching of ministerial skills to individual pastors in

seminaries. Soon, the clerical paradigm became the code word for everything that was

wrong with previous understandings of theological education and practical theology.191 In

short, the clerical paradigm defines theological education as simply clergy education.192

Others resist and critique the classification of clerical paradigm. In particular,

Miller-McLemore questions the adequacy of the term and wonders: does it adequately

comprehend the problems faced by practical theology and pastoral practitioners?193

Instead, she argues that clerical paradigm offers a distorted perspective while

188
Miller-McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm, 21.
189
Browning, Practical Theology, 4.
190
Farley, Interpreting Situations, 32.
191
Miller-McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm, 22.
192
Edward Farley, Toward Theological Understanding: An Interview with Ed Farley. Christian Century
(February 4-11, 1998), 115.
193
Miller-McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm, 20.

53
misappropriating blame, leaving many other problems unattended.194 The term has so

heavily dominated the discourse that heavy reliance by scholars using clerical

paradigm has denigrated the term to simply pastoral know-how. Ultimately, for

Miller-McLemore, the move to embrace the clerical paradigm is move away from the

messiness of human suffering, the ambiguities and subjectivity of faith claims and

spiritual experiences and instead, the complaints of Edward Farley and others about the

clerical paradigm reflect an elitist academic failure to appreciate and to grapple with the

world of ministry and the practice of Christian discipline.195

Nonetheless, practical theology is much more than just simple clergy education

and the teaching of ministerial skills to individual pastors in seminaries.196 In the 1980s,

thanks to professional interest and institutional support, scholars began to significantly

reposition the field of practical theology as a respectable academic enterprise.197 Calls

for recovering an understanding of theology as a practical discipline have been

increasingly common in the past twenty years.198 Miller-McLemore states:

Practical theology has attracted wide attention in recent years through fresh
publications, renewed academic societies, new graduate programs, and interest in
lived theology among those outside the academy.199

For Eileen Campbell-Reed the field of practical theology has undergone revitalization

and gained clarity in purpose during the last couple of decades. This renewed clarity has

194
Ibid., 20. Clerical paradigm bmm
195
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Feminist Theory in Pastoral Theology, in Feminist and Womanist Pastoral
Theology, ed. Bonnie Miller-McLemore and Brita Gill-Austern (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999), 93.
196
Miller-McLemore, Feminist Theory in Pastoral Theology, 93.
197
Miller McLemore specifically reference a prime example of a text that sought to re-position the field is
Don Brownings Practical Theology: The Emerging Field in Theology, Church, and World (San Francisco:
Harper and Row, Publishers, 1983.) This volume includes essays by Edward Farley, James Fowler, and
David Tracy to name a few. See, Miller-McLemore The Clerical Paradigm, 21.
198
Randy Maddox, The Recovery of Theology as a Practical Discipline. Theological Studies 51 (1990):
650.
199
Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology, 2.

54
come, in part, due the need to understand situations, problems, and practices in church

and society.200 It is to this renewed focus on practical theology that I now turn. In many

respects, I see these contemporary perspectives as attempts towards shaking the tree of

practical theology in order to reap more of its fruit.

Shaking the Tree: Practical Theology 1980s-2010

In the 1980s a wave of re-conceptualization occurred regarding the nature of

practical theology, initiated primarily by discussions at the University of Chicago.201 Part

of the intellectual heritage of the field of practical theology is due, in part, to the

Chicago school.202 Miller-McLemore points out that Tillich had a fundamental impact

on the field as early as the 1950s and 60s; Tillich was also influential on his colleague

Seward Hiltner. Hiltner had Browning as a student; Browning had both Miller-

McLemore, Kathleen Cahalan, and Pamela Couture as students.203 Dorothy Bass and

Craig Dykstra point out that the academic discipline of practical theology has blossomed

over the past thirty years.204 They cite a generation of path-breaking work in the 1980s in

the practical theology beginning with Don Browning, Ed Farley, Lewis Mudge, James

200
Campbell-Reed, Anatomy of a Schism, 30.
201
Polk, Practical Theology, 376.
202
Miller-McLemore is not referencing the University of Chicagos mid-century emphasis on process
philosophy or its earlier 1890s concentration on pragmatism. It simply refers to the fields influence by
several Chicago scholars: Tillich, Tracy, Ricoeur, Browning, James Gustafson, Couture, Gay, for example.
See, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Pastoral Theology and Public Theology: Developments in the U.S. in
Pathways to the Public Square: Practical Theology in the Age of Pluralism, Volume One, eds. Elaine
Graham and Anna Rowlands (London: Transaction Publishers, 2005), 99.
203
Miller-McLemore, Pastoral Theology and Public Theology, 99.
204
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra, For Life Abundant (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2008), 4.

55
Poling, and Barbara Wheeler.205 These path breakers have led to the present time which

is a time of great creativity within the theological movement of practical theology. Also

notable was the formation of The Association of Practical Theology (APT) in 1984,

partially under the influence of Don Browning. The self-stated purpose of the APT is to

promote critical discourse that integrates theological reflection and practice. More

specifically, the APT was sparked by the investigation of practical theology as an

integrative hermeneutical endeavor at the heart of theological education, characterizing

not only the ministerial sub-disciplines but also a manner and method of engaged

reflection.206 The APT website currently claims the leadership of Dorothy Bass,

Kathleen Cahalan, and Joyce Ann Mercer in their executive committee.

Because of the renewed interest in practical theology, the focus and nature of

practical theology has changed dramatically.207 Practical theology is no longer simply the

discipline concerned with applying doctrine or the implementation of congregational

polity and ministry. Instead, according to Miller-McLemore, the term practical theology

gets used in at least four different ways:

It refers to an activity of believers seeking to sustain a life of reflective faith in the

everyday, a curricular area in theological education focused on ministerial
practice, an approach to theology used by religious leaders and by teachers and

205
Specifically, the authors refer to the following works: Browning, Don S. Practical Theology: The
Emerging Field in Theology, Church, and World. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983; Farley, Edward.
Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983;
Mudge, Lewis S. and James N Poling, eds., Formation and Reflection: The Promise of Practical Theology.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987; Wheeler, Barbara G and Edward Farley, eds., Shifting Boundaries:
Contextual Approaches to the Structure of Theological Education. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox
Press, 1991.
206
Association of Practical Theology website, accessed July 2010, www.practicaltheology.org
207
Kathleen Cahalan points out that The decline in mainline Protestantism has been a major impetus for
the revitalization of the field of practical theology in North American theological education since the
1980s. This decline is both internal (in terms of size of congregations and denominations) and external (in
terms of the churchs influence on social issues). These concerns and others have helped to renew interest
in practical theology to help with this decline and as a way to answer the call for change in mainline
Protestant denominations. See: Cahalan, Kathleen. "Three Approaches to Practical Theology, Theological
Education, and the Church's Ministry." International Journal of Practical Theology 9 (2005): 63-64.

56
 students across the curriculum, and an academic discipline pursued by a smaller
subset of scholars to sustain these three enterprises.208

As an academic discipline, practical theologians assume a number of tasks. They explore

through descriptive study using secular sources, such as the social sciences and

literature, in addition to scripture, history, and doctrine and seek methods such as

ethnography, narrative theory, case study, or the hermeneutical circle of description,

interpretation, and response.209 Miller-McLemore states: They study patterns of

integration, formation, and transformation in theological education and vocational

development.210 They often devote more attention to concrete topics (important to the

teleological practical theology discussed above) such as mental illness, children, poverty,

and social policy, than to disciplinary issues in practical theology.211

This devotion to concrete topics is evident in the next practical theologians I

cover. For example, Joyce Ann Mercers book Welcoming Children: A Practical

Theology of Childhood, takes on the topic of children and childhood. Mercer

conceptualizes practical theology as a constructive and imaginary activity that takes place

in critical relationship to available resources and out of which emancipatory practices can

come.212 Mercer contends that doing this kind of theology is a bit like putting together a

wooden puzzle that is missing some pieces sometimes new pieces might have to be

constructed in order to complete the puzzle; therefore, practical theology is necessarily

constructive. Mercer admits that she is starting small in her construction of feminist

208
Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology, 6.
209
Ibid., 9.
210
Ibid.
211
Ibid., 10.
212
Miller-McLemore, in her foreward to Mercers book, comments that one of Mercers many contributions
is a demonstration of an exposition of good practical theology. Miller-McLemore comments that Mercer
brings immense resources to the task which compels her orientation as a practical theologian to start
small. See, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Foreward, in Joyce Ann Mercer, Welcoming Children: A
Practical Theology of Childhood (New York: Chalice Press, 2005), vii-viii and 6.

57
practical theology of childhood and develops it in two ways. First, to start small means

to begin with the lives and situations of actual human beings. Mercer states: starting

small means starting with the lives and stories of some of the particular children who

inform my thinking and action and with whom this theology is ultimately concerned.213

Second, to start small also refers to her own particular writing perspective, which is not

a Gods eye view, but rather a very small, contextual view that is distinctly shaped by

Mercers own social location and her own choice of lenses with which to view the lives

and stories of children.

Mercers construction and use of an interpretive lens is significant because this

dissertation also seeks to construct lenses with which to view the subject matter.214

Mercers lens comes from the vantage point of feminist practical theology and takes on

its critical principle from the liberation, thriving, and well-being of all children.215 In this

way, practical theology takes seriously contextual views and is explicit about how the

subject matter is viewed. Although Mercer jokes that practical theology might be

understood as an oxymoron, its real work is to offer descriptions of particular contexts of

human experience in relation to actual encounters with people and communities.216

Practical theology is highly interdisciplinary and offers the mutual engagement of

theory and practice for the sake of emancipatory action in the world through strategies

and tactics of transformation; it is a way of doing theology that takes seriously local

213
Mercer states that her work on the Children in Congregations Project was an important connection for
learning about the lives and hearing the stories of particular children. See, Mercer, Welcoming Children, 6.
214
Mercer lays out the basic framework of her practical theological method which she describes as a
movement between three primary activities: 1) engagement with and description of a particular context; 2)
engagement with multiple and interdisciplinary resources; and 3) the construction and engagement of
strategies and tactics of action that can participate in Gods transforming work. See, Mercer, Welcoming
Children, 36-7.
215
Mercer, Welcoming Children, 5.
216
Ibid., 10-11.

58
contexts and practices and the everyday lives of persons in those contexts.217 In fact,

Mercer states: Practical theology is not hostile to theoretical complexity. Rather, it is a

way of doing theology that takes seriously local contexts and practices and the everyday

lives of persons in those context.218 In sum, Mercer states that practical theology is a

constructive and imaginary activity that is highly interdisciplinary and starts small;

furthermore, in its aim of offering descriptions of particular contexts of human

experience, practical theology isnt afraid or hostile towards theoretical complexity.

Another example is Pamela Coutures Blessed Are the Poor? Womens Poverty,

Family Policy, and Practical Theology. Couture begins her exposition into practical

theology by stating that most practical theology begins with a thick description of the

situation.219 She states: Formally, a thick description refers to multi-layered ways of

thinking about practices, situations, or habits.220 Because situations are multifaceted and

complicated, it is important to incorporate a variety of perspectives sociological,

psychological, economic and cultural analysis in order to explicate the problem and

give eventual suggestions for its renewal.221 Couture contends that because of the

multifaceted dimension of situations, practical theological methods are necessarily fluid

and dependent upon the situation being analyzed.222 Practical theology has developed a

dialogue between theology and the sciences, especially psychology, sociology,

217
Ibid., 13.
218
Ibid., 13.
219
Pamela Couture, Blessed Are the Poor? Women's Poverty, Family Policy, and Practical Theology
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 23.
220
Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 23.
221
The specific problem that Couture addresses is the dynamics of poverty of women and children.
222
Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 185.

59
anthropology, biology, and economics.223 Because situations are multi-faceted and

complicated, other disciplines must be called into the conversation for Couture.

Rebecca Chopp says the practical theological work of Couture contributes

methodologically to the field of practical theology by daring to cross disciplinary lines

and offering a model that blends reflection on popular culture together with theoretical

analysis.224 This daring to cross disciplinary lines also reflects a subtle critique of the

rigidity of scientific paradigms as being objective and the only way to analyze

particular situations. Couture states that scientific authority has become scientific

tyranny.225 To guard against such tyranny, Couture suggests practical knowing, which

sifts social scientific data through the sieve of our religious, political, and philosophic

cultural traditions and vice versa, helps the average citizen make informed decisions.226

Couture continues:

Practical theology is informed by practical knowing. As a theological discipline,

practical theology represents a more formalized version of the thinking process
through which an average person attempts to bring social science, cultural
traditions, and religious convictions into dialogue with one another.227

According to Miller McLemore, Blessed Are the Poor? reaps the benefits of placing this

kind of policy deliberation within the context of solid practical theological reflection.228

Again, Coutures approach is noted for crossing disciplinary lines and by offering a

model based on methods that are fluid and flexible. Furthermore, Couture adds: I was

struck how often practical theologians agreed that no one method would fit all times, all

223
Pamela Couture, Practical Theology at Saint Paul School of Theology. Religious Studies News RSN, ii.
224
Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 15.
225
Ibid., 21.
226
Ibid., 22.
227
Couture adds that, in this sense, theology refers to claims about the divine-human and human-human
relationships which express our ultimate commitments; as such, theology can be understood as explicit
theological reflection. Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 23.
228
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, review of Blessed Are the Poor? by Pamela Couture, The Journal of Religion
(1993), 110.

60
places, and all situations.229 In the end, Couture states that practical theology aims to

produce recommendations for transformative practice.230 And, in order to do this,

practical theology must be both critical and creative.231

This careful attention to the methods and conversation partners of practical

theology is echoed by Rebecca Chopp in Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological

Education. For Chopp, we need methods and ideas that will investigate the concrete data

of our experiences in order to identify the struggles and desires for transformation that

exist.232 She pushes for new approaches of practical methods that can investigate

contemporary reality methods that can anticipate possibilities for transformation in our

midst.233 Chopp looks to critical theories for an answer, those theories that are

historically and socially contextual. Critical theory does not attempt to make universal

arguments or constructs to hold for all times and places; instead, a critical theory arises

in a specific situation and, using the symbols, images, and concepts involved in that

situation, attempts to move against distortion and dysfunction and to shape new forms of

flourishing.234 In order to develop a contextual critical method, Chopp states that

investigation must move from the abstract and instead, begin with the practical reality of

the situation. For Chopp, all knowledge has a praxis orientation because knowledge

begins in concrete human situations and drives toward transformation of concrete

realities.235

229
Couture, Practical Theology at Saint Paul School of Theology, ii.
230
Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 24.
231
Paul Ballard and Pamela Couture, Creativity, Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimension in
Practical Theology (Cardiff Academic Press, 2001), x.
232
Rebecca S. Chopp, Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological Education (Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 1995), 11.
233
Chopp, Saving Work, 11.
234
Chopp, Saving Work, 12.
235
Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical Theology, 84.

61
 Kathleen Cahalan echoes this sentiment by advocating that practical theology

concentrate on the complex task of interpreting the living texts of human lives that are

embodied, community-creating beings.236 What has been so exciting about current work

in practical theology for Cahalan is the way in which text has been re-defined: text is

now the living texts of human lives and faith communities.237 In this way, the

description of human beings is no longer static or essentialist, but instead humans are

treated as living, fully-embodied, community-creating beings. But this is no easy task as

Cahalan points out, and because of this, practical theology is challenging and difficult

work since it takes risks by listening to the critical concerns and practical realities of

people living in particular contexts.238 Furthermore, the field of practical theology can be

strengthened by further attention to the philosophical assumptions that informs the

particular perspective being used.239

Another important point for Calahan is that practical theology, particularly in the

past two decades, is decidedly postmodern.240 Cahalan defines postmodernity as the

critical engagement with the modern project.241 In this postmodern sense, Cahalan

defines practical as the everyday realities that are part of constructing lives of

236
Ibid., 93.
237
Or, another way to phrase this is how Bonnie Miller-McLemore has defined the focus of pastoral and
practical theology: towards living human documents and the living human web. Miller McLemore has
expanded the metaphor of the living human web and is referenced by others, see: Graham, L. 1992,
Patton, 1993, Gill-Austern, 1995, Couture, 1996 and see also, Miller-McLemore (1993, 1996, 1999).
238
Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical Theology, 93.
239
Ibid., 92.
240
Since Farleys inception of the clerical paradigm in the 1980s, Cahalan notes in her article three
distinct postmodern approaches to practical theology that have emerged in the past twenty years.These
three approaches are Don Browning (characterized as a late modern position), Dorothy Bass and Craig
Dykstra (characterized as a countermodern position), and Rebecca Chopp as an example of liberation,
feminist, and contextual theologies (characterized as a radical postmodern position) See: Cahalan, "Three
Approaches to Practical Theology, 63-94.
241
Most simply, postmodernity takes seriously the critiques of the positivistic paradigm. It offers an
explicit critique of the modernity and its assumptions. See, Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical
Theology, 86.

62
meaning and purpose, what is actually possible given the situation, not what the ideal

might be if all contingencies were removed.242 For Cahalan, practical theology is a

constructive and future-orientated task that is an inherently interdisciplinary quest with

postmodern sensibilities.243 Postmodernity offers an explicit critique of modernity and the

positivistic paradigm, including notions of the autonomous self, empiricism, rationality,

objectivity, and overall rejects any notions of universal truths.244 Cahalan adds that the

postmodern project is ultimately concerned with constructing new understandings using

the insights of gender, race, and class.245

In an interview in 1998, Ed Farley comments on practical theologys postmodern

sensibilities. For Farley, part of the postmodern epoch is that certain deep cultural values

that used to be assumed have now eroded and are not operational in the postmodern

environment.246 He refers to his earlier work and comments that in this continuing

climate, he still believes that practical theology should be understood as the

interpretation of situations.247 Following Albert North Whitehead, Farley concedes that

every living thing exists in situations. Situations are never static and are ever-changing

and ever-forming. They can be brief or static, local or global, and can involve

individuals, groups, and communities. In brief, a situation is the way various items,

242
Ibid.
243
Ibid., 86-87.
244
Cahalan adds that the postmodern project is ultimately concerned with constructing new understandings
using the insights of gender, race, and class. Cahalan, "Three Approaches to Practical Theology,86.
245
Ibid.
246
Edward Farley, Toward Theological Understanding: An Interview with Ed Farley. Christian Century,
February 4-11, 1998. P. 113
247
Farley has written widely and influentially on the nature of theology. For Farley, Most would agree
that theology is an undertaking of interpretation, a hermeneutic of sorts. (30). See Interpreting
Situations: An Inquiry into the Nature of Practical Theology in Practicing Gospel: Unconventional
Thoughts on the Churchs Ministry. Louisville: Westminister John Knox, 2003. Reprinted from its
original publication in Lewis Mudge and James Poling, eds., Formation and Reflection: The Promise of
Practical Theology. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987, 1-26. Also printed in Woodward, James and
Stephen Pattison. The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2000.

63
powers, and events in the environment gather together to evoke responses from

participants.248

Farley takes an ontological stance toward practical theology by insisting on

centering it on the interpretation of situations because all human beings exist in, act in,

and interpret situations.249 This interpretive dimension of human existence creates a

special hermeneutical task for Farley and is why interpreting situations can and should

be part of a deliberate and self-conscious educational undertaking, part of the churchs

lay and clergy education.250 However, the field has not been methodologically self-

conscious about the interpretation of situations.251 Hence, his self-stated thesis is that

the interpretation of situations should be self-conscious, self-critical, and disciplined.252

Farley refers to this as the theological hermeneutic of situations; furthermore, Farley

outlines four features or tasks that constitute an example of a theological hermeneutic of

situations.253 In the end, one of Farleys theses is that in practical theological

hermeneutics the object of interpretation is the situation itself.254 Practical theology is a

dimension of theology where reflection is directed toward a living situation and requires

248
Later, Farley defines a situation as an aggregate of events in the environment that evokes responses
from the participants. Farley, Interpreting Situations, 38, 40.
249
Ibid., 37.
250
Ibid., 38.
251
Ibid., 30.
252
Ibid., 37.
253
First, one must identify the situation and describe its distinctive and constitutive features. Farley refers
to this as reading a situation where one probes different layers by identifying the genres of things that
constitute the situation. Second, because the present is comprised of and structured by disguised
suppressions of the past, the situations of the past, including tradition, must be explored in order to bring
awareness of what is going on in the present. Third, one must explore the broader and more enduring
situations of context and eludicate on the the impingement of other situations on the local situation. The
fourth and final aspect of a hermeneutics of situations involves a theological element and theological
analysis; Farley highlights the centrality of this step and also describes it as the most complex of all the
steps because it tends to highlight the elements of corruption and redemption. Farley sums up this by
stating, The task of a hermeneutic of situations are to uncover the distinctive contents of the situation,
probe its repressed past, explore its relation to other situations with which it is intertwined, and confront the
situations challenge through consideration of corruption and redemption. Farley, Interpreting Situations,
39-43.
254
Ibid., 43.

64
involvement, and attention to, the lives and concerns of everyday people. For Farley,

theology is a creative and interpretive act that calls for wisdom to assess what is going on

and to appraise new possibilities in order to engage everyday existential responses to the

world. 255 According to Woodward and Pattison, Farley adheres to the fundamental

premise that the everyday contemporary experience of ordinary people has theological

meaning and significance.256

This emphasis on practical theology and the importance of examining particular

situations is central to John Swinton and Harriet Mowat. Practical theology seeks to

critically examine and explore particular situations, and although it might not be a

systematic discipline, it is a rich and diverse discipline that takes human experience

seriously.257 Situations are complex multi-faceted entities which need to be examined

with care, rigor and discernment if they are to be effectively understood.258 And because

of the complexity of situations, some researchers in practical theology call for eclectic

approaches that are fluid and flexible and not bound by one particular model.259 Swinton

and Mowat sum up their position by stating that practical theology seeks to explore the

complex dynamics of particular situations in order to enable the complex dynamics of

particular situations in order to enable the development of a transformative and

illuminating understanding of what is going on within these situations.260

255
Farley, Toward Theological Understanding: An Interview with Ed Farley, 113.
256
Woodward, James and Stephen Pattison. Introduction to Farleys Interpreting Situations: An Inquiry
into the Nature of Practical Theology. The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2000).
257
John Swinton and Harriet Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research (London: SCM Press,
2006), 13.
258
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 15.
259
Ibid., 50.
260
Ibid., v.

65
 Woodword and Pattison describe practical theology as a transformational activity

that takes experience seriously and can incorporate artistic and imaginative ways of

thinking about situations. It is to be confessional and honest, in that it is committed to

looking at the world through the lenses of a particular perspective or inhabited

worldview.261 Practical theology is unsystematic, truthful, committed, contextual and

situationally related; it is interdisciplinary, dialectical, reflectively based, and

constructive. Practical theological activity is in itself transformative and the process itself

often offers unexpectedly different ways of thinking about and understanding phenomena

and situations. Although contributions in practical theology are modest and limited, the

hope is that new understandings can ultimately be transformative for individuals and

communities, both in theory and practice.262

To summarize all these authors, practical theology is a creative and critical

approach that seeks to use multiple resources and thick description to start small with the

interpretation of the situation. Practical theology crosses disciplinary lines and its

postmodern sensibilities call for it to be situationally conscious and contextually

informed. Careful attention is made to the issues of methodology, and eclectic approaches

are encouraged and expected. All the theologians discussed would agree that practical

theology begins with the interpretation of the situation. Experience, social location, and

context are taken seriously in the attempt to offer a thick description of the situation.

Practical theology is a constructive and imaginary activity that starts small and is

highly interdisciplinary, drawing from a variety of disciplines and delving into theoretical

complexity. Methods must be fluid and flexible as well as critical; furthermore, the field

261
Woodward Pattison, The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology, 13.
262
Ibid., 11.

66
could be strengthened by further attention to the philosophical assumptions of particular

methods. All would also agree that practical theology is decidedly postmodern.

From these approaches, I tried to narrow down and distill a definition, which I

stated earlier as:

Practical theology is an inherently interdisciplinary quest with postmodern

sensibilities that uses thick description to examine the messy particularities of
everyday lives with excruciating care in order to understand lived subjective
experience by beginning with the situation and starting small. Practical theology
ultimately seeks to clarify and cultivate phronesis; and in order to do this,
practical theology should be grounded in critical hermeneutical theory which
offers a framework to hold multiple theoretical perspectives from both religious
and scientific sources.

The remaining chapter focuses specifically on the second part of my definition, when I

mention critical hermeneutical theory and practical theology. Chapter Two expands on

critical hermeneutical theory as a method and a methodology.

Hermeneutical Approaches

Again, Farley calls for the field of practical theology to become

methodologically self-conscious in terms of interpreting situations and the

interpretation of situations should be self-conscious, self-critical, and disciplined.263

Because practical theology focuses its reflection toward the living situation and requires

involvement, and attention to, the lives and concerns of everyday people, one must be

clear about methodology; for Farley, this is the theological hermeneutic of situations.

However, Don Browning resonates this hermeneutic perspective and offers an expanded

and very thorough methodological account of what he calls critical hermeneutical theory.
263
Farley, Interpreting Situations, 37.

67
 Browning both defines and argues for the epistemological grounds of a critical

practical theology which he bases on the hermeneutical theories of Gadamer and Ricoeur.

For Browning, a critical practical theology and critical hermeneutics are nearly identical.

And, Browning argues, the field of practical theology can maintain its identity and fulfill

its potential only by recognizing itself as an exercise in critical hermeneutics; in fact, its

success is dependent on grounding itself in critical hermeneutical theory.264 In order to do

this, practical theology as a discipline should both describe their effective histories and

use scientific distanciation to identify and describe situations; these are the basic

movements of critical hermeneutical theory which will be expanded upon in the

following chapter.265

Farley and Browning are not alone in their insistence that the field of practical

theology ground itself in hermeneutical theory. First, for David Tracy, theology is best

understood as reflection upon the meanings present in common human experience and

the meanings present in the Christian traditions.266 He affirms two sources of theology

common human experience and Christian texts that should be investigated using

hermeneutical approaches. Tracy argues that theology must use a hermeneutic of both

retrieval and suspicion since the modern situation is ambiguous and never pure.267 Tracy

presents a hermeneutical understanding of theology, centered on the notion of the classic,

which emphasizes interpretation and the necessarily public character of systematic

theology. Interpretation is unavoidable for Tracy, because to experience anything is to

interpret. Next, Johannes van der Ven insists on the hermeneutic-communicative

264
Browning, Mapping the Terrain, 168 and 177.
265
Browning, Equality and the Family, 35.
266
Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order, 34.
267
Tracy, The Analogical Imagination.

68
character of practical theology that begins with situational analysis as the starting point

for theological inquiry.268 One of his basic suppositions is that the hermeneutic-

communicative praxis occupies a top position within practical theology and should be

envisaged as its basis. Hermeneutic-communicative refers to the verbal and nonverbal

interpretation of written and spoken texts and their verbal and nonverbal

communication.269 Additionally, Charles Gerkin uses the tools of hermeneutic theory to

incorporate both theological and psychological perspectives because both share a

common mystery in trying to understand human experience and behavior.270 For Gerkin,

the most basic tools of pastoral counseling are hermeneutical tools the tools of

interpretation. In this way, hermeneutics is a way of seeing and interpreting the

phenomena at hand, and thereby each illuminates or brings forth something that remains

hidden when seen from the other perspective.271 Finally, Schweitzer argues that practical

theology should be seen as a critical hermeneutics of culture.272 He outlines four

submovements: the first is a hermeneutic of openness in order to deal with plurality of

religious expression; the second is a hermeneutics of suspicion for critical distinction.

268
Van der Ven, Johannes, Hermeneutic-communicative refers to the verbal and nonverbal interpretation
of written and spoken texts and their verbal and nonverbal communication He spends significant time
discussing the limits, aspects, and conflict involved in communication and the normative principles of the
hermeneutic-communicative praxis. Van der Ven, Johannes, Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach,
(Peeters Publisher, 1998), 41.
269
Van der Ven, Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach, 41.
270
For Gerkin, a hermeneutical perspective sees all human language systems, including both theology and
psychology, as efforts to penetrate the mystery of what is beyond human understanding and make sense of
it. See Charles Gerkin, The Living Human Document: Re-visioning Pastoral Care in a Hermeneutical
Mode (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984), 19
271
Gerkin, Living Human Document, 21.
272
Under this heading, he briefly outlines four submovements that he describes by loosely referring to the
hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. The first is a hermeneutic of openness in order to deal with plurality of
religious expression; the second is a hermeneutics of suspicion for critical distinction. Third comes a
hermeneutic of creativity and imagination and the fourth is a hermeneutic of renewal and completion.
However, very brief descriptions are given of each hermeneutic and he also ends his essays without any
explanation of how these hermeneutics might be used or the methodology involved. Schweitzer, Frederich.
"Creativity, Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimensions of Practical Theology." In Creativity,
Imagination and Criticism: The Expressive Dimensions of Practical Theology, by Paul and Pamela Couture
Ballard, 3-23. Cardiff Academic Press, 2001, pps. 13-14

69
Third comes a hermeneutic of creativity and imagination and the fourth is a

hermeneutic of renewal and completion.273 Overall, it is clear that for Schweitzer,

Tracy, Van der Ven, Gerkin, Farley, and Browning, the field of practical theology is best

ordered if seen as an expression of critical hermeneutics. Chapter Two concentrates on

how critical hermeneutical theory offers both a method and methodology for interpreting

data using multiple theoretical perspectives.

273
Schweitzer, Frederich. "Creativity, Imagination and Criticism, 13-14.

70
 CHAPTER II

CRITICAL HERMENEUTICAL METHODOLOGY

Hermeneutics is the attempt to find a coherent pattern, post facto. Volney Gay

A principle source of method in practical theology and in the wider arena of

religion and psychological studies is the critical correlational methodology. Bonnie

Miller-McLemore says, Correlation, as understood as a fluid dialectic between human

situation and religious message, emerged as an influential method in support of this claim

and became a staple in the growth of practical theology.274 It should be noted that

although the method of correlation is often cited as a principle methodology within

practical theology, not all within practical theology embrace it.275 Rebecca Chopp states

that the method of correlation as the route for practical theology is nothing more
than a new play on the old tag game of liberal, progressive theology that posits
an underlying unity between individuals and tradition, and believes that it can
reconcile, through understanding, human experience to reality.276

Further, Chopp argues that the method of correlation must be questioned and held up for

critical reflection. She contends that the revised method of correlation has certain

possibilities, but also has certain limits. Instead, Chopp looks to liberation perspectives to

critique the liberal-revisionist theologians for preferencing bourgeois society and the

nonbeliever over and against the large majority of the global population who live in

274
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology, in Encyclopedia of Religion in America, eds. Charles
Lippy and Peter Williams (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2010).
275
Rebecca Chopp, Practical Theology and Liberation, in Formation and Reflection: The Promise of
Practical Theology, ed. Lewis Mudge and James Poling (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), 120-136.
276
Ibid., 120.

71
poverty.277 Because of this and other reasons, Chopp suggests that given our own

historical situation of global crisis, the method of correlation may prove too limited to

address the religious, human, practical needs of our age.278

Regardless of this foundational criticism, the correlational method was principally

developed by Paul Tillich. Tillichs method of correlation starts with the questions

generated by human interpretations of the problems of existence with answers supplied

by the Christian message. Human culture is the medium of questions and theology is the

source of answers. David Tracy critiques and expands upon Tillichs correlational

method. Tracey critiques it because Tillichs model prioritizes revelation as the source of

answers, not of questions, and fails to take the human situation seriously. Tracy states:

The fact is that Tillichs method does not call for a critical correlation of the results of

ones investigations of the situation and the message.279 The result is one-way traffic,

where all answers come from the Christian tradition. Instead Tracy expands upon Tillich

by suggesting a revised correlational method where questions and answers from both

sources of human experience and Christian tradition are correlated in a way that is both

mutually illuminating and mutually critical. The method of revised correlation takes the

contemporary situation seriously, not just as the source of questions to be answered by

theology, but also as potential generators of alternative answers for the Christian
277
Chopp looks to liberation perspectives that suggest that liberal-revisionist theology and the modern
church are manifestations of their culture, twin manifestations that disclose the constitution of Christianity
in bourgeois society as individualistic, existentialistic, and private. She adds: While liberal-revisionist
theologians respond to the theoretical challenges of the nonbelievers among the small minority of the
worlds population who control the wealth and resources in history, liberation theologians respond to the
practical challenge of the large majority of global residents who control neither their victimization nor their
survival. Ibid., 125, 128.
278
Chopp argues that one of the problems of a liberal-revisionist approach of a revised critical correlational
method lie in the dominance, and even the hegemony, of theory over praxis. Liberation theology argues
for a practical correlation, which uses theories only as ways to solve problems; in this model theories can
be adopted, argued, discarded in relation to the material and not vice versa. Ibid., 131, 136.
279
David Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1975), 46.

72
tradition. Theology is best understood as the reflection upon both the meanings disclosed

in common human experience and the meanings disclosed in the primary texts of the

Christian tradition.

Don Browning also suggests that practical theology adopt the revised

correlational method for doing practical theology. A revised correlational method in

practical theology:

attempts to correlate critically those questions and answers that are derived from
various interpretations of the central Christian witness with those questions and
answers that are implicit in various interpretations of ordinary human
experience.280

In A Fundamental Practical Theology, Browning states that the revised correlational

approach is the approach I will champion in the rest of this book.281 Despite the

clumsiness of the phrase Browning advocates for a critical correlational approach to

fundamental practical theology.282 He builds on Tracys approach and suggests a

revised correlational fundamental practical theology: the critical reflection on the

churchs dialogue with Christian sources and other communities with the aim of guiding

its action towards social and individual transformation.283 This revised correlational

fundamental practical theology, as an inclusive term for the theological task, has within it

the subspecialities of descriptive theology, historical theology, systematic theology and

strategic practical theology.284 For Browning, these four steps make up a full hermeneutic

circle.

280
Don Browning, Religious Ethics and Pastoral Care (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), 50.
281
Browning actually states it as a critical hermeneutical or revised correlational approach. A
Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press,
1995), 33.
282
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 44.
283
Ibid., 54.
284
Ibid., 58.

73
 Step One: Descriptive Theology

As I stated in my introduction, of these four steps I will attempt only one:

descriptive theology. For Browning, descriptive theology is interested in all situations

that are part of life.285 Descriptive theology helps grasp the contextual richness of the

situation and makes a place for the special foci of the human sciences.286 These sciences

are treated as moments within a larger structure of understanding conceived as dialogue

and understanding.287 For Browning, description within a hermeneutical model of

understanding is never neutral or objective: Total descriptive objectivity is a myth.

Honesty rather than objectivity should be the major goal, and self-awareness on the part

of the person doing the description is the only objectivity achievable.288 Browning

states: Descriptive theology is interested in primarily describing the potential dialogue

between the narrative tradition of the researcher and the narrative tradition of the person

or group being studied.289

Descriptive theology should advance multidimensional descriptions of situations.

The purpose of descriptive theologys job of describing situations is to help understand

how communities and persons exercise phronesis through discerning the thickness of

meaning within a situation. Descriptive theology attempts this deep understanding of

others, their situations, and their identities.290 Furthermore, the primary task of

285
Don Browning, Congregational Studies as Practical Theology, in American Congregations: Volume 2
New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations, ed. James Wind and James Lewis (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1994), 198.
286
Browning, American Congregations, 199-200.
287
Ibid., 200.
288
Ibid., 199.
289
Ibid., 206.
290
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 84.

74
descriptive theology is to render the thick description of situations.291 Browning sums

it up: Descriptive theology aims for thick description of situations.292

Practical Theology and Thick Description

The phrase thick description is often attributed to the American anthropologist,

Clifford Geertz. In his text The Interpretation of Cultures, Geertz credits the phrase to

Gilbert Ryle.293 According to Geertz, Ryle makes a distinction between thin and

thick description in reference to ethnographic work.294 Impressed by Ryles pursuit of

multiple layers of meaning, Geertz saw this as a breakthrough in anthropology. Quite

simply, for Geertz, the point for now is only that ethnography is thick description.295

Later in his chapter Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,

Geertz outlines three characteristics of ethnographic thick description: it is

interpretive; what it is interpretive of is the flow of social discourse; and the interpreting

involved consists in trying to rescue the said of such discourse from its perishing

occasions and fix in perusable terms.296 According to Keith Windschuttle, a writer on

Geertz, the purpose of thick description was twofold: to make his readers aware there

291
Browning, American Congregations, 206.
292
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 94.
293
Clifford Geertz, Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture, in The Interpretation of
Cultures, ed. Clifford Geertz (Basic Books: New York, 1973), 6.
294
According to Windschuttle, Ryle argued that human gestures often had multiple layers of meaning that
could be described only by using different symbols from within the culture. Keith Windschuttle, The
ethnocentrism of Clifford Geertz. The New Criterion Observer (October 2002), 7.
295
Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 10-11.
296
Ibid., 20.

75
were other ways of thinking besides their own, and to make them more aware of the exact

quality of their own mentalities.297 For anthropologist Jason Springs:

Thick description describes and re-describes. The results have their value on the
basis of a pragmatic criterion how they push the discussion forward, widen
possibilities of communication, open new ways of seeing and thinking, and draw
previously unknown (and ostensibly excluded) voices and interlocutors into a
widening, proliferating, and (ideally) increasingly self-critical and self-reflective
range of conversations.298

In sum, thick description as articulated by scholars in anthropology recognizes the

existence of multiple layers of interpretive meaning; furthermore, doing thick

description expands and widens the perspective of the researcher.

Bonnie Miller-McLemore contends that the methods of practical and pastoral

theology have demonstrated the value of thick description as a powerful starting point

for all fields of theological study as well. Miller-McLemore states, Thick description

means seeking a multilayered analysis of human strife, including detailed, intricately

woven, experience-near rather than experience-distant readings of the living human

document.299 Pamela Couture states that most practical theology begins with a thick

description of the situation.300 She states: Formally, a thick description refers to

multi-layered ways of thinking about practices, situations, or habits.301 Because

situations are multifaceted and complicated, it is important for Couture to incorporate a

variety of perspectives sociological, psychological, economic and cultural analysis in

297
Windschuttle, The ethnocentrism of Clifford Geertz, 7.
298
Springs, Jason A. What Cultural Theorists of Religion Have to Learn from Wittgenstein; Or, How to
Read Geertz as a Practice Theorist Journal of the American Academy of Religion. December 2008, Vol.
76, No. 4, p 952.
299
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Living Human Web: Pastoral Theology at the Turn of the Century, in
Through the Eyes of Women: Insights for Pastoral Care, ed., Jeanne Stephenson Moessner (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress, 1996), 24.
300
Pamela Couture, Blessed Are the Poor? Women's Poverty, Family Policy, and Practical Theology
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 23.
301
Couture, Blessed Are the Poor?, 23.

76
order to explicate the problem and give eventual suggestions for its renewal.302 Thick

description is an approach used in practical theology and in this dissertation. The focus of

the next section is on the particular issues surrounding methodology and methods,

particularly in regards to critical hermeneutical theory.

Methodology

John Swinton and Harriet Mowat state that there is a common tendency to use the

terms methods and methodology as if they were synonymous and interchangeable,

when in fact, they are not. Methodology has to do with the overall approach to the

field and encompasses a variety of methods that have in common particular ontological

and epistemological assumptions.303 On the other hand, methods refers to the specific

techniques and systematic procedures that are used for data collection and analysis.

Methods are the specific routes taken to accomplish a particular task. Method, according

to Evelyn Whitehead and James Whitehead, describes the dynamic movement of

reflection.304 In this sense, a method is a procedure chosen and carried out within a

particular set of methodological assumptions about reality and truth.305 Said in another

way, a methodology is comprised of set of methods, all of which share underlying

principles, rules, and commitments.

302
The specific problem that Couture addresses is the dynamics of poverty of women and children.
303
John Swinton and Harriet Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research (London: SCM Press,
2006), 74-5.
304
Whitehead and Whitehead claim that Christians today need a method that is portable, performable, and
communal; it must also be based on the tenets of genuine conversation. James D. Whitehead and Evelyn E.
Whitehead , Method In Ministry: Theological Reflection and Christian Ministry (Kansas City: Sheed and
Ward, 1995), 3.
305
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 74.

77
 However, for Swinton and Mowat, hermeneutic theory is unique in that it offers

the philosophical foundations of a methodology, while also existing as a method for

researchers. Hermeneutic theory is distinctive because it is both a methodology and a

method of textual interpretation.306 As a methodology, hermeneutic theory is based on a

particular epistemological and ontological framework within which the process of this

research takes place. But also, hermeneutical theory, and more specifically critical

hermeneutical theory, can operate as a method by providing concepts to use as tools for

engagement. In this way, hermeneutic theory sits on an interesting borderline between

method and methodology.307

Hermeneutics: Interpreting Interpretive Theory

Hermeneutics refers to theories of interpretation; whereas, a hermeneutic is a

particular theory of interpretation used to uncover meaning. The etymology of the word

originates with Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods, who relayed messages between

the gods and mortals and translated between different parties what appeared

unintelligible.308 Hermeneutics, although noted for its definitional vagueness, has its

origins in the careful textual analysis of sacred texts.309 Hermeneutics often refers to

306
Ibid., 105.
307
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 105.
308
Palmer states, Significantly, Hermes is associated with the function of transmuting what is beyond
human understanding into a form that human intelligence can grasp. The various forms of the word
suggest the process of bringing a thing or situation from unintelligibility to understanding. The Greeks
credited Hermes with the discovery of language and writing the tools which human understanding
employs to grasp meaning and convey it to others. Richard E. Palmer, Hermeneutics: Interpretation
Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University
Press, 1969), 13-14. See also Richard Osmer, Practical Theology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids (MI:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 25-6, 87-88, 118-21.
309
Philip Cushman, Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy

78
biblical interpretation and the interpretation of texts with the help of rhetorical

principles.310 Under the purview of scholars like Schleiermacher, hermeneutics developed

into an encompassing theory of textual interpretation which included methodological

rules for good interpretive practice.311 Browning states: This movement was concerned

with questions about the appropriate interpretation of texts.312 Browning charts the

hermeneutical movement that began with Schleiermacher and further developed

philosophically by Wilhelm Dilthey, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Paul

Ricoeur. According to Browning their writings responded to the growing hegemony and

popularity of positivistic perspectives as a discipline in the humanities.313 Richard

Bernstein observes that contemporary hermeneutic theory blossomed during a time of

increasing doubts about logical positivism; therefore, hermeneutic theory directly

challenges the claim that the natural sciences alone can provide genuine knowledge.314

As a corrective, hermeneutic theory offers both a method and methodology of careful

textual analysis that rejects positivistic approaches and instead, offers a vision of reality

based on a plurality of viable interpretations.

(New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995), 22.

310
Kurt Mueller-Vollmer, The Hermeneutics Reader: Texts of the German Tradition from the
Enlightenment to the Present (New York: Continuum, 1985), 1.
311
Bernstein states that Schleiermacher is generally understood to be the first to argue for the general
significance of hermeneutics and drew upon these resources as a way to meet the challenge of skepticism
about religious understanding, those cultured despisers. Richard Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and
Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983),
112.
312
Don Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism: The New Conversation on Spirituality, Theology, and
Psychology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010), 18.
313
Don Browning, The past and possible future of religion and psychological studies, in Religion and
Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, eds. Diane Jonte-Pace and William B. Parson (New York: Routledge,
2001), 168.
314
Bernstein goes on to claim: Every defender of hermeneutics, and more generally the humanistic
tradition, has had to confront the persistent claim that it is science and science alone that is the measure of
reality, knowledge, and truth(46). Furthermore, he adds: There are still many, perhaps the majority of
thinkers. who view hermeneutics as some sort of woolly foreign intrusion to be approached with
suspicion(112). Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, 40, 107, 110-114.

79
 Methodology: Epistemology and Ontological Claims

Hermeneutic theory as a methodology has particular epistemological and

ontological claims that must be examined. Epistemology refers to the branch of

philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. In essence, epistemology asks the

questions: 1) how do we know what we know? 2) how can we know at all?315 Browning

and other hermeneutic thinkers answer these questions by underscoring the process of

understanding as dialogue or conversation. Understanding is always from a particular

perspective and is always a matter of interpretation. To answer the question how do we

know what we know hermeneutic theory posits that we know through our own pre-

understandings and prejudices that contextually locate our perspective and guide our

interpretive process. Interpretation, bias, and prejudice are crucial to the ways in which

human beings encounter the world and the process of understanding and knowing.316

Epistemological claims naturally give rise to the question of ontology: what is the

nature of existence and the nature of being? For Gadamer, hermeneutics as an act of

interpretation goes beyond epistemology and how people can know; hermeneutic theory

also represents who people are and their basic nature of being.317 Most simply, human

beings are interpretive creatures. Gadamer advocates for the ontological nature of

interpretation, and by clarifying the conditions of understanding, he makes a strong case

315
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 32.
316
Ibid.,108.
317
According to Palmer, Gadamers philosophical effort is to account for understanding as an ontological
process of human beings. His central question is: how is understanding possible, not only in the humanities
but in the whole of mans experience of the world? Richard E. Palmer, Hermeneutics: Interpretation
Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University
Press, 1969), 164.

80
for the fundamental nature of human beings as finite and limited creatures who view the

world through their prior understandings. Swinton and Mowat add: In other words,

hermeneutics is an ontological rather than merely an epistemological position. We cannot

be anything other than interpretive beings.318 Bernstein expresses a similar sentiment

when he states that hermeneutics is more than just method, but ontological and

universal.319

For Gadamer, hermeneutics is a fundamental human act and a significant way of

being in the world. Through his model of understanding as dialogue or conversation,

Gadamer claimed to be uncovering an ontology of understanding fundamental to all

disciplines.320 By stating that all attempts to understand resemble a conversation or

dialogue, Gadamer was highlighting the human conditions that make understanding

possible one that takes into consideration human limits, finitude, prior commitments,

and prejudices. For Gadamer, these human conditions do not hinder understanding, but

instead, help in engendering understanding. Understanding always occurs against the

background of prior involvements and commitments; therefore, all interpretation is

necessarily prejudiced because each individual is embedded within a cultural

framework and a particular context. Gadamer refers to interpretation as not just a possible

behavior, but as the mode of being.321 For Gadamer and other hermeneutic theorist,

humans are ontologically interpretive beings.

318
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 107-8.
319
Bernstein continues, We are thrown into the world as beings who understand and interpret so if we
are to understand what it is to be human beings, we must seek to understand understanding itself, in its rich,
full, and complex dimensions. Furthermore, understanding is not one type of activity to be contrasted with
other human activities(113). Bernstein is interested in the ways in which philosophical hermeneutics
contributes to overcoming the Cartesian Anxiety and helps us to move beyond objectivism and relativism.
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism,112-114.
320
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 170.
321
Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (London: Sheed and Ward, 1981), xviii, quoted in Swinton and

81
 Brownings Four Core Ideas of Hermeneutic Theory

For Browning, hermeneutics is a particular form of postmodernism that refers to

the historical and linguistic embeddedness of all human thought where no one begins

theorizing from a neutral place and pure objectivity is impossible.322 Hermeneutics as a

methodology focuses on uncovering and rediscovering meaning. Admittedly, it is a

troublesome word for Browning, but his use of the term hermeneutics relies heavily on

Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. However, Browning is instructive in

understanding hermeneutical theory because he lays out four core ideas that comprise

hermeneutical theory.

Browning states: The first core idea is Gadamers important theory of effective

history, a concept Ricoeur freely appropriates. This idea points to the situated character

of all thinking and investigation.323 By using the term effective history, Gadamer is

drawing awareness towards the historically effected character of all understanding. In this

model, true understanding begins by first acknowledging ones effective history.

Effective history is made up of ideals, images, text, and history that influence and shape

experience; in essence, effective history is comprised of the inherited ideals and

presuppositions about life and human nature that are implicit in every person. By

acknowledging ones effective history, one is trying to make those ideals and prejudices

Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 110.

322
Don S. Browning and Terry D. Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2004), 7.
323
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 20.

82
explicit and visible in order to deepen the understanding process. Browning and the

authors of Culture Wars state:

The question that we bring to any dialogue comes out of our own history, and all
the histories before us, that have shaped who we are. The history that has shaped
us also affects the very way that we ask our questions; this history, including its
implicit ideals, shapes how we interpret the world before us and evaluate its
tensions and conflicts. To even understand our own questions and our initial
interpretation of what is happening in the situations surrounding us, we must
deepen our understanding of the ideals that have colored what Gadamer called our
effective history. To describe something responsibly, we must also do history. 324

For Gadamer, history is always effective history. This is not a deficiency but instead

offers a unique possibility for understanding. For Browning, Gadamers important

theory of effective history is grounded in acknowledging the situated character of all

thinking where history is not simply something that lingers in the past something that

is over and done with and hence has no effect on us today.325 Effective history

determines in advance both what seems worth enquiring about and what will appear as

the object of investigation.326 Gadamer states,

We are not saying, then, that effective history must be developed as a new
independent discipline ancillary to the human sciences, but that we should learn to
understand ourselves better and recognize that in all understanding, whether we
are expressly aware of it or not, the power of this effective history is at work.327

Effective history is about understanding ourselves better by acknowledging our roots

and the traditions that inform our perspective.

The second core idea is that this effective history shapes the inherited

interpretative frameworks we rely on when attempting to understand our experiences of

324
Don S. Browning, Bonnie J Miller-McLemore, Pamela D. Couture, K. Brynolf Lyon, and Robert M.
Franklin, Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate (Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 336.
325
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 8.
326
Mueller-Vollmer, The Hermeneutics Reader, 268.
327
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (New York:
Continuum, 1989), 300.

83
the world.328 These inherited interpretive frameworks should not be denied because

these are comparative references against which measurements are made. Gadamer refers

to these as prejudices and writes, Actually, prejudice means a judgment that is

rendered before all the elements that determine a situation have been finally

examined.329 These prejudices inevitably affect the process of interpretation and because

of this, Gadamer defends prejudice as necessary for understanding anything. Prejudices

are the ideals and pre-understandings that every individual holds; they are the inherited

frameworks that are relied upon in order to understand anything.330 Browning states,

Without our pre-conceptions, we would be lost.331 As Robert Holub states, Prejudice,

because it belongs to historical reality itself, is not a hindrance to understanding, but

rather a condition for the possibility of understanding.332 And, instead of trying to

eliminate these biases and prejudices, Gadamers solution is to simply acknowledge

them. Prior involvement and partiality are not barriers to understanding, but instead offer

fertile opportunity for true understanding. Instead of ignoring these prejudices or

preconceptions and relying on a false sense of empiricism, the persuasive effect of history

should be recognized.

The third core idea is that all understanding is like a dialogue or conversation.

Browning states, understanding is a dialogue and conversation. The structure of

dialogue is an ontological feature of human consciousness.333 One of Gadamers

fundamental theses in Truth and Method is that understanding occurs as a dialogue or

328
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 8.
329
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 273.
330
Gadamer sometimes refers to prejudice as fore-cepts, fore-understandings, or pre-conceptions as a
way to demonstrate that these prejudices are formed before engagement with a situation.
331
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 9.
332
Robert Holub, Hermeneutics, in The Cambridge History of Literary Criticisms: Volume 8, From
Formalism to Poststructualism, ed. Raman Selden (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 212.
333
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 21.

84
conversation. Dialogue, or conversation, requires an exchange between partners of

differing contexts about a common issue. Gadamer defines conversation as the attempt by

two partners to come to an agreement about an object under consideration by means of a

common language.334 Conversation is linguistically mediated and requires that

participants be open to the viewpoint of the other through exchange. For Browning,

Gadamer saw the purpose of the conversation as practical; its goal is to produce a

working understanding between parties, to resolve conflicts, and to discover orientations

to action335 And, by all accounts conversation is an activity at which Gadamer excelled.

Bernstein claims, Gadamer is the best listener and conversational partner that I have

ever met.336 In an interview with Carsten Dutt, Gadamer remarks that conversation is

the essence of what I have working on over the past thirty years.337 Dutt claims that

most personal accounts relate that Gadamer was always ready to learn something from

another person and he almost always seemed to be able to find common ground.338

Conversation, or dialogue, is the fundamental metaphor upon which Gadamer builds his

life and his model of human understanding.

What might sound obvious, trivial or simplistic as a metaphor, Browning counters

is actually a very profound point about the nature and process of understanding. Two

counter-examples highlight the radical nature of Gadamers position. Wilhelm Dilthey

thought that humans understand through an act of empathy, where historians empty

themselves and attempt an imaginative identification with the experience of the historical

334
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 347-50.
335
Don S. Browning, The Relation of Practical Theology to Theological Ethics, in Equality and the
Family: A Fundamental, Practical Theology of Children, Mothers, and Fathers in Modern Society, ed. Don
Browning (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 395.
336
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, xvi.
337
Carsten Dutt, Glenn Most, Alfons Grieder, and Dorte Westernhagen, Gadamer in Conversation:
Reflections and Commentary, trans. Richard Palmer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 10-12.
338
Dutt, Gadamer in Conversation, 10.

85
actors they are trying to understand.339 Edmund Husserl thought that humans understand

meanings through an objective act of description that involves pushing aside,

neutralizing, or bracketing all our personal prejudices and commitments.340 Gadamer,

because of his model of understanding, firmly refutes the existence of objectivity and

certainly contested that self-emptying was even possible. Browning adds:

Gadamer, following the lead of Heidegger, developed the view that the kind of
objectivity and self-emptying required by Dilthey and Husserl was not only
impossible to achieve but unfruitful in promoting good understanding and
adequate praxis.341

Contemporary theologian Francis Schussler Fiorenza echoes this position when she states

that understanding does not consist in placing oneself in the shoes of another. Instead it

consists in recognizing the claim of the tradition in its otherness as having a claim upon

ones own life practice.342 For Gadamer, in order to understand anything at all,

prejudices and commitments should be recognized, uplifted, and scrutinized.

Furthermore, understanding anything is not an objective process, but instead should be

understood as a dialogue or conversation.

The fourth and final core idea is that all interpretation involves application.

Understanding, interpretation, and application are a continuous fluid process, not three

distinct endeavors. Interests in application guide the understanding process from the

beginning. This means that we do not first determine the objective nature of experience

and the world and then determine how to apply this objective knowledge to concrete

339
Don S. Browning. A Fundamental Practical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 38.
340
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 39.
341
Ibid.
342
Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Theory and Practice: Theological Education as a Reconstructive,
Hermeneutical, and Practical Task. Theological Supplement (1987), 113.

86
situations.343 For Gadamer, application is not an act that follows understanding; instead,

application guides the interpretive process from the beginning. Richard Bernstein

explains it as follows:

According to an earlier tradition of hermeneutics, three elements were

distinguished: understanding, interpretation, and application. But Gadamer argues
and this is one of his central theses of Truth and Method that these are not
three distinct moments or elements of hermeneutics. They are internally related;
every act of understanding involves interpretation, and all interpretation involves
application.344

Gadamer insists that every interpretation is simultaneously an application. When a text is

encountered, one enters into an open conversation led by questions and answers that are

inevitably tied to prejudice but also to application and how new knowledge might be

applied. By being explicit about the ideals and suppositions that guide the interpretive

process, Gadamer tells us that the meaning of the text can really be made to speak for

us.345 As interviewer Carsten Dutt states: The general thesis of his hermeneutical

philosophy, that effective history and the structure of application radically condition the

hermeneutic process, makes us more aware of the reflective dimension in all

undertakings in the humanities and social sciences.346 Gadamer explains:

How do we come to pose our questions? When we pose them, how do we go

about answering them? No problem just falls from heaven. Something awakens
our interest that is really what comes first! At the beginning of every effort to
understand is a concern about something: confronted by a question one is to
answer, ones knowledge of what one is interpreting is thrown into uncertainty,
and this causes one to search for an answer. In order to come up with an answer,
the person then begins asking questions.347

343
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 22.
344
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativisim, 38.
345
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 358.
346
Dutt, Gadamer in Conversaton, 33.
347
Ibid., 50.

87
Following Gadamer, Browning concedes that application is important from the start and

cannot be separated from the process of understanding.348 Browning calls Gadamers

argument brilliant that understanding should not add application at the end but should

be driven by an interest in application from the very beginning.349 Understanding and

interpretation are shaped through and through by practical concerns about application to

current situations from the very beginning.350 Browning cites Gadamer, Application is

neither a subsequent nor a merely occasional part of the phenomenon of understanding,

but codetermines it as a whole from the beginning.351 In this way, Gadamer refutes the

theory to practice model of humanistic learning and replaces it with a radical practice-

theory-practice model of humanistic learning.352 Miller-McLemore states:

Rather than concern with practice as an act that follows understanding or the
application of theory to the specifics of praxis, concern with practice, in subtle
ways we often overlook guides the hermeneutic process from the beginning.353

In this way, Miller-McLemore suggests that one moves from theory-laden practice to

practice-laden theory back to theory-laden practice.354

348
Browning states, Human understanding in its basic form is a dialogue or conversation in which practical
questions are brought to the object of conversation from the beginning and not just added at the end. Crises
in our present theory-laden practices generate questions. These questions are brought to our historically
situated dialogues. Out of these dialogues are generated practical hypotheses which may (or may not)
prove helpful in the reconstruction of our practices. Browning, American Congregations, 194.
349
Browning, Equality and the Family, 34.
350
Miller-McLemore offers an incisive critique of Brownings insistence on application: that practical
theologians like Browning and Farley have immense interest in understanding and interpretation, but the
third facet, application has received scant attention. She states: Concern about application shapes
understanding from the beginning. Yet they seldom ask how understanding actually informs action in
Bonnie Miller McLemore, The Clerical Paradigm: A Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness? International
Journal of Practical Theology, Vol. 11, Issue 1 (2007), 28.
351
Browning quotes this as his favorite passage from Gadamer because it demonstrates that understanding
can never be totally neutral nor objective; our practical interests and pre-understandings will always enter
into the picture, shaping understanding from the very beginning. Browning, Reviving Christian
Humanism, 22.
352
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 39.
353
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 7-8 , cited by Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Subject
and Practice of Pastoral Theology in Ackerman and Storm (eds.) Liberating Faith Practices (1998), 187.
354
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The subject and practice of pastoral theology as a practical theological
discipline: pushing past the nagging identity crisis to the poetics of resistance in Liberating Faith

88
 By outlining these four core ideas of hermeneutic theory, Browning proposes a

postmodern approach that focuses on uncovering and rediscovering meaning. His first

core idea is Gadamers concept of effective history that highlights the situated character

of all thinking. The second is that this effective history shapes the inherited

interpretative frameworks we rely on when attempting to understand our experiences of

the world.355 These inherited interpretive frameworks should not be denied because

these are comparative references against which measurements are made. Browning states,

Without our pre-conceptions, we would be lost.356 The third core idea in Brownings

understanding of hermeneutics is about the process of understanding. Understanding is

not an objective process, but instead should be understood as a conversation or dialogue.

Finally, fourth, there is an unshakable link between understanding and application.

Browning states, Understanding something is never just a neutral or objective act; no

matter how hard we try to be objective, our practical interests and pre-understandings will

always enter into the picture and enter so early as to be directing understanding from the

very beginning.357 By outlining these four core ideas of hermeneutic theory, Browning

sets the stage for expanding this perspective into what he calls critical hermeneutical

theory. It is critical hermeneutical theory that Browning insists must drive the field and

ground practical theology. In short, critical hermeneutical theory goes one step beyond

hermeneutical theory in that it incorporates Ricoeurs concept of distanciation.

Practices: Feminist Practical Theologies in Context, ed. Denise Ackermann and Riet Bons-Storm (Leuven,
1998), 193.
355
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 8.
356
Ibid., 9.
357
Ibid., 9.

89
 Critical Hermeneutical Theory

By outlining these four core ideas, Browning proposes not just a hermeneutical

theory but a critical hermeneutic theory that takes effective history and the classics that

shape it more seriously.358 However, Browning makes it clear that for his theory of

critical hermeneutics, methodologically, Gadamer gives us only part of what is

needed.359 For the other part, Browning turns to Paul Ricoeur and his concept of

distanciation that he develops in Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences.360 Ricoeur

proposes substituting the concept of distanciation for the positivistic idea of objectivity

by focusing on the human capacity for reflection. The capacity for distanciation is

grounded in the human capacity to reflect the selfs capacity to look back on and gain

some distance from the very biological, material, historical, and cultural forces that have

shaped it.361 By incorporating distanciation as a methodological attitude, Ricoeur allows

for a particular distance that the inquirer can gain and he believes this distance is

sufficient to appropriate the meaning of a text. Browning relies heavily on Ricoeurs

enrichment of Gadamers hermeneutic philosophy that emphasizes the priority of

understanding and the subordinate yet essential role for scientific distanciation and

explanation.362

358
Ibid., 112.
359
Don Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 170.
360
Browning highlights that Ricoeur chided Gadamer for the title of his book, Truth and Method. Ricoeur
believes it should have been called Truth OR Method. This subtle jab highlights the oft-mentioned critique
that Gadamer pits sciences drive to be objective against hermeneutic subject-object engagement; it must be
one or the other. See Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 171, and Browning, A
Fundamental Practical Theology, 82.
361
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 171.
362
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 117.

90
 This second step of using Ricoeurs concept of distanciation is what Browning

believes separates him from other hermeneutic thinkers and makes his approach distinctly

critical.363 Critical hermeneutics finds a place for explanation and the kind of

epistemological distance that we mistakenly call objectivity.364 He cites important and

powerful proposals, like Frank Richardson and Philip Cushman, who use hermeneutical

perspectives to uncover hidden perspectives.365 Browning asserts:

But from my perspective, these proposals move too far in the direction of making
psychology a thoroughly interpretive discipline, nearly losing the element of
objectivity, or what I will, following Ricoeur, the moments of distancitation and
explanation that psychology as a science also must always include.366

For Browning, critical hermeneutics goes beyond most hermeneutic perspectives because

we aspire to compare and contrast implicit images of the human with an eye toward

discovering those perspectives that more adequately describe the human condition. This

is what makes our view a form of critical hermeneutics.367 Furthermore, Browning

proposes that these resources of Paul Ricoeur and hermeneutic theory, what he calls

critical hermeneutical theory, provide epistemological and ontological frameworks that

should guide all research.368

363
Here, Browning refers directly to Philip Cushman and Frank Richardson. See, Browning and Cooper,
Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 11, 62.
364
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 22.
365
Although Browning criticizes both Cushman and Richardson for not making enough of this concept of
distanciation, he admits that both are more thoroughly and uncomplicatedly hermeneutic than we are.
Browning is clear that by using the concept of distanciation, his approach is different and thus becomes
critical. See,Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 9-11.
366
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 18.
367
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, x.
368
Browning notes that Ricoeur also calls it hermeneutic phenomenology (17). He says that I can imagine
that the very sound of these technical terms sends icy chills down the spines of some readers. Browning,
Reviving Christian Humanism,18.

91
 Critical Hermeneutical Theory and Practical Theology

Here, Browning makes an important third and final step. He states that: To me, a

critical practical theology and a critical hermeneutics are nearly identical.369 Browning

argues that the field of practical theology can only maintain its identity and fulfill its

potential by recognizing itself as an exercise in critical hermeneutics.370 Browning makes

a strong claim: the continued success of the field is dependent upon grounding itself in

critical hermenutical theory.371 He posits that his own work in practical theology,

specifically texts like From Culture Wars and A Fundamental Practical Theology, are

both simply exercises in critical hermeneutics.372 Therefore, a critical practical

theology and a critical hermeneutics are very similar, if not identical. Browning states:

Both start their reflection out of the context of situations facing challenge,
conflict, and disruption. Both first of all interpret situations from the perspective
of the horizons of their effective histories even though, in a secondary way, they
may also use the explanatory insights of the modern social sciences. Hence, both
inquiries must take history very seriously. To clarify their goals in facing concrete
problematic, they both return to the ideals or classics that have shaped their
effective histories. This brings them to the task of the retrieval and critique of
these ideals. Since practical concerns concerns with application, as Gadamer
called it shape both inquiries from the beginning, their concluding interest in the
actual task of concretely and strategically addressing situations is simply a
completion of the praxis-oriented character of the entire understanding process.373

369
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 176.
370
Ibid., 168.
371
Although Browning seems to use the term practical theology with ease, he speaks directly to those who
are reluctant to incorporate the word theology or practical into their academic self-understanding, I am
quite happy to settle for my central point: the field of religion and psychological studies can be best
ordered if seen as an expression of critical hermeneutics. Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping
the Terrain, 177.
372
Ibid., 177.
373
Don Browning, The past and possible future of religion and psychological studies, in Religion and
Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, eds. Diane Jonte-Pace and William B. Parson (New York: Routledge,
2001), 176-177, original emphasis.

92
For Browning, critical hermeneutics and a critical practical theology are the same. Both

start with a particular situation and context. Both look to interpret these situations and by

using effective history, ideals and classics of a particular perspective can be held up and

clarified. Both use the explanatory insights of the social sciences and both are shaped by

practical concerns. Both critical hermeneutical theory and a critical practical theology are

concerned with application from the beginning and have a praxis-oriented character

towards the entire understanding process.

Browning acknowledges that some critics might say that his perspective on

critical hermeneutics as critical practical theology is nothing but a waste of time. Some

postmodern perspectives are quick to point out that all perspectives are historically given,

socially located, and situated; many will contend that it is impossible to step out of our

own perspectives, much less evaluate another alternative view. For these postmoderns,

critical dialogue is not possible. Browning acknowledges this and states, We only have

two options open to us. One is to point to the multiplicity of interpretations and describe

them the best that we can. The other is to describe our own perspective and assert its truth

and authority as an act of faith.374 This dissertation aligns itself firmly with the first

option and will attempt to describe a multiplicity of interpretations regarding the

formative moments of college students.

In the end, Browning is adamant that practical theology as a discipline should

both describe its effective history and use distanciation as a way to identify social and

cultural forces.375 Therefore, the methodology that I will use is that of critical

374
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, x.
375
Don S. Browning, Empirical Considerations in Religious Praxis and Reflection, in Equality and the
Family: A Fundamental, Practical Theology of Children, Mothers, and Fathers in Modern Society, ed. Don
Browning (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 35.

93
hermeneutical theory as elucidated by Don Browning and based on the insights of

Gadamer and Ricoeur. Following their lead, I will use two different methods for

analyzing the essays: effective history and distanciation. Both of these concepts will be

used primarily as methods to construct the lenses through which the essays will be

viewed.

Methods

Methods are specific techniques used in data analysis. A method is a procedure

carried out within a particular set of methodological commitments about reality and

truth.376 Methods are concepts that provide tools for engagement and guide reflection.

Two methods are used in this dissertation to construct a set of interpretive lenses through

which the essays are viewed. The first method is based on the concept of effective

history. Effective history, for Browning, is made up of the prejudices and pre-

understandings that are the inherited interpretive frameworks we rely on when

attempting to understand our experiences of the world.377 Each lens is constructed by

first examining the effective history of the theory or perspective being used. By

highlighting particular classic texts and influential thinkers, basic ideals and pre-

understandings are uncovered and made visible as a way to deepen the understanding

process. My hope is that by constructing an effective history of each theoretical lens, a

historically effective consciousness develops and situates the perspective in its particular

tradition. Once these ideals and presuppositions are made explicit, I will use this

376
Swinton andMowat, 74.
377
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 8.

94
interpretive lens to view the essays. By being explicit about the ideals and suppositions

that guide the interpretive process, Gadamer tells us that the meaning of the text can

really be made to speak for us.378 Because all reflection, even the most critical, has an

effective history, I begin with a history of each lenses theoretical perspective.

Ricoeur identifies truth with the hermeneutic understanding of the effective

history that has formed ones perspective. An epistemology that prioritizes

understanding over explanation leads one to take the effective history of the past with the

utmost seriousness.379 However, Ricouer pushes a step further and states that a kind of

critical distance is possible, through reflection, from the researchers own situatedness as

well as from the text. Distanciation, as a method of textual analysis, relativizes objectivity

by placing it within a larger framework of historically embedded and conditioned

understanding. Furthermore, distanciation allows for an enlarged notion of text where

authorial intent is removed and instead, the existence of multiple interpretations is

possible.

Gadamers Effective History

Taking effective history seriously and acknowledging its persuasive influence is

an important part of Brownings critical hermeneutical theory and will inform one of my

methods. Gadamer used the term of effective history to highlight the situated character

of thinking and the prejudicial character of all understanding. Effective history, or rather

the construction of an effective history, uncovers the inherited interpretive frameworks

378
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 358, quoted in Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative
Research, 113.
379
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 25.

95
being used by making explicit the hidden ideals and presuppositions of the researchers

perspective. From Gadamers perspective, acknowledging ones effective history

enhances the process of understanding: ideals, prejudice, and presuppositions exist no

matter how hard one tried in acknowledging them. Gadamer states:

We stand in traditions, whether we know these traditions or not; that is, whether
we are conscious of these or are so arrogant as to think we can begin without
presuppositions none of this changes the way traditions are working on us and
in our understanding.380

Gadamer believed that we must recognize that interpretive efforts are constantly co-

determined by an effective-historical factor. In this sense, we should reject false pretenses

of objectivity and empiricism. Instead, researchers should be conscious of their own

traditions, including particular classics that frame their interpretive lens.

An understanding of Gadamers concept of the classical, or the classic, is an

important inclusion in the construction of an effective history. The Gadamerian term

classical designates that which has distinguished itself over the years, works that have

persevered in the face of variable tastes and changing times.381 This term describes

influential and important texts and their influence on the understanding process. It also

refers to the essentially limitless interpretability of a text. Researchers unconsciously

draw on their past and particular classics that have shaped their perspective. All

understanding is shaped by the continuing effects of particular cultural and religious texts

and those classics contribute to the cultural traditions of the researchers.382 Browning

states: Historical texts, events, and monuments are not simply things that linger in the

380
Dutt, Gadamer in Conversation, 45.
381
Holub, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticisms, 271.
382
Browning states: All members of a culture, including its social scientists, are shaped by its historical
tradition; this tradition becomes part of the situated context from which their attempts to understand must
necessarily begin. See Browning, American Congregations, 194.

96
past and have no effect on us today. The past is mediated to us today and shapes us in

myriad ways that we often cannot name or easily bring to consciousness.383

In The Analogical Imagination, Tracy develops Gadamers concept of the

classic. For Tracy, a classic is a person, text, event, melody, or symbol encountered in

some cultural experience that bears a certain excess of meaning as well as a certain

timelessness.384 A classic can confront and provoke us with the feeling that something

else might be the case. For this reason, every classic contains its own plurality and

encourages a pluralism of readings. Although classics contain a plurality of

interpretations, they also contain authority and influence. As Fiorenza states, the classics

have an authority and a claim on us. Their authority in our cultural tradition influences

the very horizons of our thought. The temporal distance separating them from ourselves

is not negative, but has a positive function. Temporal distance allows time to separate the

classics from the period-pieces. Consequently, in Gadamers opinion, temporal distance

validates the authority of the classics and their claim upon us.385 Because of their

authority and influence, each researcher should acknowledge the particular classics that

inform her view.

Each researcher and each perspective has an effective history and making these

inherited interpretive frameworks visible and explicit deepens the understanding process.

Effective history shapes what Gadamer refers to as our prejudices, or preunderstandings:

From one perspective, these pre-understandings function like prejudices, but from

another perspective they are comparative references that make sense of our

383
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 20.
384
DavidTracey, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (New York:
The Crossroads Publishing Company, 1998).
385
Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Theory and Practice: Theological Education as a Reconstructive,
Hermeneutical, and Practical Task. Theological Supplement (1987), 114.

97
experiences.386 For Gadamer, the Enlightenment championed positivistic attitudes and

fundamentally discredited the notion of prejudice. One of his central theses is that the

scientific method tried to eliminate the effective history that shapes the consciousness of

the researcher. Gadamer states, When a nave faith in scientific method denies that

existence of effective history, there can be an actual deformation of knowledge.387 For

Gadamer, positivistic approaches tried to eliminate the inherited ideals and fore-

understanding which are so important in his model of understanding. In this sense, the

historically-situated nature (or effective history) of the interpreter must be established as

an important part of the understanding process. To dismiss effective history is to deny an

important part of the understanding process. Gadamer states, No, people who believe

they have freed themselves from their interwoveness into their effective history are

simply mistaken.388

Prejudices should not be eliminated, but instead Gadamer argued that they are

crucial for developing our understanding of the world. Instead of ignoring these biases

and feigning objectivity, we must utilize prejudice positively. Browning states, Our

prejudices in the sense of fore-concepts should not dominate our understanding totally

but should be used positively for the contrasting light they can throw on what we

study.389 Again, Gadamer believed in the constitutive character of prejudice in all

understanding and interpretation. This prejudicial character of understanding as a

pervasive influence is best identified through the construction, or consciousness, of

effective history. In this sense, researchers should drop pretenses of objectivity and

386
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 21.
387
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 300.
388
Mueller-Vollmer, The Hermeneutics Reader, 45.
389
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 38.

98
empiricism and instead, they should acknowledge that we unconsciously draws on our

pasts, including particular classics, and thus, should become conscious about the use of

frames of interpretation.

Effective Historical Consciousness or Historically Effected Consciousness?

The purpose of constructing and reflecting on ones effective history has a

specific objective: the development of what Gadamer refers to as effective historical

consciousness. Also translated as historically effective consciousness, this term refers

to a new kind of consciousness that occurs when effective history is taken seriously. 390

Although awkwardly phrased, this consciousness is the ultimate goal of the hermeneutic

situation and represents awareness of the situation and context within which

interpretation takes place.391 In short, becoming aware of effective history results in a

historically effective consciousness that is primarily consciousness of the hermeneutic

situation.392 For Gadamer, the hermeneutical process is enhanced by acknowledging

ones effective history where inherited ideals and presuppositions are uncovered and

acknowledged in order to develop a historically effected consciousness. Gadamer states:

390
In particular, Heidegger was very critical of Gadamers key term of effective history,
wirkungsfeschischtliches BewuBstsein (consciousness in which history is at work) because consciousness
was a word Heidegger assiduously avoided because of its associations with a metaphysic that needed to be
outgrown (5). Gadamers response to this criticism was that he, too, was uncomfortable with the wording,
but since he could not find an alternative, he had to use it for his argument. See, Mueller-Vollmer, The
Hermeneutic Reader, 3-6 and Joel Weinsheimer and Donald Marshall, Translators Preface, Truth and
Method (New York: Continuum), 1989.
391
Translators Weinsheimer and Marshall comment that historically effected consciousness is from P.
Christopher Smiths suggestion. Also, Ricoeur also used the term and translated it as consciousness open
to the effects of history. See, Joel Weinsheimer and Donald Marshall, Translators Preface, Truth and
Method, xv.
392
Hans-Helmuth Gander, Between Strangeness and Familiarity: Towards Gadamers Conception of
Effective History, Research in Phenomenology 34 (2004): 127.

99
 In every genuine effort at research one needs to work out a consciousness of ones
hermeneutical situation. Only in this way can one shed light on the basis ones
interests in it and on what supports ones standpoint of questioning. And, of
course, one still must confess the endlessness of this task. Full enlightenment
about ones own interests in questioning is not attainable. There is always
something remaining that one does not realize. In any case, however, one needs to
get away from objectivist navet and destroy the illusion of a truth that is
separate from the standpoint of the one doing the understanding.393

Here, Gadamer emphasizes the importance of locating ones perspective and basic

interest, including the endlessness of the task, which calls for the rejection of

objectivist navet. Gadamer argues for the conditionedness of all understanding, and

he advocated for the development of a historically effective consciousness in the

humanities and social sciences. Historically effective consciousness is consciousness in

which history is at work and for Gadamer, this historically effected consciousness is the

primary task of hermeneutics. Swinton and Mowat explain:

This historically effective consciousness is one which is truly open to experience,

and which is aware of the influence and significance of their pre-understandings.
Thus, for Gadamer, the image of the researcher as separate from the object of
study is replaced by a dialectical understanding that suggests the need for
dialogue and conversation between the text and the researcher; conversation that
does not exclude the researchers pre-understandings, but constructively draws
them into the dialogical process.394

Historically effective consciousness allows for openness between the text and the

researcher and the space for dialogue and conversation. Gadamer calls for a new type of

consciousness; and even though the term historically effective consciousness is

somewhat awkward, it recognizes what is occurring when we encounter documents from

the past.395 When looking at a text, like a set of essays, it is important to enter into a

conversation with the text by at least acknowledging the particular tradition or biases

393
Dutt, Gadamer in Conversation, 46.
394
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 114.
395
Holub, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticisms, 269.

100
from which the researcher stands. In this sense, historically effective consciousness is

understanding the situated nature of the interpreter and the interpretive lens. This

consciousness is also developed by designating those texts that can be considered

classical in the Gadamerian sense: those texts that have influenced and designated the

field.

In a section titled The Hermeneutic Approach in his study On the Logic of the

Social Sciences, Jurgen Habermas discusses Gadamers perspective on effective history.

Habermas singles out Gadamers notion of effective history which according to him

had all the earmarks of a methodological principle applicable to textual interpretation in

the human sciences.396 Gadamer never necessarily claimed such a functional status for

his concept of effective history, although others have taken such steps. Kurt Meuller-

Vollmer states:

Gadamers position if developed to its extreme would allow the meaning of a

work or a text ultimately to appear only as embedded in its different explications,
its specific receptions. Thus, there would no longer be textual meanings to be
understood, only explications to be explicated.397

I discovered similar uses of the Gadamers position as a method in fields like archeology,

education, law, and in literary criticism. One perspective argues that effective history

may help to illustrate injustices that occur within the status quo created by congressional

enactments.398 Another perspective clarifies the concept of effective history by

396
Mueller-Vollmer, The Hermeneutic Reader, 42.
397
Ibid., 41.
398
The authors state Through the lens of effective history, educator and policy makers can de-mystify the
legislation by understanding the regulatory pitfalls that are embedded in the act (103). See, John LaNear
and Elise Frattura, Getting the stories straight: allowing different voices to tell an effective history of
special education law in the United States, Education and the Law 19, no. 2 (June 2007): 99.

101
developing an effective-historical consciousness of the performative aspects of

Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice.399

Finally, one of Gadamers key points in Truth and Method is that we must

become aware of our own embeddedness or historical situatedness and constantly reflect

on the ways in which this situatedness influences the way that we interpret our world. 400

In this important statement, Gadamer says we must reflect upon our embeddedness or

situatedness because that determines how we interpret our world. Effective historical

consciousness, as awkward as it is to use, is also sometimes translated as affinity,

embeddedness, or what Bernstein calls belongingness. For the purpose of this

dissertation, historical effective consciousness is most aptly summarized with the term

situatedness. Therefore, understanding situatedness becomes the primary task of

critical hermeneutics. This situatedness is the goal of detailing the effective history of

each interpretive lens. My hope is that being clear about each interpretive lenses

effective history, I also situate my perspective so that I might dialogue with the essays.

As Gadamer states: To interpret means precisely to use ones own preconceptions so

that the meaning of the text can really be made to speak for us.401 Another way of

acknowledging this Gadamerian sense of situatedness is to refer to the concept of social

location. Social location refers to ones class, gender, race, ethnicity, religious

background, age, status, and social roles. I will expand more on the analogies between

399
Gander states, effective history means the relation of past and present in which the past constitutively
determines the present through an interplay by bringing its tradition to bear upon it. Hans-Helmuth
Gander, Between Strangeness and Familiarity: Towards Gadamers Conception of Effective History,
Research in Phenomenology 34 (2004): 125.
400
Swinton and Mowat, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research, 111.
401
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 358.

102
liberation perspectives on social location and Gadamers situatedness in the next chapter,

but for now, I note that both require revealing contextual details of the researcher.

Browning explains that researchers must come to know the ideals within the

narrative from the past (our effective history) that provide the values by which the present

is judged.402 In each chapter I will concentrate on a particular theoretical perspective,

including its classics, and construct an effective history acknowledging the inherited

ideals and presuppositions of the particular perspectives lens. By asserting from the

beginning particular values and ideals held by this perspectival lens, I hope to

demonstrate how the essays are being judged. By becoming aware and working with your

bias, Gadamer believes that the text will present itself in all its newness and be able to

assert its own truth against ones own fore-meanings.403 Researchers have their own

effective histories, and according to Browning:

their research would be enriched, more on course, less biased, and less culturally
alienating, if they did not retreat into false objectivism but acknowledged the role
of their own presuppositions (their own prejudices in the sense of pre-
judgments) and the important role they play in the dialogue leading to
understanding.404

Genuine understanding does not proceed through empiricism and objectivity; it proceeds

through conversation and dialogue.

Ricoeur and Distanciation

The second methodological step, or method, is Ricoeurs concept of

distanciation. As stated before, Browning believes that distanciation is what makes his

402
Browning. A Fundamental Practical Theology, 86.
403
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 38, referring to Gadamer, Truth and Method (1982), 238.
404
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 170.

103
approach step beyond hermeneutics and instead, become critical hermeneutics. Ricoeur

grounds the concept of distanciation in the basic human capacity for reflection and allows

for a kind of distance that the inquirer can gain. This distance is sufficient to

appropriate the meaning of a text. Methodologically, distanciation objectifies the text by

freeing it from the authors intentions and giving it instead, a life of its own.405 Rather

than a search for the original research participants unique meaning, the focus shifts to

the interpretation and the appropriation of the texts meaning. A text becomes

autonomous and gains independence from its intended meaning, so that a multiplicity

of readings and an open horizon of interpretation takes place.406 This concept of

distanciation has three important aspects as it works as a method in a critical

hermeneutical methodology. First, distanciation replaces the positivistic concept of

objectivity in the hermeneutical process. Second, distanciation allows for a critical

distance from the text being analyzed as a movement of reflection. Third, distanciation

operates as a powerful tool of textual interpretation because it removes authorial intent

and opens up the text for a plurality of interpretations.

But first, Ricoeur is one of the most challenging and enduring thinkers of the

twentieth century. Ricoeur focused on uncovering meaning and specifically the question:

how does new meaning come into existence and, in doing so, reconfigure the meanings of

the past?407 Kearney states: This fundamental hermeneutic question is based on the

thesis that existence is itself a mode of interpretation (hermeneia), or, as the hermeneutic

405
Rene Geanellos, Exploring Ricoeurs hermeneutic theory of interpretation as a method of analyzing
research texts, Nursing Inquiry 7, no. 2 (2000): 113.
406
Richard Kearney, On Paul Ricoeur: The Owl of Minerva (Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2004), 31.
407
Kearney, On Paul Ricoeur: The Owl of Minerva, 1.

104
maxim goes: Life interprets itself.408 Specifically, Ricoeur set himself to investigate

what happens when discourse is fixed in writing and relatedly, what it means to read a

text.409 According to David Stewart, Ricoeur made enormous contributions to our

understanding of hermeneutics and helped us to a better understanding of language, of

metaphor, narrative, the function of symbols in both religion and psychoanalysis, as well

as the connections and similarities between philosophers of language. 410 In Interpretation

Theory, Ricoeur defines his overall goal as step-by-step approximations of a solution to

a single problem, that of understanding language at the level of such productions as

poems, narratives, and essays, whether literary or philosophical.411

A solution to the problem of understanding narratives and essays is Ricoeurs

concept of distanciation. Firstly, distanciation replaces the positivistic concept of

objectivity in the hermeneutical process. Browning refers to distanciation as a brilliant

concept from Ricoeur which relativizes social-science objectivity by placing it within a

larger framework of historically embedded and conditioned understanding.412 In another

account, Browning refers to distanciation as Ricoeurs happy substitute for the

positivist concept of objectivity. The idea of objectivity holds that understanding must

begin with a cognitive self-emptying of ones prejudices and, through controlled

408
Ibid., 1, original emphasis.
409
Barry D. Smith, Distanciation and Textual Interpretation, Laval theologique et philosophique 43, no. 2
(1987): 206.
410
David Stewart, Ricoeur on Religious Language in The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, ed. Lewis Edin
Hahn (Chicago: Open Court, 1995), 438.
411
Paul Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (Fort Worth, Texas: Texas
Christian University Press, 1976), xi.
412
In the beginning of this essay, Browning remarks, The reader will be relieved to know that I will try to
define the concepts of distance and distanciation in the chapter that follows. I hope that I succeed to
your satisfaction. It demonstrates that distanciation is a difficult concept as well as one that has had
requests for clarification. See, Don S. Browning, Empirical Considerations in Religious Praxis and
Reflection, in Equality and the Family: A Fundamental, Practical Theology of Children, Mothers, and
Fathers in Modern Society, ed. Don Browning (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 2007), 34.

105
experiment, conclude with objective propositions about states of affairs.413 Not only is

this objectivity impossible, but for hermeneutic thinkers like Ricoeur and Gadamer, this

kind of stance actually impedes the process of understanding. Again, Gadamer critiques

and dismisses objectivity. Ricouer goes one step further by replacing the positivist idea of

objectivity and empiricism that one must approach a text as a clean slate empty of all

prejudice with his critical concept of distanciation. Browning states: Objectivity

suggests absolute detachment; distanciation points to the simultaneous use of ones

historical horizon and yet partial detachment from it to examine and test that very

horizon.414 In this way, explanation is possible when explanation is envisioned as not

pure objectivity without presuppositions but degrees of distanciation that make sense

only in relation to describing a more basic foreground of social and historical experience,

belonging, and embeddedness.415

Second, not only does distanciation work as a happy substitute for objectivity,

but it also allows for a critical distancing from the text based on the human capacity for

reflection. For Browning, distanciation refers to the human capacity for reflectivity that

makes it possible to both be conscious of ones historically conditioned beginning point

but also partially distance or detach oneself from it, not in any absolute way but to some

degree. 416 In this way, distanciation allows for a critical distance that the inquirer can

gain which is sufficient to appropriate the meaning of a text. For Ricoeur, Distance is a

fact; placing at a distance is a methodological attitude.417 He continues by stating, that

413
Don Browning, Feminism, Family, and Womens Right: A Hermeneutic Realist Perspective Zygon 38,
no. 2 (June 2003): 319.
414
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 11.
415
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 24.
416
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 11.
417
Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action and interpretation,
trans. John B. Thompson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 74.

106
distance put an end to our collusion with the past and creates a situation comparable to

the objectivity of the natural sciences, on the grounds that a loss of familiarity is a break

with the contingent Effective history is efficacy at a distance.418 Distanciation allows

for reflection on the researchers pre-understandings and by doing so, barriers to

understanding are partially eliminated and it becomes possible to approach the text from

new and different perspectives. For Browning, distanciation allows distance that the

inquirer can gain from ones historically conditioned beginning point to at least allow for

some glimpses of reality, even though one can never grasp them completely unsullied by

culturally and historically shaped prejudgments.419 Instead of emptying or alleviating

ones prejudicies, distanciation presupposes that we can distance ourselves from our pre-

understandings in order to approach the text and appropriate new understandings.

However, for Ricoeur, it is equally, if not perhaps more, important to focus on the

researchers interpretation where truth is not dependent on the authors original intent.

This leads to the third and final point: Ricoeur believes that distanciation is sufficient to

appropriate the meaning of a text; moreover, the meaning of the text is not dependent on

the original meaning of the author. Ricoeur focused on the text as text and as an object

separate, both figuratively and permanently, from the author.420 Ricoeur acknowledged

that interpretation was caught inside the circle formed by the conjunction of interpretation

and interpreter.421 One of Ricoeurs most radical moves was to allow for the

objectification of the text whereby he also removed authorial intent the idea that the

418
Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the human sciences, 74.
419
Don Browning, Feminism, Family, and Womens Right: A Hermeneutic Realist Perspective, 319.
420
Darren Langdridge continues: This essential feature of text opens up the possibility of a critical distance
in interpretation, a critical distance between appropriation and distanciation of meaning. Darren
Langdridge, The Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur: Problems and Possibilities for Existential-
Phenomenological Psychotherapy, Existential Analysis 15, no. 2 (July 2004): 247, original emphasis.
421
Paul Ricoeur, Existence and Hermeneutics, in Paul Ricoeur, the Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in
Hermeneuntics, ed. Kathleen McLaughlin (Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press, 2004).

107
meaning of the text exclusively resides only in the authors original intention.422

Distanciation objectifies the text by freeing it from the authors intended meaning.

Methodologically, distanciation allows the researcher to move beyond a single

interpretation as correct or as meaningful; instead, textual plurality and multiplicity is

acknowledged.423 For research purposes, the focus becomes the appropriation of a texts

meanings rather than the search for the research participants unique and original

meaning. Ricoeur states, Interpreting a text means moving beyond understanding what it

says to understanding what it talks about.424 Ricoeur states that the only way to access

textual meanings is to guess.425 Because Ricoeur believes we cannot really know the

authors original intention, he wants to free the text from the restrictions of the authors

intended meaning in order that the other interpretations might be considered. Ricoeur

states, Henceforth, to understand is to understand oneself in front of the text. It is not a

question of imposing upon the text our finite capacity of understanding, but of exposing

ourselves to the text and receiving from it an enlarged self, which would be the proposed

existence corresponding in the most suitable way to the world proposed.426

422
Some assert that distanciation exhibits four forms, according to Ricoeur: (i) fixation of the spoken into
the written word, dialogue is recorded as writing and meaning becomes more important than the actual
words; ii) eclipse of the authors intention, the written word makes the text autonomous and open to
unlimited reading and interpretation; iii)emancipation of the text, the text is freed from the context of its
creation and able to be read within different socio-political, historical and cultural traditions; and (iv)
differences between spoken and written words, spoken dialogue is face to face, whereas the written word
overcomes this limitation. These four forms of distanciation allow interpreters to approach the text without
concern for authorial intent where the focus becomes appropriation of a texts meanings rather than a
search for research participants unique meanings. See, John B. Thompson, Editors Introduction, in
Hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action and interpretation, by Paul Ricoeur
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 13-14, and Rene Geanellos, Exploring Ricoeurs
hermeneutic theory of interpretation as a method of analyzing research texts, Nursing Inquiry 7, no. 2
(2000): 112-119.
423
Geanellos, Exploring Ricoeurs hermeneutic theory of interpretation as a method of analyzing research
texts, 113.
424
Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory, 88.
425
Paul Ricoeur, The model of the text: meaningful action considered as text, Social Research 38 (1971):
547-548, and Paul Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory, 75-76.
426
Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the human sciences, 143.

108
 Again, Ricoeur adamantly argued that truth is not dependent on the authors

original intent. This important point of removing the primacy of the authors unique

meaning as truth has been used to analyze data. For researchers like Rene Geanellos,

Ricoeurs method of distancitation allows for intersubjective knowledge because his

theory takes account of the relationship between ontology (interpreter) and epistemology

(interpretation) and acknowledges the plural, changing and incomplete nature of

interpretation.427 For research purposes, the focus becomes the appropriation of a texts

meanings rather than the search for the research participants unique meanings. Another

example is a study of patient narratives that uses distanciation in order to achieve a

deeper and fuller understanding of the suffering human being.428 Wilklunk, Lindholm,

and Lindstrom use Ricoeurs concept of distanciation by putting aside the context in

order to deal with the text as text and thereby explaining its different meanings. The

authors conceive that the most significant part of Ricoeurs theory is its ability to

confront different interpretations; by confronting these different interpretations, a new,

deeper understanding can arise. Barry Smith states: Texts exist as bearer of possibilities

of being-in-the-world.429 By virtue of being written down into a fixed discourse, the

texts meaning becomes distanced from its authors intended sense and becomes an

autonomous entity open for a plethora of interpretations.

Paul Ricoeur focuses on what happens when discourse is fixed in writing and

what it means to read a text. Truth is not fixed on the authors original intent, an enlarged

427
Geanellos, Exploring Ricoeurs hermeneutic theory of interpretation as a method of analyzing research
texts, 118.
428
Lena Wiklund, Lisbet Lindholm, and Unni A. Lindstrom, Hermeneutics and narration: a way to deal
with qualitative data, Nursing Inquiry 9, no. 2 (2002): 114-115.
429
Barry D. Smith, Distanciation and Textual Interpretation, Laval theologique et philosophique 43, no. 2
(1987): 206.

109
notion of text is rendered with a plurality of interpretational truths. To access these

interpretations, Ricouer suggest distanciation as a methodological attitude for

approaching the text. By distanciation Ricoeur means the semantic autonomy of the

text, which stands removed from its unknown multiple readers.430 For Ricoeur, both

belonging to a particular tradition in history and cultivating critical distance are possible.

Browning uses this methodological attitude as a substitute for the scientific idea of

objectivity which in turn, allows for reflection and critical distance. Distanciation, as a

method of textual analysis, is important because it allowed me to cultivate some distance

and reflect on the essays, without limiting my interpretations to the authors original

meaning. Distanciation allows for an enlarged notion of text where multiple

interpretations are possible.

Examining the Essays

Reading a text is both a very familiar activity but also quite opaque.431 It is a familiar

activity because it is done every day and is something you are doing right now. This

activity is opaque in the sense that one can be hard pressed to articulate the activity of

reading, what happens, how it happens, when interpretation begins, and so on. When one

considers these kinds of questions, the process of reading and understanding are not very

clear at all. Critical hermeneutical theory offers important resources for understanding the

interpretative process and methods to help in textual analysis.

430
Valdes, Mario. Introduction: Paul Ricoeurs Post-Structuralist Hermeneuntics in A Ricoeur Reader:
Reflection and Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
431
Smith, Distanciation and Textual Interpretation, 205.

110
 Chapter Three reveals more about the essays and me as a researcher. However,

one important point should be recognized in my methods section. As I was reading the

essays, I was aware I was also thinking of ways in which the information and lessons I

was reading about could be applied in other situations. For example, it was clear that

mentors are important conversation partners for the essayists and it seemed obvious that

encouraging these kinds of relationships in higher education would be beneficial to other

students. As I delved further into the essays, it became clear that my intent was to lift up

the lessons learned and apply this wisdom to current educational practices. Gadamer

defines this concern for application as the central problem of hermeneutics. He states:

We too determined that application is neither a subsequent nor merely an

occasional part of the phenomenon of understanding, but codetermines it as a
whole from the beginningRather, the interpreter seeks no more than to
understand this universal, the text i.e. to understand what it says, what
constitutes the texts meaning and significance. In order to understand that, he
must not try to disregard himself and his particular hemeneutical situation. He
must relate the text to this situation if he wants to understand it all.432

In order to understand the texts meaning and significance, the interpreter must be aware

of her social location and how she relates the text to her own situation, if she is to

understand at all. Furthermore, Browning adds:

Understanding something is never just a neutral or objective act; no matter how

hard we try to be objective, our practical interests and pre-understandings will
always enter into the picture and enter so early as to be directing understanding
from the very beginning.433

Because of my training, it became clear that both theological and psychological

perspectives could be used to interpret the essays. Even more so, it seemed as if the text

432
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 321Gadamer T&M, 135-37 Browning quotes this as his favorite passage
from Gadamer because it demonstrates that understanding can never be totally neutral nor objective; our
practical interests and pre-understandings will always enter into the picture, shaping understanding from
the very beginning. Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 22.
433
Browning and Cooper, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, 9.

111
was calling for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives. For Gadamer, to interpret a

text is to enter into a conversation with it. The text becomes an imaginary partner, and

although Gadamer considers text to be a poorer conversation partner than another

human, conversation can still take place. Since the text cannot respond directly to

questions put to it by an interpreter, the reader must assume the task of making it

participate in the dialogue.434 Gadamer writes, Thus written texts present the real

hermeneutical task. Writing involves self-alienation. Its overcoming, the reading of a

text, is thus the highest task of understanding.435 In Gadamers thinking, the interpreter

stands before the text and her task is to understand what the text is about through

interplay and conversation with the text. Ricoeurs concept of distanciation supplies the

methodological attitude where I, the reader, can distance myself from my own prejudices

and worldviews, reflect upon them, and use them to interpret a set of essays.

These two methods, effective history and distanciation, will be used in each

chapter as a way to construct and operate the lenses. Each chapter contains one lens and

has an effective history of the central concept, along with references to particular classics.

Distanciation, as a method, is more of methodological attitude; however, distanciation

also allows me to transcend the original authorial intent and instead, I can focus on

multiple interpretations of the same data. Together these two methods help me to

construct and use a lens with which to view the essays. Four lenses are constructed: a

psychosocial lens, an object relations theory lens, a crisis lens, and a practice lens. These

lenses help to uncover and unveil the hidden lessons and insights of the essayists. In my

434
Smith, Distanciation and Textual Interpretation, 208.
435
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 352.

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conclusion, I also claim that critical hermeneutical theory offers a methodology for

uncovering phronesis.

In conclusion, when I entered the Graduate Department of Religion, the area in

which I enrolled was called Religion and Personality (R and P). According to the R and

P handbook, courses require students to gain knowledge and competence in three areas:

empirical or hermeneutical social-scientific study of religious experience; practical and

pastoral theology, care, and counseling; and interdisciplinary studies in theology and the

social sciences.436 In this sense, personality represented the psychological area of the

personality sciences; coursework was meant to prepare students for scholarship and

teaching, as well as provide an introduction to clinical practice in therapy and spiritual

direction. Miller-McLemore remarks that this area of religion and personality is strikingly

young; for example, Vanderbilt added its first time faculty member in the area in 1959.437

She goes on to state that if there is a comprehensive orientation that distinguishes the area

of religion and personality it is the focus on living, rather than dead persons and

cultures, the focus on the psyche, whether understood as ego, soul, or self, and the focus

on the clinical or therapeutic or healing dimension of psyche and living persons.438

However, in 2007, the department changed its area title in to Religion,

Psychology and Culture (RPC). According to the department website, the objective of

RPC is to provide advance study of theories and dynamics of personality, the praxis and

theory of pastoral theology and care, and critical and constructive reflection on the

436
R and P Handbook, Vanderbilt University, Graduate Department of Religion, May 2005, 2.
437
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The subject and practice of pastoral theology as a practical theological
discipline: pushing past the nagging identity crisis to the poetics of resistance in Liberating Faith
Practices: Feminist Practical Theologies in Context, ed. Denise Ackermann and Riet Bons-Storm (Leuven,
1998), 176.
438
Miller-McLemore, Liberating Faith Practices, 180.

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methods and substance of both theology and the psychological sciences. In the area of

RPC, students are expected to develop competence in understandings of the human

person in the social sciences and religion.439

Yet another three-letter word has appeared in our area to describe these same

areas of study: RPS (religion and psychological studies). In 2001, Diane Jonte-Pace and

William Parsons published a literal map of the field, Religion and Psychology: Mapping

the Terrain Contemporary Dialogues, Future Projects. The purpose of the text is to

encourage and provoke sustained debate over future directions for the field of religion

and psychological studies (RPS). Jonte-Pace and Parsons refer to the multitude of

perspectives that occur when one combines the fields of religion and psychology:

psychology of religion, religion and culture, pastoral psychology, practical theology,

religion and personality, and religion, personality and culture. Instead the authors make a

broad designation and refer to the field as religion and psychological studies or RPS.

In their text, they ask 17 different scholars in the field the same question: what they

perceived to be the present status of the field and the probable paths for its future.440 All

agreed that the field of RPS is rich and vibrant, more sophisticated and varied than ever,

and with no single map-able or predictable future. This text is significant for our

department since it features essays from two of our most prominent professors: Bonnie

Miller-McLemore and Volney Gay.441 It also includes an essay from their professor at the

University of Chicago, Don Browning.

439
Vanderbilt Graduate Department of Religion, Religion , Psychology, and Culture, accessed August
2010: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/gradschool/religion/study/RP.html
440
Diane Jonte-Pace and William B. Parsons, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain -
Contemporary Dialogues, Future Prospects (New York: Routledge, 2001), 7.
441
Those chapters are Gays Mapping religion psychologically: information theory as a corrective to
modernism, (94-109) and Miller-McLemores Shaping the future of religion and psychology: feminist
transformations in pastoral theology, (181-201).

114
 Don Brownings essay, The past and possible future of religion and psychology

studies, is significant for two reasons. First, Browning argues that the continued success

of RPS is dependent on grounding itself in critical hermeneutical theory.442 Although the

field of RPS looks wildly divergent, and perhaps even unstable, poorly conceived, and

drifting, the underlying questions and deep methodologies that holds the field together is

found in their shared hermeneutic character.443An implicit critical hermeneutics is

embedded in the multiple inquiries of the field of religion and psychological studies.444

His central hypothesis of the article is that the field of RPS can only maintain its identity

and fulfill its potential by recognizing itself as an exercise in critical hermeneutics.445

Second, Browning sees a close association between practical theology and critical

hermeneutics. In fact, he places religion and psychological studies within the larger

framework of practical theology. To me, a critical practical theology and a critical

hermeneutics are nearly identical.446 His book, A Fundamental Practical Theology, was

an attempt to find a more comprehensive framework for holding together the various

directions in which the field of RPS has gone.447 Further, Browning cites his work on

From Culture Wars to Common Ground:

exemplifies most of the methodological moves of A Fundamental Practical

Theology. Both books are partial exercises in care, the dialogue between theology

442
Jonte-Pace and Parsons, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 8.
443
Don Browning, The past and possible future of religion and psychology studies, in Religion and
Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, eds., Diane Jonte-Pace and William B. Parsons (New York: Routledge,
2001), 168.
444
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 172.
445
Ibid., 168-9.
446
Ibid., 176.
447
Browning goes on to state: Because I see such a close association between practical theology and
critical hermeneutics, it never occurred to me that I was necessarily leaving the field of religion and
psychological studies when I wrote my book called A Fundamental Practical Theology (1991). See,
Browning, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, 177.

115
 and the social sciences, the psychology of religion, and cultural studies. Both
books are submitted as exercises in critical hermeneutics.448

This dissertation is submitted as only one step in a very intense set of exercises of

Brownings critical hermeneutical methodology.

448
Browning add, But I would not want to leave the impression that every study in this general field
should try to pursue the entire practical or critical hermeneutical task. Some should, but my main point is
this: such frameworks are useful for helping to position the various more discrete enterprises and reminding
us how they can complement one another and contribute to a larger whole. Mapping the Terrain, 177.

116
 CHAPTER III

THE ESSAYS AND ME

You are making a huge mistake. Why would you want to just think about science when you could actually
be doing science? my college advisor to me

Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) was a grants

initiative funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. to encourage college programs that 1) assist

students in examining the relationship between faith and vocational choices; 2) provide

opportunities for gifted young people to explore Christian ministry; and 3) enhance the

capacity of a school's faculty and staff to teach and mentor students effectively in this

arena.449 Over a three year period, eighty-eight colleges and universities were selected to

receive a two million dollar grant to design and implement programs related to the

theological of exploration. This initiative was led by Craig Dykstra, Senior Vice

President, Religion, and Chris Coble, program director, from Lilly Endowment, Inc. 450 A

three person coordination team, along with an advisory panel, was implemented to carry

out the aims of this initiative. In short, Lilly Endowment Inc. believes that:

vital religious communities are essential for a flourishing and humane society.
Further, If such persons are carefully identified, educated broadly and well, and
nurtured in strong faith commitments, they will be well equipped to enable
churches and other institutions to contribute to the strengthening of American
religious life and the common good of society.451

Overall, PTEV helped to sustain and coordinate eighty-eight college programs across the

nation which reached thousands of students and impacted the scholarly conversation on

the topic of vocation.

449
Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation website, accessed September 2010, See:
http://www.ptev.org/history.aspx?iid=48
450
Lilly Endowment website, accessed January 2011, see: http://www.lillyendowment.org/contact.html
451
PTEV website, accessed September 2010, see: http://www.ptev.org/history.aspx?iid=48

117
 In the fall of 2005, the coordination team for PTEV gathered students from

eighty-six college programs across the country to convene in Indianapolis, IN, for a

National Student Conference. Each school sent a team of five representatives, four of

which were current college students. Each student was required to submit a Price of

Admission Essay upon registration at the conference. These essays asked one of four

questions submitted to the student before the conference began.452 One question asked:

what has been your biggest a-ha moment in college?

I read the essays a few months after the conference, during the time I was

preparing for my qualifying exams. I gathered the forty-eight essays and was

immediately captivated by their responses; I read the entire pile without stopping. I

remember sitting on the floor of my PTEV office with my legs surrounded by the essays,

having already put them into piles of common themes, looking around me thinking:

WOW! The students were candid about a moment of fundamental change: they were

honest, forthright, and sincere about their biggest a-ha moment. The stories captured in

these essays were revealing the impact of a significant moment of change and important

lessons learned along the way. Underlying these vivid accounts, I detected a complexity

and particular patterns appeared immediately. For example, over two-thirds of the essays

mentioned a crisis; many essays mentioned the importance of mentoring relationships,

the transformative effect of serving others, and the joy of recognizing and using ones

talents. By being asked this question, the students responded by making statements about

who they are, who they want to be, and what purpose there is for their lives. As a national

452
Every essay we received also included a permission form signed by the student giving permission to use
the essay for public purposes and future distribution. Four months after the conference, the essays were
made public and each student participant received a pdf file with every single essay response included in
the document for their viewing. Finally, the entire set of essays was posted and included on the ptev
website.

118
survey, the essays give a broad brushstroke of the experiences of college students and

paint a very intimate picture of an important moment of personal change. In effect, these

essays were discussing a moment of some kind of formation in which they emerged

differently as a result of the experience.

In total, there are forty eight essays: seventeen are male and thirty-one are female.

All respondents were between the age of 18 and 22, except one who was an older woman,

married, with children. Other information about the essayists is a little less clear. For

example, I do not know the racial make-up, class, or sexual orientation of each essayist.

Only two pieces of information came with my copy of the essays: their name and their

school. It should also be noted that each student signed a permission form to use the

essays for public purposes. In fact, four months after the conference, each participant

received a pdf file with every single essay response to all four questions. The same pdf

document was also posted on the PTEV website (www.ptev.org).

Somewhere in the PTEV materials, which I was told were stored at the

Endowment, are databases and more specific records on these students, including access

to more personal information concerning their race, gender, region of the country, and so

on. Currently, I do not have access to this material; although I could ask. Moreover, I

cant help but wonder what it would be like to follow up with the essayists and inquire

more into their a-ha moments, five years later. However, I should also add that when I

worked with and analyzed the essays, it was a copy that removed their name and school

affiliation. When I analyzed each essay, I had no idea if it was a woman or man or which

school they attended. Furthermore, when I use a name in a description of the essays, I

made up a name. I also tried remove any identifying characteristics involving college

119
names or locations. All the essayists were at the time enrolled in college; they also

ranged from freshman to seniors. Some essays were two pages, most were one, and only

one was three pages.

Many of the essays discussed the stress and anxiety of college life, telling stories

about difficult decisions and pulling all nighters. The college experience is an extremely

important time in the lives of many young people where many of their most important

decisions are made.453 These decisions range from choosing a major, an eventual career

path, to more enduring decisions towards commitments in life. This age period is also

important developmentally, as I will discuss in the next chapter. It is also a time of

transition: the first time living away from home, in a new and constantly changing

environment, and often independent. One student suggest: college is the time to figure

stuff out. Other essayists respond:

Many individuals utilize the years to enhance themselves in various aspects of

their lives. Thus, emphasizing the importance of effectively participating in the
true college experience. The purpose of college incorporates many things,
including the idea of discovering interests and future goals.
The atmosphere that college engenders is exactly the atmosphere where aha
moments are born. For the first time, we are independent from our families,
making decisions on our own, and away from everything familiar. Not only this,
but we are asking questions about ourselves: who we are, who we want to be, and
what the purpose is for our lives.
Many students want the unique college experience. I have observed that many
college students meet with the challenges of finding themselves. College
students look to different identifiers instead of discovering anything about
themselves.
Ever since I was younger, I was always told that after high school came college
because it was very important to continue my education However, what I
wasnt informed of was that it is during this time that we make the decision of
what exactly we want to do with our lives.
College is a time where you do an incredible amount of growing in a short period
of time. Sometimes huge discoveries are made and other times circumstances
change so rapidly that you can barely keep up with yourself.

453
See www.ptev.org, rationale.

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 College seems to be a time full of aha! moments for most young adults. In fact,
sometimes I wonder if its not more that were young adults entering a new phase
in life than that were college students. Whatever the case, almost all college
students I know (specifically those whove gone away to school) have dealt with
the same issues. The same feelings crop up at about the same time for thousands
of students all over the country each year.
College and University studies today have come to be seen almost as a rite of
passage. Most people have gone through this rite have experienced moments in
their studies that have formed, shaped and ultimately changed them. In my own
journey of studies, I too have had experiences that have left a lasting impression
on me.

The past decade has brought a renewed interest into the lives of college students,

particularly in their religious and spiritual lives.454 One reason for this interest is because

some theorists have argued that spirituality has been ignored in theory and in student

affairs and that this should change.455 PTEV, as mentioned earlier, is one such program

that encouraged interest in the lives of faith of college students and commissioned books

to encourage vocational reflection.456 Another group, funded by the Teagle Foundation,

studies the Religious Engagement of American Undergraduates as a way to explore the

454
Braskamp, L. A. 2008. The Religious and Spiritual Journey of College Students. In The American
University in a Postsecular Age: Religion and Higher Education, edited by D. Jacobsen and R. H. Jacobsen
(New York: Oxford University Press), Braskamp, L. A. and L. Trautvetter, et al. 2006. Putting Students
First: How to Develop Students Purposefully. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), Cherry, C. and B. A. DeBerg,
et al. 2001. Religion on Campus: What Religion Really Means to Todays Undergraduates. (Chapel Hill,
N.C.: University of North Carolina Press), Chickering, A. W. and J. C. Dalton, et al. 2005. Encouraging
Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), Flory, R. W. and D. E.
Miller, eds. 2000. Gen X Religion. New York: Routledge, Jablonski, M., ed. 2001. Implications of Student
Spirituality for Student Affairs Practice: New Directions for Student Services, No. 95. (San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass), Jacobsen, D. and R. H. Jacobsen, eds. 2008. The American University in a Postsecular Age:
Religion and Higher Education.(New York, Oxford University Press), Riley, N. S. 2004. God on the Quad:
How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation are Changing America. (New York: St. Martins
Press), Smith, C. 2009. Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. (New
York: Oxford University Press); Wilkins, A. C. 2008. Wannabes, Goths, and Christians: The Boundaries
of Sex, Style, and Status. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
455
Wilson, Maureen and Lisa Wolf-Wendel, ASHE Reader on College Student Development Theory.
Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005, xvii.
456
William C. Placher, Callings: Twenty Centuries Of Christian Wisdom On Vocation (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005); Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass, Leading
Lives That Matter: What We Should Do And Who We Should Be (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006); John Neafsey, A Sacred Voice Is Calling: Personal Vocation And
Social Conscience (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006); Michael F. Duffy, The Skeptical, Passionate
Christian: Tools for Living Faithfully in an Uncertain World (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
2006.)

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growing religious diversity in this group.457 Further, the Higher Education Research

Institute (HERI) released a report The Spiritual Life of College Students: A National

Study of College Students Search for Meaning and Purpose whose focus is to bring to

light the beliefs, behaviors and attitudes of American college students.458 Finally,

Christian Smith is the principal investigator of a longitudinal study, the National Study of

Youth and Religion (NSYR). Christian Smith adopts the language of emerging adulthood

to describe his research participants in Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual

Lives of Emerging Adults.459

I had intended to analyze the responses of the essayists in terms of their religious

lives, and more particularly, discuss their images of God and idea of vocation. Afterall,

many of the essays made reference to the term vocation because of the conference and

organizations title involving its exploration. However, a little over half of the essays

mention God. And of these fifty-three percent that mention God, about eight mention

God in passing like a reference to God or an ending thought about Gods plan but not

enough to draw any conclusions. That leaves about thirty-six percent of the essays

discussing God and vocation for me to analyze. I have an outline for a chapter that

focuses on the essayists understanding of vocation, which uses Karl Barths notion of

vocation and calling as an interpretive lens.460 I was introduced to Barths exposition of

457
A web forum hosted by the Social Science Research Councils Religion and the Public Sphere contains
the website dedicated to the Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates and can be found at:
http://religion.ssrc.org/reforum/
458
This multi-year study by HERI focused on over 112,000 students at 236 colleges and this database is
housed in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA and was made possible
through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Rebecca Chopp is on their advisory board.
459
Christian Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adult, (Oxford
University Press, 2009).
460
Although Barths analysis is relevant, he would actually be a part of step two, historical theology, or a
part of step three, systematic theology, but not a part of descriptive theology, step one. See Browning, A
Fundamental Practical Theology, 7-8, 49-52.

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vocation through Bill Placher during an interview for our website. He said that Barth had

the best theological exploration of vocation that he had read.461 And Placher should

know: he had collected a resource book of primary source material on vocation for our

initiative.462 However, my investigation of the essayists concept of vocation was stalled

because I had over a third, maybe half if I stretched it, of the essays to really work with

and analyze. I didnt really think that their numbers were conclusive of any real obvious

patterns; further, this was a conference on vocation so many were perhaps mentioning the

topic for that reason. But overall, their religious responses ended up being a weaker

pattern and less prevalent than other patterns I follow in relation to their a-ha moment. I

would like to look more into this lack of religious orientation in todays emerging adults,

having just heard an analysis on NPR of the third wave of religious youth data which one

analyst said was simply depressing.

Regardless, my interest was not limited to the religious experiences of the

essayists, but rather on how to describe and lift up the voices of these students as they

reflect on a pivotal moment of change in their lives. Few studies have focused on

understanding significant moments of change within the lives of college student.

However, one particular research text looks specifically at the impact of college in How

College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research.463 This aforementioned text in

Chapter Two describes theories and models of student change in college that highlight

specifically college impact theories underlying much of the research on college effects.

461
You can read the interview at www.ptev.org
462
William C. Placher, Callings: Twenty Centuries Of Christian Wisdom On Vocation (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005).
463
Pascarella, Earnest T. and Patrick T. Terezini. How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of
Research. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2005.

123
The authors pose six questions as a way to think about college effects.464 But as stated

previously, their approach, data analysis, and methodology rely on a positivistic

foundation, which they freely admit. One immediate criticism of this resource on how

college affects students is that they focus solely on outcomes and not on the influential

factors that might cause student to change and develop. Other researchers lament that

approaches like Pascarella and Terenzini focus on the structural characteristics of

development while ignoring the questions of what experiences in college facilitate or

impede development. Other than this resource on college net effects, I found very little

about how college students change. Change seemed an important topic, especially when I

remember that Professor Gay once said in class: every major psychological treatise is

about change. Here, in the essays, were accounts of a kind of change that seemed forward

growing and overall positive in nature.

The essayists stories about change seemed really important and I wondered how

to extract and uncover the lessons and insights within them. The issue became

problematized because I am not trained as a social scientific researcher. I am familiar

with some qualitative methodologies from my coursework, but I was trained primarily in

religious and psychological methodologies. Furthermore, unlike many research projects, I

did not ask the question I analyze. I did not approach this project with a research question

in mind, but only a kind of curiosity regarding a data set. Many research methodologies

start with a particular topic of interest, move to a question of interest, find ways of

464
The six questions are as follows: 1) What evidence is there that individuals change during the time in
which they are attending college?; 2) What evidence is there that change or development during college is
the result of college attendance?; 3) What evidence is there that different kinds of postsecondary
institutions have a differential influence on student change or development during college?; 4) What
evidence exists on effects of different experiences in the same institution?; 5) What evidence is there that
the collegiate experience produces conditional, as opposed to general, effect on student change or
development?; 6) What are the long-term effects of college?

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accumulating data to help answer that question, and which finally culminates into

answering the research problem.465 I came to this process somewhere in the middle as I

came upon the essays and was taken by their sincerity and the depth of experience being

expressed. There seemed to be important information and patterns that needed to be

lifted up and shared with a wider community.

Gadamer is clear: in order to understand any text, the researcher must

acknowledge her own embedded cultural framework, ideals, prior commitments, and

prejudices in order to deepen her understanding process. These implicit ideals,

presuppositions, and prejudices exist no matter how hard I might try to deny them.

Instead, I should be conscious of them. For Gadamer, these human conditions do not

hinder understanding, but instead, help in engendering understanding. Understanding

always occurs against the background of prior involvements and commitments; therefore,

all interpretation is necessarily prejudiced because each individual is embedded within

a cultural framework and a particular context.

Overall, Gadamer lays out a foundational model of understanding. One key point

is that:

we must become aware of our own embeddedness or historical situatedness and

constantly reflect on the ways in which this situatedness influences the way that
we interpret our world.466

Earlier, in Chapter Two, I stated that this embeddedness or situatedness equals the social

location of the researcher. Social location reflects ones class, gender, race, ethnicity,

religious background, age, status, and social roles. Through the process of socialization,

individuals internalize particular values, standards, and ideals. Such internalization,

465
Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb and Joseph Williams, The Craft of Research, (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 2003), 40-135.
466
Swinton and Mowat, 111.

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according to Jose Miguez Bonino, will inevitably condition the way in which people

understand and express their views on religion, ethics, politics, or economies.467 For

Bonino, ones social location has to be taken into account in the interpretation of texts,

ideologies, and attitudes.468 In short, my own social location influences my construction

of meaning.

Gadamer states: To interpret means precisely to use ones own preconceptions so

that the meaning of the text can really be made to speak for us.469 So in order to read the

essays in all their richness, I need to reflect on my own preconceptions and ideals, and

in order to do that, Gadamer directs me to reveal my own situatedness. Essentially:

whats my story? In this endeavor, Gadamer urges for honesty and self-awareness. He

states:

Total descriptive objectivity is a myth. Honesty rather than objectivity should be

the major goal, and self-awareness on the part of the person doing the description
is the only objectivity achievable.470

In many ways, this construction of my own effective history should have been my first

step.

I was, and am, uncomfortable in revealing too many personal details in my

dissertation, but if I really believe in the importance of effective history, attention to my

own social location and experiece matters. In short, Id better practice what I preach.

Further, in her comments on my first draft, Bonnie Miller-McLemore asked me to

complete Chapter Three with some unpacking of your own effective history and why

467
Jose Miquez Bonino, Social Location, in Dictionary of Third World Theologies, ed. Virgina Fabella
and R.S. Sugirtharajah (New York: Orbis Books, 2000), 280.
468
Bonino, Social Location, 280. It is interesting to think how both Gadamer (with his focus on
situatedness) and liberation theology arrive at the same point, from radically different starting positions.
Both stress the importance of the social location of the researcher on the topic of interest. Ones social
location has to be taken into account, not ignored like positivistic science tries to do.
469
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 358.
470
Browning, American Congregations, 199.

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you think these essays grabbed you so much. What has happened in your own life that

made them so interesting to you?

The short answer is: because I had a-ha moments that changed my life. But Im

not sure I ever realized that until I did this research. The experiences in the essays

grabbed me because they were congruent with my own experience. I understood their

stories because I had experienced similar situations. I knew the essays contained a kind of

real-life wisdom (or phronesis) because I myself had experienced it. I, too, had been

formed and shaped by particular pivotal moments; many of my own experiences mirrored

those of the essayists.

If I had to answer the same question during college, I probably would have

written about Sallie McFague and reading Models of God. I remember feeling slack-

jawed and open-mouthed that you could even do that, imaginatively construct models of

God in order to test out their implications and investigate their usefulness. McFague

taught me that theology is mostly fiction; however, a multiplicity of images and

metaphors can and should be used to enhance and enrich our models of God. It certainly

expanded my own notions of God and broke theology out of a box for me. I was hooked.

But I need to do more than just reveal one of my own college a-ha moments if I

am to take this concept of effective history seriously. This next section serves as an

acknowledgement of my own social location and situatedness. Again, Gadamer urges for

honesty and self-reflection. Gulp. So this is my own effective history, my (effective

hi)story, my story. Or at least my story in regards to my interest in the essays. Like

Bonino states, ones social location has to be taken into account if the interpretation of

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texts and reflects ones class, gender, race, ethnicity, religious background, generation,

social status, and family role. 471

I was raised in the mid-1970s in Evansville, Indiana. A town of 150,000,

Evansville afforded my family a thoroughly middle-class living. My parents were both

born to children of Dutch immigrants in South Dakota. Growing up, my dad worked for a

garbage company; my mom worked at home. These are roles they still fill today. I have

an older brother and a younger sister.

Both my parents were raised in the Christian Reformed Church in rural South

Dakota in the 1940s. My mom was discouraged from attending dances, playing devil

cards, and going to movies. My dad worked on the family farm that raised hogs, grew

corn and lacked indoor plumbing; at eighteen, he left the farm and went to work for a

garbage company. When I was young, dad read the Bible after dinner. Nowadays, we just

pray before meals shortened from the Lords Prayer to: God is great, God is good, let us

thank Him for our food. Amen.

I grew up in the Presbyterian Church because it was located at the top of our

street; it housed my pre-school and was the closest Calvinist-based theology in town. The

closest Christian Reformed Church was over 150 miles away. I grew up always having to

go to church. I remember grudgingly pulling my loose tooth out with the hopes that the

sight of blood would allow me to stay home. It didnt. I was given a Kleenex and hustled

into the car.

In junior-high and high school, I belonged to the churchs youth group Reach

Out. Reach Out was a powerful and formative influence in my life. Each spring break,

471
Jose Miquez Bonino, Social Location, in Dictionary of Third World Theologies, ed. Virgina Fabella
and R.S. Sugirtharajah (New York: Orbis Books, 2000).

128
Reach Out organized a mission trip. Not a trip devoted to converting anyone, we worked

in a community of need. We painted houses, rooms, and porches; we worked in shelters,

cleaned houses, and activity rooms; we even dry-walled and put up simulated wood

paneling. I remember an elderly woman on oxygen hobbling out to her porch, crying,

because she couldnt believe that a bunch of high school students would scrape and paint

her entire house for free. During their spring break! Reach Out offered me an outlet for

community, fellowship, and friends, all doing common activities together as a group. Its

no surprise that I was immediately grabbed by the essayists description of the person

forming power of fellowship groups. I discuss the impact of these cohort groups in

Chapters Five and Seven. My own experience primed me to listen carefully and closely

to the essayists mention of fellowship and co-hort groups because it resonated strongly

with my own experience.

During one spring break, Reach Out ventured to San Francisco where we worked

at a battered womans shelter in Chinatown. We also worked one day at the nations

largest soup kitchen, The Glide Memorial, which feeds around 3,000 people a day. And

thats three meals a day. My partner all day was an African-American woman who was a

recovering crack addict; she was working that the Glide as part of a program to get

back custody of her children. That day, I remember serving people my own age food and

wondering why they werent in school. There were metal detectors everywhere and signs

about weapons and guns. Some people coming through the lines smelled awful; it was

like human deprivation.

I remember having a realization from that experience: I was very fortunate. But

beyond that selfish thought, there was an even deeper realization about the nature of the

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world and the reality of homelessness, poverty, destitution, and hopelessness. It was eye-

opening. So, to respond again to Bonnies question of what grabbed me: when the

essayists wrote about their social service experiences. The essays grabbed me right away

when they discussed the powerful formative and shaping effect of helping others and

witnessing need, hunger, and alienation upfront, and then, doing something about it. I

could understand the experience of being impacted by the midst of human suffering and

how it changed their perspective. I reflect upon these and other social service practices of

the essayists in Chapter Seven. In Chapter Eight, I make specific recommendations for

college programs to implement required social service work and service learning classes

into their curriculum.

I attended Hanover College, in Hanover, Indiana about 150 miles down the Ohio

River from my hometown. I fell in love with Hanover during my dad and Is first drive

down Scenic Drive. Hanover was rural, even smaller than my high school, and seemed

far enough away from home. But not too far. No one I knew was going to Hanover.

Hanover is also Presbyterian so I qualified as a National Presbyterian Scholar and

received other financial assistance to make college possible. During my freshman year,

my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphatic cancer. I mention this because it

was a huge crisis experience for my family and me. In the essays, one experience that

grabbed me and really resonated with me was the description of a crisis experience,

which occurred in almost two-thirds of the essays. My own experience may be part of the

reason I devote an entire chapter, Chapter Six, to the crisis experiences of the essayists.

Reading about other essays and my own experience might be why I make specific

130
recommendations in Chapter Eight for colleges and universities to have centers and

offices of support for college students for times of crisis.

At Hanover, I majored in biology with a math minor. Although not pre-med as

many other biology majors, I thought I would do research or study genetics. I liked

science for its sense of investigation and curiosity with the possibility of generating and

investigating answers. I balked at the required theology course for all Hanover students. I

grew up in a very religious family and felt I had had enough of church and religion; I

even consulted with my advisor how to opt out of the requirement. Feet dragging, I

signed up for Dr. Barlowes class Theology and Human Suffering.

Its safe to say my mind was blown away in this course. Dr. Barlowe took on the

subject of theodicy head-on and asked us to think hard about how suffering and God can

both exist. I was captivated. After that, I took as many theology classes as I could,

graduating one credit short of a double major.

It was my senior year, lots of stress as what to do next. Some of my friends had

ventured off on adventures after college, some were getting real jobs, others were

getting married, but I wanted to spread my wings and fly! There was the possibility of

moving to Indianapolis, where my parents and younger sister lived, and begin work at Eli

Lilly Pharmaceuticals as an entry level lab technician. If I am to be honest and self-

reflective, I have to admit that I was swayed by a dream.

In my dream I woke up in a bed, next to a sleeping man. I remember the room

was large and spacious, fantastic drapes and the bed was luxurious. I had no idea who the

man next to me was, although I felt I should know he was my husband! I also knew I

was 40. I tried to remember what had happened with my life, anything fun that had

131
happened, but all I could remember was my senior year and nothing after. It was like my

whole life had gone by unnoticed and unremembered. I began to panic surely I could

remember something that had happened in my life! But it was blank, my whole life. I

could feel my heart race as I realized I had wasted my life.

The panic of the dream hit me like a punch in the gut. I wanted to vomit. To me, it

seemed like a premonition, a future self. It signified my fate if I moved to Indy and

worked for a company that was noted for hiring from within. In twenty years, I would

surely be successful. But my dream told me something else. It was literally gut-

wrenching. I had the dream twice.

For help, I turned to a new gadget: the internet. I found an opening as a

housekeeper at a dude ranch in Wyoming. A friend who was heading West two days after

graduation offered to drop me off. I called my best friend, already in Idaho, about my

new job prospect. Stef began to cry: the ranch was only 45 minutes from her, just the

other side of the Grand Teton Mountains! It seemed confirmed in my mind. Head west

young gal!

Telling my parents and other adults was another story. How much money would I

make? Minimum wage. Where would I live? On a dude ranch. What would I do? Clean

toilets. The conversation with my dad grew tense: You are making a big mistake. I cannot

let you make this mistake. You cannot do this. Click. I had hung up on him.

My advisor: this is a huge mistake. I explained that I eventually wanted to do

graduate work in theology in bio-medical ethics. He retorted: Why would you want to

think about science when you could actually be doing science? At graduation, I received

the distinguished student in theological studies award, a complete surprise. It was the first

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time a non-major had won the award. It also was enough of a boost to help confirm that

my plan to continue in theology was warranted and encouraged.

I reflect on this experience in college and my eventual hiatus from the real

world to what my mom still despairingly refers to as going to Wyoming to find

yourself because it has direct implications for Chapter Four and Arnetts theory of

emerging adulthood. Doing the research suddenly made me more aware of why I felt

compelled to make a huge mistake in order to venture out and explore. It also caused

me to have more empathy for the students as they described stress about what to do

next and figure out how to navigate life in todays culture.

Back at the ranch, I had to ferry a bunch of dudes to the Jackson Hole Rodeo. In

the passenger seat of my 16 passenger van sat the president of a major company. He says

to me: You know, I would give both my eye-teeth to trade places with you right now. I

was shocked; I was making $5.15 an hour and here was a multi-millionaire telling me he

wanted my job. What? I told him to do it, take my job! Ill trade you, I offered. He

explained he couldnt just walk away from the commitments of his life: family, job,

responsibilities. This conversation made an impact on me; I guess I felt a bit vindicated.

Looking at the essays, there are at least three specific descriptions of a-ha moments

involving a seemingly random conversations with an adult. Ostensibly, this might explain

why I highlight these descriptions and other experiences of the power of a random

conversation in Chapters Five and Seven.

I worked at the ranch until it shut down for the season, before the snow and

hunters came. I moved back in with my parents in Indy and I waitressed tables. My sister,

in middle school, was thrilled. My parents were hopeful I would work for Lilly. Instead, I

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got an offer to work in Hawaii for few months through a contact at the ranch. The tourist

season in Maui started after the first of the year and a sporting clays range needed help

for a few months. They would train me to be a shotgun shooting instructor. Was I

interested? You betcha.

I should add that I come from a family that owns guns and hunts. I grew up

camping, fishing, and hunting. My brother is an avid outdoorsman who hunts waterfowl

and deer; my dad prefers ducks, geese, and pheasants. My thirteenth (yes, 13th) birthday

present was a twenty-gauge Winchester Green Wing five shell pump-action shot-gun.

Ive hunted with it and taught all my shooting lessons using that gun.

Teaching people how to shoot a shotgun adds an entire new level to the

pedagogical experience. Patience is a virtue but also a necessity. When teaching someone

to shoot a shotgun, always use a side-by-side: you can easily tell if the gun is loaded or

not. If you are teaching Japanese women how to shoot a shotgun, which was my job in

Hawaii, always use a .410. It has the lightest kick, but still be sure to stand behind them

with your hand on the stock. Later, using the same technique, I helped a five year old

break targets. My friend in bio-ethics said she had an ethical and moral problem with me.

I did go on to do graduate work in theology and went to Vanderbilt Divinity

School. I think I went there because McFague taught there; I ended up taking two courses

from her before she retired. I had an a-ha moment during one of my classes Hope and

Despair with Bruce Vaughn.472 We read Ed Farleys description of primal evil: idolatry.

Suddenly, I understood why human beings did such terrible things. I swear, I looked out

the window and the big tree outside the Divinity school windows actually looked

different. I enrolled in the MTS program and focused on bio-medical ethics in my

472
This was the first PhD level seminar that I took in R and P. Again, I was hooked.

134
coursework, even doing a series of internships in two locations in clinical ethics.473 At the

same, I was doing a work-study job in a lab in the developmental biology department.

Because of these personal experiences, I specifically highlight the importance of jobs and

internships for emerging adults in Chapter Seven. In my conclusion, I make specific

recommendations for colleges to provide internships and work study opportunities for

their students to work in the community in real jobs.

I returned to Hanover after getting my MTS at Vanderbilt Divinity School under

auspicious circumstances. My job for the year was to teach a flurry of introductory

courses to cover for Mike Duffy as he was on leave to write a grant for Lilly. Hanover

was one of a handful of religiously-affiliated schools asked by Lilly to write proposals for

a two million dollar grant to study the theological concept of vocation. As an aside, I had

to negotiate my contract to teach theology at Hanover with my old advisor, who was now

the dean, about four years after he declared I was making a huge mistake. I admit, after

signing my contract, I strutted a bit out of his office.

That first year at Hanover, I taught introductory theology courses titled: Theology

and Science. Teaching a required course, I always had a great entry line: I know you

dont want to be here. I didnt either. And now look at me, Im teaching this stuff! A

version of this course went on to win the International Competition for College Courses,

sponsored by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS).

The next year, with grant in hand, Hanovers program focused on mentoring. Lots

of money was dumped into faculty salaries and new hires, like me, to incorporate

intentional vocational mentoring for their students. For example, in each of my

473
I call these internships, but the actual language is supervised ministry. With the help of the wonderful
Viki Matson, I was able to construct a series of supervised ministry credits in my program that put me in
the hospital actually doing clinical ethics, at both St. Thomas and Vanderbilt Medical Center.

135
introductory course, I had to spend three hours of individual mentoring time with each

student to discuss vocational issues. It was a wonderful experience for me, and hopefully

for the students. So, mentoring and its impact was another topic that grabbed me and I

discuss mentoring in Chapters Five and Seven. Because I have been fortunate to have

been mentored over the years, as well as extensive work as a mentor, might be why I

make recommendation for intentional mentoring programs on college campuses.

Also, teaching theology at Hanover, I was also privy to some a-ha moments or

at least situations where perspectives seemed to be widen and expanded. In class, we

discussed the historical Jesus (essentially what science had to say) and the Nicene Creed,

including its construction in 325 A.D. As the most widely used liturgical prayer in the

Christian tradition, the Nicene Creed affirms the divinity of Jesus, thereby rejecting

Jesus humanity. Three girls who sat together, worshipped together, and belonged to the

same sorority approached me after class; in my head, I had referred to them as The

Methodist Trio and they asked: Is this the prayer we say every week in church? You

mean that prayer really is saying that Jesus isnt a human being, but instead, like, God?

Ive been saying that prayer every week of my life and now I finally know what it

means! I dont even think I agree with it!

I loved teaching. Loved it. And I was encouraged to enter PhD work. My

conversation with the world of college students continued: I began work in Nashville for

PTEV, the newly established coordination program for Hanovers grant along with a new

second round of grants. The first round of grants was so successful that Lilly was

beginning a second round, which would ultimately lead to a third round and end with 88

schools in total. My work began with PTEV filing and answering phones; five years later,

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it ended as the Technical Program Coordinator, in charge of the PTEV website and all

things technology at conferences and meetings. I worked twenty hours a week for PTEV

and balanced that with full time PhD work. I felt like I was getting two educations at

once. It was intense, enlightening, and a real joy.

The descriptions in the essays of a-ha moments grabbed me because I had

experience like those, too. It was an experience-near approach, like practical theology

asserts. I see now, in retrospect, how many of my categories of analysis were also

reflections of my own experience. Perhaps my research and approach would have been

better had I done this kind of reflection as my first step, and not my last.

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 CHAPTER IV

PSYCHOSOCIAL LENS
In fact, sometimes I wonder if its not more that were young adults entering a new
phase in life than that were college students. Ann, essayist

Student development theory and society at large refers to college students in a

myriad of different ways: young adults, young people, co-eds, extended adolescents,

youthhood, adultolescents, the twixter years, twenty-somethings, Generation X, Y, and Z,

transition to adulthood population, and quarter-lifers. Erik Erikson, the predecessor of

psychosocial theory, refers directly to college students as adolescents who have

postponed adult commitments and responsibilities; thereby, they have entered a period

called prolonged adolescence which he describes as a psychosocial moratorium.

Developmentally, according to Eriksons life stage theory, these college essayists are

situated in stage five, adolescents, and not yet quite to stage six, young adulthood.

However, major biological and cultural changes have occurred since these terms were

introduced; for example, the median age of marriage and first child have risen steeply

now occur in the later twenties. Because of particular cultural and biological changes,

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett proposes a new developmental life stage after adolescence, but

before young adulthood, which he calls emerging adulthood. Jensen posits that

emerging adult better depicts and describes Americans ages 18-25; moreover,

emerging adulthood is a period characterized for most people by change and

exploration, as they examine the life possibilities open to them and gradually arrive at

138
more enduring choices in love, work, and worldviews.474 I argue that the essayists are

better described as emerging adults. To support this argument, I look to the essays for

evidence of the five distinct developmental markers Arnett proposes in his theory. The

five developmental markers are:

1. The age of identity exploration

2. The age of instability
3. The self-focused age
4. The age of feeling in-between
5. The age of possibilities

Within the essays, I find confirmation of these five developmental markers. Compelling

accounts describe exploration, instability, and possibility some excited by the

abundance of possibilities ahead, others daunted by the future unknown. One essayist,

Ann, describes its perfectly when she states: In fact, sometimes I wonder if its not more

that were young adults entering a new phase in life than that were college students. If

Arnett is correct, than Ann is right, too: she is literally entering into a new phase of life.

Effective History: Psychosocial Theory

But first, I want to situate my perspective by giving a brief historical overview of

psychosocial theory. Key texts and perspectives, or classics, are discussed in order to

construct an effective history of psychosocial theory which is based largely on

Eriksons life stage theory. Terminology like adolescent and young adult were terms

created by and expanded upon by psychosocial theory. Psychosocial theory is one of two

474
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood (Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2002), 28-29.

139
foundational approaches in student development theory.475 Psychosocial theory examines

the content of development in terms of biological, psychological and socio-cultural

influences. Development takes place across the life span within a series of age-linked

sequential stages.476 Stages occur as internal biological and psychological changes

interact with environmental demands, such as social norms and roles expected of

individuals at certain ages in particular cultures.477 Within each stage, developmental

tasks arise and contain specific challenges that seek resolution. Psychosocial theory

examines an individuals personal and interpersonal life while acknowledging a basic

structure in human development. For Nancy Evans, the common theme which unites all

psychosocial theories is that human development continues over the life span and

contains a basic underlying psychosocial structure guided by linked sequential stages. 478

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson is hailed as the progenitor of psychosocial theory. According to Evans,

Erikson was the first clinical psychologist to address the developmental journey from

adolescence through adulthood.479 Like Freud, Erikson believed the personality

developed in a series of stages; however, Erikson expanded his theory to include the

entire lifespan as well as socio-cultural influences. Also, contrary to Freud, Erikson did

not rely entirely on universal drive theory but instead integrated examples from

475
The other approach, according to Nancy Evans, is cognitive structural. Nancy Evans, Student
Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009) 42.
476
Evans, Student Development in College, 42.
477
Ibid., 42.
478
Ibid., 10
479
Ibid., 48.

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anthropology and cultural studies. Eriksons language reflects this mixed methods

approach when he uses terms like psychosocial strength, psychosocial creature, and

psychosocial moratorium.480 This leads Erikson make effusive statements like: For

mans need for a psychosocial identity is anchored in nothing less than his sociogenetic

evolution.481

For Erikson, development takes place across the life span in a series of eight age-

linked sequential stages.482 Each stage has particular developmental tasks which occur

and present considerable questions that must be resolved. Development is considered

ontologically epigenetic: unfolding growth by successive differentiation where

development is genetically programmed and is determined by the interaction of

biological (body), psychological (mind), and societal (cultural) influences. Each stage is

characterized by a specific developmental task or psychosocial crisis which has

biological, psychological, and cultural elements.

Erikson and Identity

One of Eriksons most important contributions is the development of the concept of

identity. Erikson developed the term identity crisis which became a central idea in his

writings and painted as the most significant conflict a person must face.483 In Identity,

480
Erik Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1968) 141, 161-62,
156-158.
481
Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis, 41.
482
Eriksons wife, Joan, expanded the life stage theory to include a ninth and final stage. See, Erik Erikson
and Joan Erikson, The Life Cycle Completed (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997.
483
Erikson states, No doubt my best friends will insist that I needed to name this crisis and see it in
everybody else in order to really come to terms with it myself. Erikson and Erikson, The Life Cycle
Completed. Erikson struggled with his own identity, particularly as a growing boy, and even going so far
as to change his name from Erik Homberger to Erik Erikson, a name he made up.

141
Youth, and Crisis, Erikson defines an identity crisis as designating a necessary turning

point, a crucial moment, when development must move one way or another, marshaling

resources of growth, recovery, and further differentiation.484 An identity crisis is a time

of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself. Identity

crisis occurs during adolescence as a result of the central conflict between identity

formation and identity confusion. Identity formation is the most prominent issue of

adolescence and the most crucial for development: a clear identity is the foundation for

the commitments found in the next stages of adult life.

For Erikson, the development of identity reaches its critical time with the advent of

puberty and rapid body growth. Puberty is the beginning of adolescence and the fifth

stage of his life cycle. The sixth stage is young adulthood beginning about age 18 and

continuing until the age of 35. Young adulthood is characterized by personal

commitments, generally to another person, where the central crisis is the choice between

intimacy versus isolation.485 Erikson is clear: the reliability of young adult

commitments largely depends on the outcome of the adolescent struggle for identity.486

A clear identity must be established in adolescence because it will serve as the foundation

for commitments in adult life. Because of this concern, the primary focus of Eriksons

work was on adolescence, and adolescent development is where he has had his greatest

influence.487

484
Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis, 16. A key influence on the concept of identity crisis was his study of
the Oglala Lakota and their rituals governing the period between adolescence and adulthood. He also
studied the Souix of South Dakota. For these Native Americans, tradition prevailed that an adolescent boy
would be sent off, weaponless and with no food, for a dream quest. On the fourth day, it was expected that
the boy would experience a dream which would reveal his lifes path. The boy would return a man. See,
Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1950), 133-156.
485
Erikson and Erikson, The Life Cycle Completed, 57-56.
486
Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis, 72.
487
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (Upper Saddle River,

142
 But what if an identity is not secured by the end of adolescence at age 18? Erikson

answers this by introducing the concept of a psychosocial moratorium. A psychosocial

moratorium occurs in adolescence when commitments and identities are postponed and it

is a prolongation of the interval between youth and adulthood.488 Again, in Identity,

Youth and Crisis, Erikson offers two biographical case studies of psychosocial

moratorium: George Bernard Shaw and William James. He describes this period also as a

prolonged adolescence and noting that industrialized societies allow for a prolonged

period of identity formation. Key in this psychosocial moratorium is the ability to explore

and try out different beliefs or ideologies in order to clarify ones own beliefs. Erikson

states:

A moratorium is a period of delay granted to somebody who is not ready to meet

an obligation or forced on somebody who should give himself time. By
psychosocial moratorium, then, we mean a delay of adult commitments, and yet it
is not only a delay. It is a period characterized by a selective permissiveness on
the part of society and of provocative playfulness on the part of youth, and yet it
also often leads to deep, it often transitory, commitment on the part of youth, and
ends in a more or less ceremonial confirmation of commitment on the part of
society.489

A psychosocial moratorium is a period of delay in adult commitments allowed by a

selective permissiveness on the part of society. Furthermore, college students,

including the essayists, are in a psychosocial moratorium. Erikson states: Adolescence

and the ever more protracted apprenticeship of the later school and college years can, as

we saw, be viewed as a psychosocial moratorium: a period of sexual and cognitive

maturation and yet a sanctioned postponement of definitive commitment. It provides a

NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007), 175.

488
Erikson, Identity, Youth, and Crisis, 143.
489
Ibid., 157.

143
relative leeway for role experimentation.490 Therefore, according to Erikson, students

who enroll in college participate in a psychosocial moratorium of prolonged adolescence

which delays commitment and, instead, allows for experimentation and the continuation

of identity formation. Thus, according to Erikson, college students are best described as

adolescents?

Adolescence: A Cultural Construction

Arnett argues that college students are NOT adolescents. To back up his

argument, Arnett delves into the history of adolescence; ultimately, he rejects

adolescence by finding it lacking as a description of contemporary Americans age 18-25.

Arnett traces the term adolescence to its first usage by the Ancient Greeks who used

the term to describe youth between the ages of 14-21. For the Greeks, adolescence was

the third stage of life.491 The term has spotty usage after that, but was solidified in 1904

with G. Stanley Halls textbook on adolescence: Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its

Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education.492

Halls work marked a larger era known as the Age of Adolescence that took place from

the 1890s-1920s. His work helped to reform child labor laws and set new education

requirements for secondary school; it also marked the field of adolescence as an area of

scholarly study.493 In short, Hall defined adolescence as 14-24. The age fourteen is

490
Erikson and Erikson, The Life Cycle Completed, 75.
491
Arnett cites that both Plato and his student Aristotle argued that serious education should begin at
adolescence. Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 5.
492
G. Stanley Hall obtained the first PhD in psychology in the United States and was the founder of the
American Psychological Association.
493
Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 10.

144
significant because it was the beginning of puberty. Ultimately, adolescence was

characterized as a period in the life course between puberty and adult status.

Consequently, this was also the inherited framework of understanding for Erikson when

he used the word adolescence to describe the stage before adulthood.

However, since that time, important biological and cultural changes have taken

place in the past century which widens the gap between adolescence and adulthood. For

example, a major biological change has occurred since Hall began to study adolescents:

the decline of the median age of menarche. During Halls time, the median age of

menarche was about 15; however; over one hundred years later, the typical age of

menarche is 12.5.494 Because puberty is understood to begin two years prior to

menarche, this place todays age of puberty to be closer to ten. Puberty begins for most

people in industrialized countries at a much earlier age, due to advances in nutrition and

health care.495 Said in another way, puberty moved about two years earlier in the life

course of people in industrialized societies so that most young people now show the first

physical changes of puberty at age 10 to 12.496 Recently released evidence cites a

growing trend in puberty rates: fifteen percent of American girls are entering puberty at

seven years old. In the United States, second grade girls are showing marked signs of

puberty.497

Combined with these significant biological changes, Arnett also believes a

cultural revolution has occurred for young people. For example, in 1970, the typical 21

494
Ibid., 12.
495
Ibid,. xii.
496
Ibid., ix-x.
497
I accessed both of these articles by chance while I looked through the news headlines in August of 2010.
See, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38600414/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/ and
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/09/girls.starting.puberty.early/index.html?hpt=T2

145
year old was married (or about to be married), caring for a newborn (or expecting one

soon), and settled into a long term job, either as a parent or in the work force.498 Serious

and enduring decisions about life were made at a relatively early age; adulthood was

easily attained and occurred in the early twenties. Contrast this image with the image of

an average 21 year old today: marriage is at least six years off, parenthood more so, and

education might continue so that the prospect of full time work is still years away.499

Arnett states: From age at first childbirth as well as for marriage, the variance has

expanded as the median age has risen.500 After forty years, significant demographic

changes have taken place in terms of puberty, marriage, and parenthood for young people

in industrialized societies. The median ages of marriage and first birth in the United

States have risen to unprecedented levels and now occur into the late twenties.501 The late

teens and early twenties are no longer about forming enduring adult roles; rather, they

have become a period of exploring various life possibilities. Instead of making

commitments, the late teens and early twenties are now characterized by frequent change

and exploration. The typical markers of adulthood are now postponed, resulting in a

rising age at marriage, first child, and entering the labor force.502 Arnett states:

Postponing these transitions until at least the late twenties leaves the late teens and early

twenties available for exploring various possible life directions.503

498
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the
Twenties (Oxford University Press, 2004), 3.
499
In 1970, the median age of marriage was 21 (female) and 23 (male); 1996 median marriage age 25
(female) 27 (male). Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood.
500
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Jennifer Lynn Tanner, Emerging Adults in America: Coming to Age in the 21 st
Century (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2006), 5.
501
Ibid., 3-5.
502
Jens Asendorpf, Jaap Denissen, and Marcel van Aken, Human Development from Early Childhood to
Early Adulthood, in Human Development from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood, eds. Wolfgang
Schneider and Merry Bullock (New York: Psychology Press, 2009) 120. (119-143)
503
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 19.

146
 Emerging Adulthood: Bridging the Gap

Because of these biological and cultural changes, Arnett proposes a new period in

the life cycle called emerging adulthood. The late teens and early twenties are now times

of exploring various possibilities and different life directions. Emerging adulthood

bridges the growing gap between adolescence and adulthood in industrialized societies.

Just as adolescence and young adult were terms constructed in response to cultural

changes, emerging adulthood refers to a new period in the life course of people in

industrialized societies, bridging the gap between adolescence and young adulthood.504

Arnett, like Erikson, takes a psychosocial approach to development and highlights the

changing biological and cultural demographics of industrialized societies. Furthermore,

Arnett cites Eriksons own observations concerning growing trends toward

industrialization: Even forty years ago, Erikson observed that identity formation was

taking longer and longer for young people in industrialized societies.505Supplementing

Erikson, Arnett suggest a new stage of development, between stage five of adolescence

and stage six of young adulthood, called emerging adulthood.

Sharon Parks also proposes a new developmental period for people aged 18-25 in

The Critical Years and in Big Questions, Worthy Dreams. As stated previously, two

foundational approaches support student development theory.506 One is psychosocial

theory, which has been described at length. The other approach, according to Nancy

Evans, is cognitive structural theory. Cognitive structural theory is based on the work of

504
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 85.
505
Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 181.
506
Evans, Student Development in College, 42.

147
Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and William Perry, but also expanded by James Fowler

in faith development theory. Parks amends Fowlers five-stage faith development stages

and hypothesizes a new stage between stage three and stage four based on her work

with college students. Parks argues that this is a new and crucial development in the

human life cycle. Recognizing this period is important society because young adulthood

is the birthplace of adult vision and the power of on-going cultural renewal.507 This

birthplace of adult vision needs to be cultivated and tended, not only for the individual

young adult, but also for our future as a culture depends in no small measure upon our

capacity to recognize the emerging competence of young adults, to initiate them into big

questions, and give them access to worthy dreams.508

Student development researchers agree that negotiating ones 20s has been

described as one of the most complex and challenging developmental life stages;

however, there is a dearth of research efforts on this group.509 Arnett, like Parks, seeks to

rectify this omission by suggesting a new developmental period that more accurately

accounts for the ever-expanding biological and cultural changes for young adults in

American society. New descriptions are needed to account for todays cultural and

biological trends.

But why not just use the term young adult? That is the term Erikson chose and is

also used by Parks and other key researchers. Why not describe the essayists as young

adults? Arnett gives a number of reasons why the term of young adulthood does not

work; in brief, it is a term that is used too widely in too many different contexts. For

507
Sharon Parks, The Critical Years (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), xii.
508
Sharon Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dream: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning,
Purpose, and Faith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), xi.
509
Varda Konstam, Emerging and Young Adulthood: Multiple Perspectives, Diverse Narratives (New York:
Springer, 2007), 1.

148
example, at a library, the young adult section is targeted to high school students. The

same might be said for other terms like a young adult church group or young adult

magazine. Furthermore, at least in Eriksons theory, young adult implies that adulthood

has been reached. Young adulthood, as stage six, is the first of two adult stages. Young

adulthood is reached after identity formation is completed and where enduring

commitments are made. An adult, for Erikson, is someone who is able to take care of

what he cares to be, whom he cares to be with, and whom and what he causes to do.510

Erikson contends: Our two adult stages, adulthood and young adulthood, are not meant

to preempt all the possible sub-stages of the period between adolescence and old age.511

Erikson holds his life theory open for expansion; moreover, Arnett capitalizes on this to

suggest emerging adulthood as a possible stage. Arnett asserts that 18-25 year olds are

not adults and to hold them to standards of adulthood is to do them a great disservice.

Emerging adulthood suggests that they are actively being formed to become adults, but

are still developing and growing.

In the end, adolescence and young adulthood are helpful and relevant categories;

however, Arnett argues that these categories no longer apply to contemporary people age

18-25. Instead, the theory of emerging adulthood provides a paradigm that is useful in

guiding thinking and research on this age period.512 Adolescence, young adulthood, and

even emerging adulthood are cultural constructions and as culture changes, so should our

descriptive terms. Arnett states: The term emerging adult is preferable because it

distinguishes them from adolescents while recognizing that they are not yet fully

510
Erik Erikson, Dimensions of a New Identity (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1979),
bookjacket.
511
Erikson and Erikson, The Life Cycle Completed, 66.
512
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood in America, xviii.

149
adult.513 For most people, the late teens through the mid-twenties are the most volitional

years of life; emerging adulthood is characterized by relative independence from social

roles and normative expectations.514

Other Researchers and Emerging Adulthood

Admittedly, Arnetts research is in the nascent stages. One of his first texts,

Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties, was

published in 2004. But emerging adulthood as a concept useful in guiding thinking and

research is quickly catching on, particularly in academic circles. Christian Smith adopts

the language of emerging adulthood to describe his research participants in Souls in

Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults515. Continuing his

analysis of the third wave of longitudinal data from the National Study of Youth and

Religion (NSYR), Smith noticed that his population had transitioned to a new phase of

life.516 For Smith and his team: We find persuasive the psychologist Jeffrey Arnetts

argument that of all these labels, emerging adulthood is the most appropriate.517

Smith comments that emerging adulthood is significant because as a cultural

construction it includes biology and material concerns to produce a thoroughly 21st

century category. Just as teenager and adolescent were descriptors of a distinct stage of

life in the twentieth century, cultural changes have now produced macro social changes

513
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 18.
514
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 18.
515
Christian Smith with Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious Spiritual Lives of Emerging
Adults (Oxford University Press, 2009).
516
Christian Smith with Patricia Snell, Souls in Transition: The Religious Spiritual Lives of Emerging
Adults (Oxford University Press, 2009), 6.
517
Smith, Souls in Transition, 6.

150
(that) have combined to create a new phase in the American life course.518 Smith

highlights four distinct changes: the dramatic growth in higher education, the delay of

marriage, globalization and industrialization, and the abundance of parental resources

which subsidizes the freedom that emerging adults enjoy.519 Like Arnett, Smith and his

team use interview material to illustrate the contemporary cultural landscape in the

United States. Smith states: The purpose of this book is to investigate what happens, as

youth enter and begin to move through emerging adulthood, to their religious and

spiritual lives in particular.520

Although the scholarship on emerging adulthood is young, it has expanded

quickly and already has begun to take shape as a distinct area of scholarship.521 Three

other examples suffice. First, Asendorpf, Denissen, and van Aken also use the label of

emerging adulthood because they concur that a distinct and enduring period of life has

occurred. It has been stated that the demographic shifts of the past half century in

Western cultures (such as a higher age at the time of marriage, first childbirth, and

entering the labor force) have considerably changed the period of the late teens and the

early twenties.522 Next, Emerging and Young Adulthood by Varda Konstam focuses on

negotiating ones twenties as one of the most complex and challenging developmental

stages.523 Konstam contends: Understanding the contextual landscape, as well as

listening to the voices of individuals who have emerged from this period of their life

518
Ibid., 5.
519
Ibid., 5.
520
Ibid., 6.
521
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, xvi.
522
Jens Asendorpf, Jaap Denissen, and Marcel van Aken, Human Development from Early Childhood to
Early Adulthood, in Human Development from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood, eds. Wolfgang
Schneider and Merry Bullock (New York: Psychology Press, 2009) 119. (119-143)
523
Konstam, Emerging and Young Adulthood, 1.

151
enriches the discussion.524 Like Arnett and Smith, Konstam does in-depth interviews

and finds the life stories of these emerging adults compelling: Their rich and diverse

narratives attempt to illustrate and capture the complexity as well as nuance of this

developmental period.525

Finally, and most recently, National Public Radio featured an OnPoint interview

about emerging adults. Tom Ashbrook comments on Arnetts theory and retorts: Critics

say, come off it. Get a job. Get going. But thats tough in this economy. And the twenties

are changing.526 Ashbrook discusses the theory of emerging adulthood with Robin

Hennig, a contributing writer for the New York Times, whose August 22nd, 2010 cover

story was titled: What is it about 20-Somethings?527 Hennig cites lots of evidence and

most compelling, she says, is data from neuroscience that proves that the brain is not

fully developed or fully mature until the late twenties. Hennig adds that the age of first

marriage in the US has increased five years in the past decade. The average person

entering her twenties can expect to change jobs seven times within the decade. In the

1970s, of the five major milestones of adulthood completing school, leaving home,

becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child most people had these

markers completed by the age of thirty. However, today, more than half of all thirty year-

olds have barely begun to even start the list. Hennig cites Arnetts theory and supports his

construction of a new life phase because her research demonstrates that 18-25 year old in

524
Ibid., 2.
525
Ibid., 10.
526
I heard this program by chance on National Public Radio (NPR) while working on this chapter. I
listened to this program and then accessed the transcript in August 2010.See,
http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/08/redefining-20-something-life
527
The byline to this story is Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up? Accessed
September 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html

152
America are still developing; therefore, the description of emerging adult is quite

appropriate.

The Essays: Emerging Adults?

In order to argue that the essayists are better described as emerging adults, I

examine the essays for evidence of the five main feature of Arnetts theory. Arnetts

theory of emerging adulthood is based on five developmental markers: 1) the age of

identity exploration, 2) the age of instability, 3) the self focused age, 4) the age of feeling

in-between, and 5) the age of possibilities. These five developmental markers are

indicative of emerging adulthood as a distinct life stage and are based on Arnetts

research over the past decade.528 I explore each developmental marker and then look to

the essays in order to determine if these characteristics are present. In the end, the essays

provide plenty of evidence that emerging adulthood is a better description of their life

stage and, just as Ann describes in her essay: In fact, sometimes I wonder if its not

more that were young adults entering a new phase in life than that were college

students. Technically, it is a new phase of life and its called emerging adulthood.

Emerging adulthood is a new and separate period in the life course of 18-25 years

old in industrialized countries. Theoretically and empirically distinct from adolescence

and young adulthood, emerging adulthood is characterized by exploration, instability, and

possibility. Arnett states:

Emerging adulthood is a time of life when many different directions remain

possible, when little about the future has been decided for certain, when the scope
of independent exploration of lifes possibilities is greater for most people than it
528
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 7.

153
 will be at any other period of the lifespan. For most people, the late teens through
the mid-twenties are the most volitional years of life.529

Emerging adulthood is not a universal period of development and would most likely to

be found in countries that are highly industrialized or postindustrial.530 But because of

key changes in human biology (puberty rates are dropping) and culture (marriage and

first birth ages are rising), Arnett offers emerging adulthood as a bridge to cross the

growing gap between adolescence and young adulthood.

One: The Age of Identity Exploration

For Arnett, the age of identity exploration is the first and most central feature of

emerging adulthood. Possibilities are explored and investigated, and in the process,

identities are formed and clarified. Furthermore, this particular developmental marker of

identity exploration refers to the crucial period of identity development: where

explorations culminate into commitments that build on a foundation for life.531 Arnett

states:

Emerging adulthood is the age of identity explorations in the sense that it is the
period when people are most likely to be exploring various possibilities for their
lives in a variety of areas, especially love and work, as a prelude to making the
enduring choices that will set the foundation for their adult lives.532

Identity is formed in the context of trying out new possibilities and exploring new

directions. During this interval of years, when they are neither beholden to their parents

nor committed to a web of adult roles, they have an exceptional opportunity to try out

different ways of living and different options for love and work.533

529
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 18, original emphasis.
530
Ibid., 27.
531
Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 175.
532
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 8.
533
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 8.

154
 The process of identity development is also referred to as identity formation. For

Erikson, identity formation involves reflecting on your traits, abilities, and interests,

trying out various possibilities, while sifting through the range of life choices available in

your culture, and ultimately making commitments.534 However, Eriksons framework

places identity formation firmly in the life stage of adolescence: identity formation

centers on an identity crisis which he postulated as the central crisis of the adolescent

stage of life. The development of identity reaches its critical time, for Erikson, with the

advent of puberty and rapid body growth, which marks the beginning of adolescence. For

Erikson, issues of identity are part of the process of adolescence where an identity crisis

results in identity formation; adolescence is over once an identity has been achieved.

However, Arnetts research has shown that identity achievement has rarely been

reached by the end of high school and that identity development continues through the

late teen and the twenties.535 Furthermore, most research done on issues of identity

formation is primarily focused on adolescents.536 Konstam adds: There is a rich

literature on identity development that primarily address the period of adolescence.537

Eriksons framework is still in full force. Arnett admits that like most psychologists I

was used to thinking of identity formation as an issue pertinent mainly to development

during adolescence. However, in my interviews with emerging adults, identity issues

have come up over and over again in various forms.538 Arnetts approach acknowledges

that identity formation begins in adolescence, but intensifies in emerging adulthood.539

534
Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 176.
535
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 9.
536
Ibid., 9.
537
Konstam, 10.
538
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 8.
539
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 9.

155
Konstram states: Although there is acknowledgment that the 20s is an important time for

consolidation of identity formation, there is a dearth of research efforts, with most of the

efforts primarily focused on the developmental period of adolescence.540 The

developmental marker of identity exploration might also be characterized as the age of

identity formation; rather, for emerging adults, exploration and formation go hand in

hand.

The essays were filled with references to issues of identity and over three quarters

scored themes of exploration and identity. To some degree, the nature of the question

provokes issues of identity: What has been your biggest a-ha moment in college? Most

the essays describe a fundamental change in how they perceive themselves and their

identity. For example, Mike makes a direct connection between his a-ha moment and

identity: Moments that have made me think of who I am as a person, a student, and a

future educator. Aha moments, I believe have helped to shape me into who I am. They

help me to learn and better myself so that I may make a difference in the world. Some

essays were explicit about issues of identity: Sara discusses that she has begun exploring

different options at college while Erin remarks that this past year has been a time of

self-discovery. However, this exploration of identity is not always a pleasant process,

Frank states, I struggled with my identity, about who I was to God, about who I was to

others. And sometimes its not about changing your identity, but maintaining a sense

of self within different experiences. Regina discovers that: I gained confidence in my

abilities and myself; I discovered that I can maintain a sense of my identity regardless of

my environment. Sahar reflects on fasting during Ramadan that Islam, a way of life,

is part of my identity and enriches my life daily. The more that Ive gotten to share and
540
Konstram, 2.

156
talk about my experiences and of my faith and beliefs, the more Ive learned about

myself, my traditions, and my religion.

But more than just discussing issues of identity, the essayists also explored: this

sense of exploration is everywhere within the essays. On a side note scribbled on the

margin, I wrote: explore, explore, explore!! Trying out different kinds of relationships,

jobs, majors, and activities, is part of the process of identity formation because these

explorations test likes and dislikes. Emerging adults clarify their identities through self-

exploration as they learn more about whom they are and what they want out of life.

Identity issues abound and although they do arise in response to the three pillars in

Eriksons theory (love, work, and ideology), they also arise in response to many other

issues as well. Arnett states: Identity issues also commonly arise in responses to

questions about relationships with parents, expectations for the future, characteristics

desired in a romantic partner, and religious beliefs.541 Dealing with these identity issues

is a salient part of development in emerging adulthood.

The essayists explore, explore, explore: they describe new groups theyve joined,

new friends they have made, and new experiences they have had. Tyrone explains: As a

freshman at college, one of the main things that I tried to do was make new friends, try

new things and step out of my comfort zone. A study abroad trip and venturing into a

new culture for a semester heralded for Vivian a great deal of personal discovery came

last year while I was studying abroad. She adds, The experience proved to be one

which greatly increased my confidence in dealing with others as well as in understanding

my own actions and feelings. One essayist, Krista speaks explicitly about exploring the

issue of my own racial identity and the concept of racial identity in general. Learning
541
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 9.

157
more about racial identity development allowed Krista to understand that white society

considers itself the norm that we indicate through our language and actions.

It is clear that essays hold many references to identity and exploration. Lindsay

discusses what she describes as the unique college experiencethat many college

students meet with the challenges of finding themselves. In this sense, it seems to be

expected that student go to college in order to develop a firmer identity and self

knowledge. Tommy states: The atmosphere that college engenders is exactly the

atmosphere where aha moments are born. For the first time, we are independent of our

families, making decisions on our own, and away from everything familiar. Not only

this, but we are asking questions about ourselves: who we are, who we want to be, and

what the purpose is for our lives. These kinds of questions are fundamentally important

to ask as emerging adults explore issues regarding their identity. In this sense, exploration

and identity formation go hand in hand.

Two: The Age of Instability

Although the possibilities and explorations of emerging adults seem full and

robust, it also presents a period of life that is exceptionally unstable. As Arnett posits,

exploration and instability go hand in hand.542 Instability is reflected in many aspects

of life in emerging adulthood but in particular, Arnett highlights the residential status of

emerging adults. Emerging adults have the highest rates of residential change for any age

group.543 Statistics on residential changes during the 20s is emblematic of the instability

of emerging adults lives and the many profound changes that take place.544 Most young

Americans move out of their family home by 18 or 19. Over a third enter college full

542
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 12.
543
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 20.
544
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 9.

158
time and live year to year in dormitories and about 40% move away from home to live

independently, taking on work and school, often part-time.545 This instability is further

enhanced: For emerging adults, college education is often pursued in a non-linear way,

frequently combined with work and punctuated by periods of non-attendance.546

Emerging adults move away from home, move in with friends, move to a dorm,

sometimes cohabitating, but often moving every year. For nearly half of emerging adults,

at least one of these moves will be back in to live with their parents.547 Arnetts data

shows that emerging adults rarely know where they will be living from one year to the

next.548 And, for Arnett: Admist this diversity, perhaps the unifying feature of the

residential status of emerging adults is the instability of it.549

Another aspect of instability is what Arnett refers to as the Plan. Arnett states:

Emerging adults know they are supposed to have a Plan, with a capitol P, that is, some

kind of idea about the route they will be taking from adolescence to adulthood, and most

of them come up with one. However, for almost all of them, their Plan is subject to

numerous revisions during the emerging adult years.550 Plan revision and in some cases,

outright Plan disintegration, proved to be some of the most endearing sections of the

essays. One example is Marie:

I will get a four-year teaching degree while being very active on campus. I will
find the love of my life and get married directly following college. I will teach
for a few years and then have kids. I will then quit teaching and be a stay-at-
home mom until my kids are all old enough to go to school. I will live a happy
life and will do many good things. I willI will I will this was the
mentality I entered college with. I thought I had my life mapped out on a piece of

545
Of this group, 2/3rds cohabitate with a romantic partner.
546
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 21.
547
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 11.
548
Ibid., 11.
549
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 20.
550
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 10.

159
 paper and I believed that there was no possible way I would become a college
statistic and change my major at least one time. To make a long story short, I
have contemplated at least ten different majors, have decided that I have no idea
where I will end up, what I will be doing, or if I will even unite in marriage one
day. My a-ha moment was a gradual epiphany that led me to discover that it is
okay to say I dont know, it is okay to not have a clear vision of the future, and
that its okay to live here and now.

About twenty percent of the essays discuss a revision in their Plan. Arnett states, These

revisions are a natural consequence of their explorations..With each revision in the

Plan, they learn something about themselves and hopefully takes a step towards

clarifying the kind of future they want.551 June writes:

I came into college with the idea that I had everything figured out. I was going to
attend undergraduate for four years, obtain a degree in the sciences, and then go
on to medical school. This was the vision I had imagined since I was a little girl
and I was positive everything would go according to plan. My perfect, ideal
image began to quickly unravel when I started my job at the medical center.

Junes a-ha moment occurred when her work study job allowed her to gain a clearer

pictures of the life of a doctor. Unfortunately, it did not match up with the pretty photo

in my head. I then began to consider the question: What is it that makes me want to be a

doctor? I realized my answers to this question were very superficial and did not match

up to what made me really happy and full of life. Since this experience, I have begun

exploring different options. Although June comments that this experience was difficult,

even destabilizing, in the end it offered her the chance to explore different options. Bill

reflects that upon entering college as a freshman, I had plans of completing my four

years and then attending law school. This was something I had been thinking about for

some time; however, as I got into the routine of classes, I suddenly felt myself not so

excited by the thought of studying law.

551
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 10-11.

160
 A few of the essays discuss the issue of instability, particularly in their living

arrangements, relationships, and choices. For some students, just going to college is a

whirlwind: Even though I go to college less than an hour away from home, moving out,

setting my own rules and schedule, and meeting people who have a different background

than I has been an incredibly eye opening experience. The college experience, in

general, is described as a jarring and destabilizing experience: College has a way of

forcing you to figure things out that life had not yet filled you in on..The lessons

learned from experiences past or present dont grant you any credit hours but

complement the classroom diet to serve you a genuine education. Big questions are

being asked; Jeff describes the experience of being confronted by deep questions: For

the first time I questioned what it was exactly that I was going and what I was planning to

do with my life. Greg also laments: college is the time to figure out what the heck I am

going to do with the rest of my life. In the midst of all these big and important questions

personally, college itself is a shock. Patricia writes: Freshman year is quite possibly one

of the most intense emotional experiences facing traditional college students which is

an odd mixture of self-awareness and being completely adrift at the same time. Next,

William remarks that he experienced a kind of shock I encountered during my first few

weeks of college. And Tracey states that she experienced an intense feeling when she

move into her dorm: At that moment of oh crap, I realized that I was stepping out of

my comfort zone for the first time in my life. I didnt really know what I stood for, what

I believed in, or what talents I possessed to make me a unique contributor to my

community.

161
 Finally, instability is reflected in Katies statement that College is a time where

you do an incredible amount of growing in a short period of time. Sometimes huge

discoveries are made and other times circumstances change so rapidly that you can barely

keep up with yourself. For emerging adults, this is a stage of marked instability. Most

emerging adults do know where they will be living next year and the whirlwind

experience of college adds to this feeling of instability. Plans are made and re-made, or

sometimes dropped completely. Identity exploration, while a necessary and worthy task,

also brings with it times of insecurity and uncertainty.

Three: The Self-Focused Age

Emerging adulthood as a self-focused age is not meant pejoratively. For Arnett,

being self-focused is different than being self-centered. He explains:

Emerging adults are self-focused in the sense that they have little in the way of
social obligations, little in the way of duties and commitments to others, which
leaves them with a great deal of autonomy in running their own lives.552

Self-focused refers to emerging adults status as (often for the first time) autonomous

and independent from previous roles and commitments. He adds, Emerging adults are

not selfish or self-centered, by and large.553 Arnett is keen to point out that it is normal,

healthy, and temporary. By focusing on themselves, emerging adults develop skills for

daily living, gain a better understanding of who they are and what they want from life,

and begin to build a foundation for their adult lives.554 This self-focused nature is a

necessary step before commitment to enduring relationships with others in love and

work.

552
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 10.
553
Ibid., 10.
554
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 13.

162
 Again, the explorations in emerging adulthood are viewed as part of obtaining a

broad range of life experiences before taking on enduring and limiting adult

responsibilities.555 This absence of enduring role commitments makes experimentation

and exploration possible. This autonomy is reflected in research which demonstrates that

young Americans, age 19-29, spend more of their leisure time alone than any other

demographic except the elderly; furthermore, this group spends more of their time in

productive activities (school and work) alone than any other age group.556 Other reports

suggest that this age group reports greater feelings of loneliness than either adolescents or

adults.557 Arnett comments: The self-focused quality of emerging adulthood makes it

arguably the freest time of life, at least in terms of freedom from social obligations and

expectations. However, the flip side of this freedom is that emerging adults spend a

considerable amount of time alone during these self-focused years.

Emerging adults recognize that this period is a time in their life when they have

few commitments and have the freedom to experiment before they enter into the

permanent and enduring obligations of adulthood. This self-focused age is a time to test

self-sufficiency and the question of who am I? This self focused age is characterized by

few ties that entail daily obligations and commitment to others. I looked to the essays to

discern any essays that described a daily obligation or commitment to another person.

Families were rarely mentioned. Only one essay mentioned a husband while another

essay discussed a boyfriend, but otherwise, the essays lacked descriptions of significant

commitments to anyone other than themselves.

555
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 24.
556
Ibid., 24.
557
Arnett, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 189.

163
 Again, a theme in the essays is that college is about figuring yourself out and what

the heck to do with the rest of life. Julie states, that college it is during this time that

we make the decisions of what exactly we want to do with our lives. And because of the

nature of the essay question, all the essayists are very much self-focused in their

responses. Beth reflects that the nature of these a-ha moments that have helped me to

come to a deeper understanding of who I am and what my life is asking of me. Steve

remarks that in college he has been incredibly self-centered. Doug states that college

represents a time of independence and self-actualization. Many individuals utilize the

years to enhance themselves in various aspects of their lives; thus, emphasizing the

importance of effectively participating in the true college experience. The purpose of

college incorporates many things, including the idea of discovering interests and future

goals. Later, Doug states, I would encourage every college student to attain personal

growth, and to utilize the knowledge in future activities.

Four: The Age of Feeling In-Between

One of the reasons Arnett chose the term emerging adulthood was because it

described the way his interview subjects viewed themselves developmentally.558Arnett

explains:

The exploration and instability of emerging adulthood give it the quality of an

in- between period between adolescence, when most people live in their
parents home and are required to attend secondary school, and young adulthood,
when most people have entered into marriage and parenthood and have settled
into a stable occupational path.559

This feeling is best characterized as feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood. In

between the restrictions of adolescence and the responsibilities of adulthood lie the

558
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 11.
559
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 14.

164
explorations and instability of emerging adulthood.560 The term emerging refers to

feeling of being in-between, of not quite being an adult but no longer an adolescent.

In Arnetts research, he asks the question: Do you feel like you have reached

adulthood? The majority of respondents answer ambiguously in some respect yes, in

some respect no.561 Emerging adults feel in-between because of the criteria they

consider to be most important for becoming an adult. For emerging adults, there are three

basic criteria for adulthood: 1) accepting responsibility for yourself; 2) making

independent decisions; 3) becoming financially independent.562 Arnett discusses that this

list might differ from commonly held beliefs about adulthood and its milestones: full time

work, parenthood, the end of education, or getting married. Instead, emerging adults

perceive adulthood on criteria that are reached gradually, instead of milestone events.

The criteria for adulthood are transition events rather than discrete events. Therefore,

Arnett states that While they are in the process of developing those qualities they feel as

if they are in between adolescence and full adulthood.563

The essays do not necessarily mention directly this feeling of being in-between

as Arnett suggests; however, underlying many of the essays is a tension about how to

describe their stage of life. For example, one essayist wonders: I wonder if its not more

that were young adults entering a new phase in life than that were college students.

This is the same new phase in life that Arnett is referring to in his research. Later Ann

adds that I feel most in limbo between the worlds of home and school and (future) career

560
Ibid., 14.
561
Arnett, Readings on Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, 21.
562
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 12 and Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 15.
563
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 12.

165
as the times when I am most ready to look at myself and who Im becoming, and the

times when I am most creative.

However, my own anecdotal evidence serves to highlight the feeling of in-

between that Arnetts research describes. In May of 2007, I taught a theology class titled

Theology and the Search for Identity at Hanover College. Because they were cohorts of

the essay group, I asked these students the same question Arnett posed: Do you feel like

you have reached adulthood? Most of the students responded no. I followed up with the

question: If you are not adults, are you adolescents? Absolutely not! The students were

actually offended that I would call them adolescents and balked at this label as even

being applicable. Adolescents were tween-agers and even though most were 18 or 19

years old (and recognized themselves as still technically teenagers), they still felt they

were worlds apart from adolescents. Given a choice between the two, almost all of the

students would rather be considered an adult, rather than an adolescent. We discussed

other terms young adult, youth, late adolescence, and transition to adulthood and I

suggested the term emerging adulthood. The students seemed lukewarm about this being

a fitting description, with one student who was a biology major remarking that it

sounded like how they refer to insects or pupae as they emerge from their shell.

Although the class was a bit repelled by the pupae reference, I thought the emerging form

of a butterfly was quite an apt metaphor.

Five: The Age of Possibilities

Emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities in two ways. One, this period is a

time of great optimism and high hopes for the future. Arnett references a national survey

where 96% of 18-24 year old Americans agreed with the statement: I will get to where I

166
want to be in life.564 Two, emerging adulthood represents a crucial opportunity for

young people who have experienced difficult conditions in their family lives to move

away from home and to steer their lives in a different and more favorable directions

before they enter the commitments in love and work that structure an adult life.565

Emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities because it represents a chance for young

people to transform their lives, free themselves from family commitments, and try to

create their lives in a new and better direction.

This age of possibilities is characterized by a lack of commitments to a person or

network where, instead, many potential futures are map-able. It is during this time that

dramatic changes can take place and emerging adults can transform themselves.

Emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities, when many different futures remain

open, when little about a persons direction in life has been decided for certain.566 For

the first time in their lives, emerging adults are on their own both literally and

figuratively, and they have opportunity to change their lives in profound ways. Family

backgrounds and contexts which so defined the person in the past are now cast off;

instead, new identities and the investigation of new possibilities are embraced.

The best example of this age of new possibilities is the essay I nick-named the

adventure gal. The enthusiasm in her essay is palpable: she is excited to finally be

independent. I could go wherever, whenever. The consequences would no longer be

enforced by the parents, teachers, or small town gossips. Far, far away from home

without any plane ticket until Christmas, I was independent!! She remarks that the

adventurous streak was a new realization and its impetus came from a graduation gift she

564
Arnett, Emerging Adults in America, 13.
565
Ibid., 13.
566
Arnett, Emerging Adulthood, 16.

167
received from her youth group leaders. On a frame with a picture of the group was a word

meant to correspond to each persons real personality. Her frame was inscribed with

the word adventure: 1) a daring hazardous undertaking; 2) an unusual, exciting, often

suspenseful experience. Part of her a-ha moment is the realization that college is her

new adventure: College is a wonderful adventure for me, and my first semester was

palpable. Each day I was excited to learn something new, whether in the classroom or in

recreation. Her excitement is clear: college offers a completely new environment to

explore possibilities as well as the freedom to do it!

These new possibilities and options can be a bit frightening and anxiety provoking

as well. Tina remarks, For the first time, my future seems to be entirely in my hands,

and yet I feel more out of control than ever before. I like to have a plan, and

contemplating a future of many choices (and the known and unknown consequences of

those choices) is unsettling. This is the anxiety that colors my thoughts during these first

weeks of school. Neil remarks: I grew up in a very small town and went to high school

in which I practically knew everybody. Therefore, it was a big struggle for me coming to

college and knowing only one other person. Shelia comments: As a freshman at

college, one of the main things I tried to do was make new friends, try new things and

step out of my comfort zone. In the age of possibilities, it is possible to step out of

comfort zones, and although this can cause some discomfort, there is also great optimism

and high hopes for the future. Overall, the age of possibilities represents developmental

transformation as emerging adults try and create their lives in new and better directions.

In closing, these essayists are best described developmentally as emerging adults.

Evidence gleaned from the essays matches the themes of Arnetts five developmental

168
markers. Issues surrounding identity exploration, instability, possibilities, and being self-

focused dominate the essays. Rather than described developmentally as adolescents or

young adults, emerging adults is a better and more fitting description. Because of distinct

biological and cultural changes, emerging adulthood is literally a new phase in life. For

the purpose of this dissertation, I will henceforth refer to the essayists as emerging adults

in terms of their psychosocial development.

An aside: This summer, I sat at a kitchen table with two women, one in her

eighties and the other well in her seventies. They had asked what I had been working on,

so I decided to tell them about emerging adulthood as a new developmental period. In

short, they were disgusted and appalled. I heard a litany of things they had done by the

age of twenty, much less by thirty, which included being married, having kids, and

careers. They couldnt believe how late people were starting their lives and seemed

quite averse to the twenties as an age period of personal exploration. They sounded a lot

like Tom Ashbrook from before: come off it. Get a job. Get going! As I sat there and

listened to the growing list of things they had accomplished and done at my age I was

thirty-five I realized that I, too, was perhaps technically still an emerging adult.

Because I was unmarried, job-less, with no kids, and still in graduate school, I was still

not an adult. If adulthood meant a full-time job and family, then I am an emerging adult,

too.

I certainly spent most of my college years, and those after, exploring different

jobs and contexts, living in places Viriginia to Hawaii, doing what some still call trying

to find yourself in Wyoming. In many ways, learning and researching on emerging

adulthood allowed me to have a better understanding for why I did the things I did and

169
what was actually pushing me to do things that at the time seemed absurd and against the

grain. I remember my parents asking me: are you on crazy? But I wasnt crazy: if Arnett

is correct, I was experiencing a crucial period of development where exploration and

finding yourself is not only important, but should be encouraged. I had a lot empathy

for these essayists as they described their exploration and searches. It seems clear to me

that developmentally, at least in industrialized countries, exploring possibilities and new

contexts is the new standard for this college age period.

170
 CHAPTER V

OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY

It is not too late. It is never too late to do what you dream of doing. You have a choice to make, dear.
Today, you have a choice to make. You can continue to sell these bagels for the rest of your life. Or you can
quit life as you know it and go to school. You can choose to follow your dream. Either way, today you have
to decide.

A clear pattern appeared upon my first reading of the essays: in ninety percent of

the essays, the presence of another person or group of people was central to the persons

a-ha moment. At first glance, this is surprising because the question (what has been your

biggest a-ha moment?) seems to elicit a kind of singular response and self revelation. So

why bother mentioning anyone else? Looking at their responses, it becomes immediately

clear that relationships are pivotal in engendering a-ha moments for these emerging

adults. My own coursework focused on the importance of relationships and their

influence on healthy development. According to object relations theory (ORT), ones

primary drive is towards relationships, not towards pleasure or power. Humans are

fundamentally relational creatures driven to seek relationships with others; furthermore,

this primacy of relation-seeking occurs throughout life, according to ORT. Using this

theoretical lens, I test the utility of this theory with the experiences described in the

essays. If relationships are so important, what kinds of relationships are present in the

essays? Furthermore, what kinds of relationships are reported in relation to their

formative moment?

171
 Effective History: Object Relations Theory

Like many fields, object relations theory (ORT) is an academic area that defies a

quick and easy definition. In Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, Jay Greenberg

and Stephen Mitchell posit ORT is a troublesome term that has been used in many

different contexts and with any number of different connotations and denotations,

resulting in considerable ambiguity and confusion.567 ORT coursework with Volney

Gay defined the field as those contemporary schools of psychoanalytic thought, often

stemming from British authors Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, which focus

attention upon the ways in which relationships, object relations, between parent and

child deeply influence the intrapsychic realm.568 For Gay, an object is an actual, external

person, thing, or other being important to a person; object representations refer to

conscious and unconscious images of an external object.569 John McDargh states that

ORT gives pride of place to personal relationships as the matrix within which the human

psyche is formed, and as the model for its subsequent operation.570 Central to ORT is the

idea that a persons primary motivational drive is to seek relationship with others.571

Human beings are relationship-seeking, not pleasure-seeking, and the end goal is a

relationship with another human being.

567
Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (Harvard University
Press, 1983), 12.
568
Volney Gay, Glossary of Technical Terms and References, Post-Freudian Theory and Religion (GDR
3061, Fall 2003), 6.
569
Gay states: Like the development of the libido, the development of object relations progresses from an
intensely narcissistic focus through the cathexis of part-objects, to the possibility of fully mature
relationships between the whole beings. Volney Gay, Winnicotts Contribution to Religious Studies: The
Resurrection of the Culture Hero, Journal of the American Academy of Religion LI/3: 379.
570
John McDargh, Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory and the Study of Religion (New York:
University Press of America, 1983), 17, original emphasis.
571
Anthony Bateman and Jeremy Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory and
Practice (New York: Routledge, 1995), 41.

172
 For Charles Gerkin, the term object relations is an extension of Freudian

language where the concept of object is used to primarily designate a person toward

which the individual develops a significant attitude or relationship.572 Because Freud

understood our basic drive to be a pleasure- seeking drive, he constructed hypotheses

about objects in relation to sexual and aggressive drives.573 For Freud, drive is a

physical force that seeks an object to reduce and relieve bodily tension and aggression.

ORT proposes a different primary drive: although still object-seeking, this drive is

towards relationship with an object not an impersonal energy discharge. The basic

human drive is towards relationships with others. Humans are object-seeking, not

pleasure seeking. For ORT, there is a fundamental need for relationships and all

development takes place within the context of these relationships.

The rise of ORT in psychoanalysis is also associated with a shift of interest

towards developmental issues, particularly in infants.574 And it is Freuds theories on

infants and children (particularly their sexuality, such as the Oedipus complex) that are

most often critically dismissed. Greenberg and Mitchell state: Freuds initial inquiry into

the meaning behind the neurotic symptoms of adults had led to some elaborate system of

unforeseen and rather staggering hypotheses concerning the emotional life of

children.575 Freud never studied children directly, or had a therapeutic relationship with

a child. So, it is little surprising that a woman who was also a mother would

fundamentally challenge Freuds legacy.

572
Charles Gerkin, Living Human Document, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1984), 82.
573
Mitchell and Black explain: oral libido arises in the oral cavity (its source), creates a need for sucking
activity (its aim), and becomes targeted towards and attached to something such as a breast (its object),
which is required for satisfaction. See: Stephen Mitchell and Margaret Black, Freud and Beyond: A
History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought (New York: Basic Books, 1996), 13.
574
Peter Fongay, Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis (New York: Other Press, 2001), 80.
575
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 119.

173
 Melanie Klein

Throughout her career as a clinician, Melanie Klein developed her basic position

that drives are inherently and inseparably directed towards objects.576 Instead of a

pleasure-seeking drive, Klein postulated an object-seeking drive. By redefining the nature

of drive to include built-in human objects, Klein fundamentally altered the basic

premises and metaphors underlying psychoanalytic theorizing.577 For Klein, the drives

are essentially psychological forces, not physical forces, which use the body as a vehicle

for expression. The basic units of mental processes are not packets of objectless energy,

but relational units.578 Klein concluded that the basic human drive was towards objects,

and relationships with those objects; furthermore, all development takes place and has

meaning within the context of those relationships. Kleins theory resulted in a

fundamental shift in vision concerning human motivation, development, and mental

processes.579

Klein came to these conclusions as a divorced mother with four children who

described herself as a psychological invalid until she first read Freud on dreams.580 In

1910, she went into analysis with Sandor Fereczi, one of Freuds closest and most

influential disciples. With his approval, she began to apply the Freudian techniques of

analysis with children and in 1919, Klein presented her first paper.581 Klein postulated

576
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 138
577
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 113.
578
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 138.
579
Ibid., 137.
580
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 13. (?)
581
Ibid, 86.

174
that by observing play, interpretation can be used to understand the childs mind; that is,

children are analyzable. This seemingly simple conclusion was the source of a

vituperative conflict with Anna Freud, who argued that children are not analyzable

because their weak and undeveloped egos cannot handle deep interpretation of instinctual

conflict.582 Klein was publicly denounced, yet her supporters grew fiercer. Many critics

accused Klein of distorting and betraying the basic principles of psychoanalytic theory.

The conflict culminated in the 1940s with a three-way split in the British Psychoanalytic

Society: A Group (loyal to Freud), B Group (loyal to Klein), and the middle group

(which included people like Winnicott who did not choose either side).583

Klein, until her death, firmly believed and openly stated that her ideas were

completely commensurate with Freud. And Freud, until his death, refused to

acknowledge any of Kleins contributions.584 What Klein contributed, particularly to this

discussion, is the recognition of the importance of relationships and that humans are

fundamentally object-seeking, rather than pleasure-seeking. Objects are basic and

essential; drives are inherently and inseparably directed and aimed towards objects. The

primary activity of the libido is object-seeking, not pleasure-seeking; therefore, the

strongest motive in life is to seek relationships, not an impersonal energy discharge. A

relationship is an end in and of itself, not a means towards the end of gratification.585 In

brief, Klein reformulated the concept of drive to be primarily directed towards

relationships with objects. Because of these conclusions, Klein has been referenced as

582
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 86.
583
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 120.
584
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 144.
585
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 115.

175
one of the most original and challenging thinkers in the history of psychoanalysis.586

David Scharff claims that Kleins power of observation and thinking has come to be

perhaps the greatest single force for psychoanalytic observation since Freud.587 Philip

Cushman contends that Klein was one of the most colorful, outspoken, and creative

psychotherapists and that her worked so shocked the psychoanalytic community that

some ideas are still too radical to be embraced.588

Kleins ideas continue as bedrock for many object relation theorists. Klein formed

her theory from direct observation of children and used extensive clinical illustrations.589

And it is evident that the rise of ORT was associated with a shift of interest towards the

developmental issues of infants.590 John McDargh states:

The insight central to this perspective is that the person is not constituted by the
isolated play of impersonal instinctual energies, but the inter-play of human
persons both as those relationships actually occur in the world and as they are
carried on in conscious and unconscious fantasy, or we might say, internalized.591

ORT holds that humans, from the very beginning, are motivated by a fundamental need

for relationships and that all development takes place and has meaning within the context

of relationships. In short, human beings have a biological readiness to form relationships.

586
Anthony Bateman and Jeremy Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory and
Practice (New York: Routledge, 1995), 38.
587
David Scharff, Object Relations Theory and Practice (New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1996), 3.
588
Philip Cushman, Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1996), 192.
589
Scharff, Object Relations Theory and Practice, 3.
590
Fongay, Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis, 80.
591
McDargh, Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory and the Study of Religion, 17.

176
 Donald Woods Winnicott

These same ideals were inherited by Donalds Woods Winnicott, who studied with

and was supervised by Klein for about six years.592 Winnicott was supervised by Klein

from about 1936-40. As I stated previously, in 1940, the British Psychoanalytic Society

split. Winnicott did not join B Group which was loyal to Klein in her feud with Anna

Freud. Winnicott joined the C group that refused to take sides. Its a curious situation,

particularly because Winnicott did support Kleins claims that children were analyzable.

However, this alliance with the C group reportedly doomed his therapeutic relationship

with Klein.593 Other accounts state that Klein wanted Winnicott to analyze her son under

her own supervision. He refused, thus ending their relationship. However, later,

Winnicott did analyze Kleins son, but not under anyones supervision but his own.

Winnicott was foremost a pediatrician and although he became a psychoanalyst,

he continued to work with children throughout his analytic career. His work largely

focused on human-to-human relating, but specifically on the infant-mother interaction;

like Klein, he formed theory from observation in his clinical work. Also like Klein,

Winnicott used play as a way of analyzing and understanding the inhabited world of the

child. One famous technique is Winnicotts squiggle game where squiggles are turned

playfully into pictures by both the therapist and the child. For Winnicott, playing is a

universal activity and situated firmly in the realm of healthy activity.594

592
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 190.
593
Ibid., 190.
594
Scharff, Object Relations Theory and Practice, 257.

177
 Winnicott has been typified as the first major theorist to fully appreciate the role

of the mother in the psychological development of the child.595 He was sure that the

secrets of the human being were contained in the intimate space between caretaker and

infant in the early months and years of life.596 Because object relationships are initially

formed during early interactions between infants and primary caregivers, Winnicott

studied the early relationship between mother and child. For Winnicott, an infant cannot

develop into a full person without the mothers management; without this principle

human relationship, a false self results. Because the quality of the infants experience of

the earliest months is crucial for the emergence of personhood, he often stated that his

aim was to give young mothers support and guidance; to this end, he is credited with the

concept of the good enough mother.597 It is also clear, however, that Winnicott took

care to state that the role of the mother can be any person who acts as the primary

caregiver. Perhaps it is more appropriate to say that Winnicott helped to encourage and

support the good enough caregiver.

Greenberg and Mitchell comment on the uniqueness of Winnicotts language and

style when they state:

Winnicott, an extremely innovative and influential contributor to the development

of psychoanalytic theory and practice, has provided an intricate, subtle, and often
powerfully poetic account of the development of the self out of its relational
matrix.598

In this sense, Winnicotts work rests solidly within a relational paradigm. Winnicott

designated three forms of experience needed by the infant: objective reality, subjective

595
Bruce Brodie, Adolescence and Delinquency: An Object Relations Theory Approach (New York:
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2007), 98.
596
Cushman, Constructing the Self, Constructing America, 253.
597
Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 125.
598
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 189.

178
experience, and transitional experience.599 Freud dichotomized the world into two areas:

reality/truth and falsity/delusion. Winnicott moved beyond this dichotomy by proposing a

third area: transitional space.600 In transitional space, a transitional object helps the infant

to navigate the area between objective reality and subjective reality; transitional objects

can take on a variety of forms: a blanket, favorite teddy bear or imaginary friend.601

Transitional objects are important because of the relationship the child has with the

object, representing a developmental way station between hallucinatory omnipotence

and the recognition of objective reality.602 For Winnicott, the analytical setting provides

a safe place to play with transitional objects; therapy centered on the therapist and patient

playing together as a way to foster growth through play.603 Creativity allows for the

reconciliation of the inner and outer world because for Winnicott, humans are basically

good and playful creatures.

Winnicotts Playing and Reality begins with a chapter on transitional objects and

moves on to discuss playing, both theoretically and as a creative activity. Interestingly

enough, Winnicott ends the book with a chapter titled, Contemporary Concepts of

Adolescent Development and their Implication for Higher Education.604 Before

becoming his final chapter, Winnicott originally gave this as an address to college

599
James Jones states: Winnicott struggled to move beyond Freuds nineteenth-century dichotomy of
reason and imagination, objectivity and subjectivity, by the articulation of a third, or transitional, realm,
rooted in interpersonal experience. James Jones, Religion and Psychology (New Haven, MA: Yale
University Press, 1996), 112.
600
Jones, Religion and Psychology, 129.
601
Mitchell and Black state, The transitional object, with its paradoxical ambiguity, cushions the fall from
a world where the childs desires omnipotently actualize their objects to one where desires require
accommodation to and collaboration of others to be fulfilled. Mitchell and Black, Freud and Beyond, 128.
602
Greenberg and Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, 195.
603
Gerkin also makes a direct connection between Winnicotts transitional objects and hermeneutic theory.
Gerkin, Living Human Document, 83-85.
604
During the time of his writing, adolescence was considered to end at 24, which Winnicott also assumed.

179
students.605 Along with giving these students advice on how to raise their children,

Winnicott discusses their developmental immaturity.606 He remarks rather ironically on

even commenting on the audiences immaturity:

I confess that I am insulting this subject by talking about it. The more easily we
verbalize, the less are we effectual. Imagine someone talking down to adolescents
and saying to them: The exciting part of you is your immaturity! This would be
a gross example of failure to meet the adolescent challenge.607

Again, Winnicott gave this last chapter originally as an address to college students, who

were still considered to be adolescents. And adolescents are immature. But this is a great

thing, says Winnicott. He states:

What I am stating (dogmatically in order to be brief) is that the adolescent is

immature. Immaturity is an essential element of health at adolescence. There is
only one cure for immaturity and that is the passage of time and the growth into
maturity that time may bring.608

This immaturity is a precious and exciting thing, according to Winnicott, because it is

here where we find idealism, creativity, new and fresh feelings, and a potential for new

living. Also during this time of immaturity, relationships in terms of friendships and peer

groups have prime significance. Friends and peer groups aid in cultivating creativity and

potentiality: They have not yet settled down into disillusionment and the corollary of

this is that they are free to formulate ideal plans.609 And, its a time that is all about

growth: adolescence implies growth, and this growth takes time.610

605
This address was part of a symposium given at the 21st Annual Meeting of the British Student Health
Association at Newcastle upon Tyne, July 18, 1968. It should also be noted that Winnicott uses inclusive
language by referring both to boys and girls. See: Donald Woods Winnicott, Playing and Reality (New
York: Routledge, 1971), 138-150.
606
Winnicott, Playing and Reality, 146.
607
Ibid., 147.
608
Ibid.,149, original emphasis.
609
Ibid.
610
Ibid.

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 Winnicott explores the nature of immaturity and believes there is a particular need

by the adolescent for confrontation with an adult. For him, what counts is that the

adolescents challenge be met.611 Winnicott discusses the concept of confrontation and

understands this as a meeting of the adolescent challenge; more specifically:

The word confrontation is used here to mean that a grown-up person stands up
and claims the right to have a personal point of view, one that may have the
backing of other grown-up people.612

Winnicott is clear that adolescents need to be confronted by adults; further, Winnicott

states: If the adult abdicate, the adolescent becomes prematurely, and by false process,

adult.613 Because of its relevance in my analysis, I will continue to quote Winnicott at

length as his language is quite unique. This paragraph is titled Summary and is found

on the very last page of Playing and Reality:

In brief, it is exciting that adolescence has become vocal and active, but the
adolescent striving that makes itself felt over the whole world today needs to be
met, needs to be given reality by an act of confrontation. Confrontation must be
personal. Adults are needed if adolescents are to have life and liveliness.
Confrontation belongs to containment that is non-retaliatory, without
vindictiveness, but having its own strength. It is salutary to remember that the
present student unrest and its manifest expression may be in part a product of the
attitude we are proud to have attained towards baby care, and child care. Let the
young alter society and teach grownups how to see the world afresh; but, where
there is the challenge of the growing boy or girl, there let an adult meet the
challenge. And it will not necessarily be nice. In the unconscious fantasy these are
matters of life and death.614

Adolescents are vocal and active but they also need to be confronted; adults are needed to

to personally confront adolescents. Confrontation is not hostile or vindictive, but not

necessarily nice. Adults are needed in the lives of college students if they are to have life

and liveliness. Winnicotts insights into the significance of adults, specifically those

611
Ibid., 147.
612
Ibid.
613
Ibid.,146.
614
Ibid., 150.

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who will guide and challenge the growing girl or boy becomes an important category in

my analysis. Winnicott is clear that personal confrontation is necessary and should occur

within the context of an adult relationship. Simply put, when there is a challenge, let an

adult meet the challenge. This insight certainly rang true in the essays that I read. Nearly

a quarter of the essays mention what Winnicott calls an adult. And often, this adult or

mentor steps in to provide pivotal support in a challenging time. Again, in this section,

Winnicott subtly identifies three basic categories of relationships during this time of

immaturity: friends, peers, and adults.

Examining the Essays: Object Relations Theory

But first, I want to be clear about the key ideals and presuppositions of the ORT lens I

use to view the essays. It is important to summarize the basic tenets of ORT as a way to

develop a historical effective consciousness, or situatedness, of this perspective. Key

assumptions and ideals of ORT are stated in the following claims:

Human beings primary drive is towards relationship with others

Human beings are object-seeking rather than pleasure-seeking
This fundamental need for relationship is at the center of human development
All development takes place and has meaning in the context of relationships

This last statement is of crucial importance because it gives partial explanation as to why

relationships are mentioned in the context of the a-ha moment: development and

formation take place and have meaning within the context of relationships. Human beings

are fundamentally relational creatures who require and need relationships. This

fundamental need for relationship is at the center of human development and the essays

reflect the importance of those relationships. Looking through this lens of ORT, what

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relationships are present in the essays? Who is mentioned and what relationships are

influential in the a-ha moment? If relationships are our primary drive, what kinds of

relationships are portrayed in the essays?

Relationships were not difficult to spot: almost ninety of the essays mentioned a

specific relationship and most mentioned more than one relationship. The remaining six

essays that did not mention one or more relationships featured a particular text or idea

that changed the way they thought. For example, one student describes a dream about

God. These are objects to be sure, and of interest to ORT, but I limited my investigation

to relationships with other people. When more than one relationship was mentioned, I

tried to focus on the most important and influential relationship discussed. Again, the

question posed to the essayist was: what has been your biggest a-ha moment in college?

This question asks about a seemingly singular experience, so it seems curious that other

people would have such a widespread impact on these reported experiences. It is clear

from the essays that relationships with other people are highly influential on the

formation of these emerging adults.

What is also interesting: who is not mentioned in the essays. Parents were rarely if

ever mentioned, and if they were mentioned, it was usually in passing as a way to impart

information. A parent as a key relationship did not occur in any of the essays;

furthermore, there are few references to family members in general. Another relationship

that was absent: the role of a boyfriend or girlfriend as a romantic relationship. Only one

essay mentioned a boyfriend and his importance in the context of her a-ha moment;

beyond that one example, significant romantic relationships were simply not discussed.

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 If parents, family, and romantic relationships were not influential relationships,

what kinds of relationships are influential? Using Winnicott and his reflections on

students in higher education as a guide, three kinds of influential relationships appeared:

friends, peer groups, and adults. These three categories accounted for the main

relationships described in all 42 essays. A friend, or close set of friends (including one

boyfriend), is mentioned in almost thirty percent of the essays. Another 30% of essays

mentioned adults, like professors, pastors, youth leaders, advisors, and coaches. Finally,

peer groups, which are generally a cluster of students with a common interest, accounted

for more than 40% of the formative relationships mentioned in the essays.

Adults

Because of Winnicott, I was interested in the role of the adult in the essays. There

were thirteen responses that directly mentioned an adult, usually acting as a professor,

minister, coach, or counselor. However, none of the essays scored the adult as a parent. In

fact, as discussed above, parents are rarely mentioned in the essays and when they are, it

is a way to pass on information.615 In the essays, relationships with adults range from the

most intimate of relationships, as with a counselor or minister, to what appears to be

random yet powerful interactions with an adult who is a stranger.

In these stories, adults appear as mentors who encourage the student to see

themselves, others, or a situation in a new and different light. For example, Henry

describes his pivotal moment as a result of his professors urging that he, too, was a

scholar and therefore, I should confront every aspect of my education with this mode of

thinking. As a result of this encouragement to be a scholar, Henry increased his GPA

615
In two cases, family relationships are revealed by way of introduction: my parents are ministers or my
familys business. In another case, a mom is relieved after Lindsay changes her major.

184
and felt a renewed sense of confidence. A new kind of determination arose and Henry

began to visualize life in a manner that I have never thought of before.616 Another

student, Michael, mentions a professor who mentors a small group of students. Through

his mentoring us has created a safe place for me to try and make sense of my little aha!

moments, in turn causing many other mini aha moments. Similar powerful accounts

include how a counselor gave an insightful interpretation, a coach who was helpful

during a difficult time, and a youth leaders impact.

However, another trend appears within the adult category. In three cases, the adult

is a complete stranger who lends unsolicited advice and help. One example is Sharon,

who was languishing at her job at a bagel shop. One morning, a half hour before opening

time, an older man rudely and persistently tapped at the window: He was the stranger

who changed my life. He orders rather abruptly and conversation reveals that he is a

doctor who trains surgical students. Sharon blurts out that she always wanted to go to

medical school, but then offers a litany of excuses as to why it would never work.

Thats no excuse, he said after I completed my rehearsed list. It is not too late.
It is never too late to do what you dream of doing. You have a choice to make,
dear. Today, you have a choice to make. You can continue to sell these bagels for
the rest of your life. Or you can quit life as you know it and go to school. You can
choose to follow your dream. Either way, today you have to decide. He reached
for a piece of register tape scribbled a name and phone number on it and reached
for my hand. He pressed the folded paper into my left palm and smiled, saying,
Call that number and speak to the woman. Tell her everything you have told me
and she will help you get into school. And with that, he pushed the door open
and walked out.

Sharon called the number and was enrolled in a pre-med program that day. She goes on

to address all the different experiences that she has now had in the medical field, all

because some seemingly grumpy doctor wanted his bagel early that morning. It is a

616
Henry adds, I forever appreciate the profound impact that Professor J. had on my life.

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powerful story and one that demonstrates the power of what can be described as a

lightning strike encounter: brief, powerful, and out of nowhere. This story certainly

calls attention to the role of an adult and the act of confrontation. This stranger, impatient

with his need for his early morning coffee, prompts her in an act of confrontation with an

opportunity that was personal and straight-forward. It is interesting to note that this adult

is a stranger, not an adult with a long standing connection, but a relationship that can be

impactful as a result of a single encounter and the kindness of a stranger. Another

example of this kind of encounter with an adult is Hillary as she discusses an elderly

gentleman who struck up conversation with her in the book store one day. Even though

she had another major, he insisted, No, I think that you should be a nurse. He didnt

have any good rationale for why I should be a nurse other than he thought that I would be

good at it. The stranger was persistent and the strange conversation stayed with her. The

story unfolds with a crisis about her choice in major and through some twists and turns,

she recalls this conversation and becomes a nursing major. Now I honestly cannot

imagine myself doing anything else and I find great peace in that.

Winnicott is certainly on point when he observes that adults are needed to

confront the needs of the burgeoning group and the challenges they face. Certainly adults

are needed to help students flourish in their idealism, creativity, and potential for new

living. Mentors, coaches, ministers, counselors, and even strangers are described by the

essayists as having a direct impact on their a-ha moments. Roughly thirty percent of the

essayists mention an adult as pivotal in their formative moment. And interestingly

enough, an adult does not need to function as a long-standing or persistent conversation

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partner. Some of the most powerful stories are complete strangers who confront them and

tell them to follow their dreams.

Peer Groups

Peer groups are a larger group of acquaintances, usually found within the same

cohort group and often within the presence of particular activities. Peer groups can

develop in the context of classes, social service trips, study abroad communities, youth

groups, and even a flag football game. But more than just the activity, peer groups

represent communities of people with whom an attachment is made, usually in

connection with a common interest or experience. But what these groups have in

common is the powerful formative force that occurs when surrounded by a group of like

minded people with a common goal. Peer groups also scored the most essays of any

category, with a total of 18 responses.

Winnicott states that students in higher education need to prod society repeatedly

so that societys antagonism is made manifest and can be met with antagonism.617

Although not overt, this sense of antagonism challenging commonly held social mores

and attitudes was present in a few of these essays. Rather the power of the group to take

a stand or make a statement was described. One student, Rosala, states that as a part of

her experience with a social service group, the relationships she encountered challenged

her commonly held beliefs and perceptions. She states: This discovery was an aha!

moment for me the personal relationships I developed at college completely changed

my perception of the social problems people face each day in our society. In turn, she

was made more aware of the actual problems of the world prodding society and finding

617
Donald Woods Winnicott, Adolescence: Struggling through the Doldrums, in The Family and
Individual Development (London: Tavistock Books, 1965), 47.

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it lacking. Another student echoes Rosalas sentiment about her study abroad experience,

I never expected the challenges and discoveries that I would encounter when I entered

the group.

One riveting essay is about Claires adventure into something she had never done

before: acting. Participating in a production of Vaginia Monologues offered her an

opportunity to raise a voice with a literal chorus of voices to push the boundaries of

sexuality. Being on stage opening night was possibly the most amazing night of my life

and the closing number involved a dance:

As we froze at the end of the dance and the applause swept over us and the lights
beat down on us and the energy radiated off of us. I felt infinite. I experienced
such a powerful formative feeling in that moment: I was making a statement
through my involvement and my commitment. I was working to create a change
in our world a change I truly believed in. I involved myself with a group of
other people equally committed to this cause. And I was involved in something
bigger than myself so inconceivably bigger than little, insignificant me. This
moment may not seem momentous, but it served to spur me to action and groups
on other causes I believe in.

For Claire, her a-ha moment was the powerful formative feeling of making a statement

through her involvement and commitment in something bigger than herself. Claire was

creating social change through her performance with the group; additionally, she felt

compelled to go on to other groups and causes she believed in. Rosala and Claires

experiences demonstrate that these collective efforts result in powerful events that impact

the community.

Other students reflect on how being part of a group can help feel like changing

the world. Brian reflects on the powerful feeling of fellowship, both with God and Gods

creation, by taking part in a game of capture the flag. Samuel discusses the deep

communal presence he felt while involved in a Quaker meeting. Paul describes a

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powerful feeling of fellowship, both with God and Gods creation, by taking part in the

liturgical practices of his church. Denise describes the power of the authentic

relationships I encountered in true community living. Living in community and taking

part in meaningful fellowship activities in the context of a peer group appeared in more

than 40% of the essays and scored the highest percent of any category.

Friends

The final category consists of friends either a single friend or a small set of

intimate relationships developed over time. In thirty percent of the essays, a friend was

the central relationship in the a-ha moment. This category also includes romantic

relationships, although only one is mentioned. However, as opposed to the other two

categories, the relationship with a friend is not always positive. For example, a rich friend

flippantly refuses to donate money to Darfur; Michelle wonders if she really is such a

good friend. Another student, Jill, discusses the suicide attempt of a friend. Jill realizes

that apart from taking her to the hospital, she cannot save her friend. In these two cases,

and others, it is clear that the relationship involving a friend is certainly impactful, but not

always in positive ways. Rather, certain difficulties arise within the context of friendships

that do not occur as clearly in the adult and peer group categories.

Friends are important because they offer feedback and honest reactions to difficult

situations. And friends are more than just acquaintances and are, in fact, the most

intimate of any of the relationship categories. One touching story written by Dave focuses

on helping his friend after his father is killed. Not only does Dave learn much more about

his friend, but Dave also learns a lot about himself and his ability to help a friend in need.

Another student, Isaac, reflects on how his experience find its roots in a small group of

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friends who shared a common interest in theology.I never expected the challenges and

discoveries that I would encounter when I entered the group. And finally, Sayidama

reflects on waking up before sunrise with her friend on Sehri, the opening of the fast of

the holy month of Ramadan. The two share a meal together and decide to take a stroll

before prayer begins: We walk a few blocks and happen to see a pack of deer and then

decide to run after them flaying arms to see where they went, a very silly act but one of

the most carefree moments of my young life. In that moment, even though our behavior

was quite extraordinary, nothing mattered but the fulfillment and happiness I gained and

shared. It is that gaining and sharing within the relationship of a close friendship that

influences the context of the a-ha moment.

In conclusion, relationships offer powerful formative forces in the world of

emerging adults. Central to their description of an a-ha moment is the inclusion of a

significant relationship with an adult, peer group, or a friend. These three categories

occur in forty-two of the essays, nearly ninety percent of the responses. Certain

relationships, like family, are barely mentioned at all: A simple conclusion might be that

in terms of the formation of emerging adults, parents and romantic relationships are not

influential relationships. Adults as mentors, coaches, and counselors occur in a third of

the essays; however, these formative relationships do not need to be long-standing or

consistent. Some relationships with adults are confrontations reported like a lightning

strike: fast, utterly unpredictable, and with long standing effects. Relationships in a peer

group represent a community of people with which an attachment is made and within

which powerful moments transpire. The most frequently reported category of

relationships, peer groups, are often described as a vehicle with which to join together to

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challenge the status quo. A-ha moments within peer groups often describe feeling a part

of something bigger than the self. Finally, the involvement of friends scored roughly

thirty percent of the reported a-ha moments. Friends appear to be the most challenging of

the relationships because a few of the essays describe a difficult experience with a friend

as a part of the a-ha moment. Friends are also the most intimate of the categories and

include romantic relationships. In summary, relationships are of crucial importance in the

formative moments of emerging adults.

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 CHAPTER XI

CRISIS
Confronted with death, I lost my spiritual identity again because I could not comprehend
how the God that I had known all of my life would suddenly throw me into such a testI
became spiritually dormantI fought violently with my emotions, feeling incapable of
being loved or loving others. -- Amanda, essayist

One surprise embedded in the essays was the repeated description of a negative

event. Two-thirds of the essayists responded to the question by discussing a negative or

inimical experience. For example, one essayist admits:

I became spiritually dormant. I was caught between a nether world where Gods
existence seemed futile and my own understanding of Gods role no longer
coalesced with reality.I struggled with my identity, about who I was to God,
about who I was to othersIt is a slow, sobering, awkward process to move from
a point of desertion and disillusion.

Another essayist confesses:

This time in my life became a deep valley and the lowest of lows for me. I didnt
want to eat. I stayed in my room constantly. And I slept a lot because I couldnt
feel the pain when I was asleep. I was hurting and I needed help.

I was astonished to find such personal accounts of angst and woundedness. And, I was

taken aback by the vulnerability being expressed through the exposure of deep pain. I

was also surprised because the question asked: what has been your biggest a-ha

moment? The question did not ask about a difficult time or an adverse experience; yet,

twenty-nine of the essayists respond by including an account of a negative event. I was

astounded by the openness and vulnerability of almost two-thirds of the essayists who

revealed such intense personal events. Their accounts were honest, sincere, and revealing

in their descriptions of difficulties and troubles involving grief, confusion, sadness, and

192
struggle. Contained within these essays were important revelations about adverse

experiences of college students and it seemed important to lift up these voices to be

heard.

Sharon Parks and Shipwreck

A further surprise came when, in a conversation with Sharon Parks, she predicted

the strong pattern involving a negative event in the essays.618 Parks, who has worked with

and written extensively about college students, told me that I should not be surprised to

find a description of a crisis event in the essays. In Big Question, Worthy Dreams, Parks

states that college students often encounter a shipwreck moment: a kind of experience

that can suddenly rip into the fabric of life, or it may slowly yet just as surely unravel the

meanings that have served as the home of the soul.619 Parks is referring to Niebuhrs

shipwreck, gladness, amazement metaphor. This metaphor connotes the subjective,

affective, and dynamic transformative nature of faith for Niebuhr. Shipwreck occurs

with the loss of a relationship, violence to ones property, collapse of a career venture,

physical illness or injury, defeat of a cause, a fateful choice that irrevocably reorders

ones life, betrayal by a community or government, or the discovery that an intellectual

construct is inadequate.620 Given her work on mentoring in higher education, Parks was

particularly interested in these shipwreck experiences in the essays. During these

618
I sat down with Parks at a PTEV Plenary Conference in 2207 and I mention this conversation in my
Introduction. I had read the essays extensively but her confirmation on a pattern I was already noticing was
extremely helpful. This might be a good example of my own lightning strike experience with an adult, as
discussed in Chapter 7.
619
Sharon Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning,
Purpose, and Faith (New York: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 28.
620
Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, 28.

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college years, Parks believes a person begins to self-consciously reflect on the meaning

of life itself and for this reason, she recognizes it as a crucial and new developmental

period. It is important to nurture these burgeoning adults because this time is the

birthplace of adult vision and the power of on-going cultural renewal.621 Big Questions,

Worthy Dreams is her account of listening carefully to young adults grappling with the

particular stresses of making meaning in these complex times which has prodded me to

significantly amend those theories (including my own) by which they have been

interpreted.622 She gives anecdotal accounts of helping students through the shipwreck

experience, and onto gladness and the amazement that can follow. For Parks, it is

important to thoroughly understand these moments of shipwreck in order to help others to

navigate times of troubled waters.

Added to Parks assertion is my own area of studys general focus on suffering

and human angst. Bonnie Miller-McLemore asserts:

My beginning proposition about how one studies religion in the general area of
religion and personality studies, and pastoral theology within that area, is simple,
even if its practice issues in terribly complex questions, forms, and problems: one
studies religion at the point where human suffering evokes or calls for a religious
response and sometimes at the point where a religious response is given and/or
experienced.623

Understanding human struggle and strife is a focal starting point of pastoral theology;

further, if there is a comprehensive orientation that distinguishes the area it is the focus

on living, rather than dead persons and cultures, the focus on the psyche, whether

understood as ego, soul, or self, and the focus on the clinical or therapeutic or healing
621
Sharon Parks, The Critical Years: Young Adults and the Search for Meaning, Faith, and Commitment
(HarperSanFrancisco, 1986), xii.
622
Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, 12.
623
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, "The subject and practice of pastoral theology as a practical theological
discipline: pushing past the nagging identity crisis to the poetics of resistance,' in Liberating Faith
Practices: Feminist Practical Theologies in Context, eds. Denise Ackermann and Riet Bons-Storm
(Leuven, 1998), 179.

194
dimension of psyche and living persons.624 In later work, Miller-McLemore expands

upon her statements by using Mary McClintock Fulkersons reflections on pain and

wounds: Wounds generate thinking and theology begins with the inchoate sense that

something must be addressed; further, to focus on the wound is to study a situation

characterized by harm that demands redress.625 Focusing on wounds evokes the pain

and struggle involved, yet it also calls for a response. Miller-McLemore states: So pain

insinuates its opposite, that relief and even salvation are possible, even demanded.626

She contends that a commitment to a theology of experience has led the discipline to the

inadvertent creation of alternative theological loci of angst and flourishing.627

Pastoral theology offers a unique and fitting approach to the essays because of its

focus on human struggle and woundedness. I could certainly see the alternative loci of

angst and flourishing within the essays. But it was the angst, or struggle, that evoked a

strong response from me: What are these negative or inimical experiences and how might

they be best described? Looking to the resources of pastoral theology, crisis as a

concept and a construct has been well explored. Charles Gerkin and Evelyn and James

Whitehead offer insights into the nature of a crisis and with their help, I refine my

questions: Are these negative or inimical experiences of the essays better understood and

described as a crisis? If so, are there particular crisis patterns that appear?

Before addressing these questions, I want to contextualize my approach by

situating it in the field of pastoral theology. A very brief background of pastoral theology

624
Miller-McLemore, Liberating Faith Practices, 180.
625
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 23; she is quoting Mary McClintock Fulkerson,
Theology and the Lure of the Practical: An Overview Religion Compass 1, no.2 (2007), 294-304, original
emphasis.
626
Miller-McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 24.
627
Miller-McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 1, original emphasis.

195
is given, as well as a short discussion on the relationship between practical and pastoral

theology. My goal is to describe the basic ideals and suppositions of pastoral theology in

order to contextually locate the concept of crisis that I use it to view the essays. Drawing

on Gerkin, Whitehead, and Whitehead, a crisis is a boundary experience that confronts

the unknown and brings change and awareness of contradiction, finitude, and

vulnerability. Often unexpected and unpredictable, crisis disrupts life and reveals a

fundamental contradiction between human aspirations and finite possibilities. Three basic

crisis categories emerge from the essays: crisis as death, crisis as loss, and crisis as

confrontation with the unknown.

Effective History: Pastoral Theology

The idea that persons can be approached as living human documents is certainly

a defining and central idea of the field of pastoral theology. Anton Boisen viewed the task

of understanding the individual as analogous to understanding and interpreting a

historical text. Having experienced his own profound personal struggles, Boison placed

the crux of human suffering as the focus of deep theological reflection.628 His approach

as an interpreter of the inner world who offers the possibility of new meaning is of core

importance to pastoral theology. In fact, Boison is often cited as the founder of Clinical

Pastoral Education (CPE) and the modern pastoral care and counseling movement.629

628
Charles Gerkin argues that Boisen was fundamentally correct in his placing of the crux of human
spiritual suffering at the point of the connection between experience and idea, between the occurrence of
events and a language of meaning for those events. It is when that connection becomes blocked, distorted,
or made impossible that the troubled person must seek a helper, an interpreter who may offer a new
possibility of meaning. Charles Gerkin, Living Human Document: Re-Visioning Pastoral Counseling in a
Hermeneutical Mode (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1984), 53.
629
Charles Gerkin, An Introduction to Pastoral Care (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997) 14-15, and

196
Boisens student Seward Hiltner continued his legacy and most assert Hiltner had more

influence on the field of pastoral theology than any other; Hiltner instigated a renewed

focus on pastoral theology.630 His basic approach to pastoral theology is one focused on

the idea of Christian shepherding, a disciplined inquiry into the healing, sustaining, and

guiding activities of the minister. For Hiltner, pastoral care provides an important context

for critical theological reflection and his case study method reflects this assertion.

Pastoral theology, as a theology of shepherding, focused on the healing, sustaining,

guiding, and reconciling of troubled persons, as noted by William Clebsch and Charles

Jaekle.631 Fifteen years later, Howard Clinebell added nurturing to this list.632 Edward

Wimberly challenged Clebsch and Jaekles schema and suggested an enlargement of

Hiltners understanding of ministry.633 In 1999, Carroll Watkins Ali in Survival and

Liberation: Pastoral Theology in African-American Context expands the list to suggest

new concepts for pastoral theology where:

the contents of ministry needs to expand beyond the traditional aspects of

shepherding healing, sustaining, guiding in order to meet the survival and
liberation needs of the African-American context. Poor black women and their
families require functions of ministry that are also nurturing, empowering, and
ultimately liberating in praxis.634

Charles Gerkin, Living Human Document: Re-Visioning Pastoral Counseling in a Hermeneutical Mode
(Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1984), 39 and 53.
630
John Polk, Practical Theology, in A New Handbook of Christian Theology, eds. Donald Mussre and
Joseph Price (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1992), 376.
631
William Clebsch and Charles Jaekle, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective: An Essay with Exhibits
(New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1964).
632
Howard Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling: Resources for the Ministry of Healing
and Growth (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1984).
633
Edward Wimberly, Pastoral Care in the Black Church (1979), referenced by Carroll Watkins Ali, A
Womanist Search for Sources, in Feminist and Womanist Pastoral Theology, ed. Bonnie Miller-
McLemore and Brita Gill-Austern (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999), 55.
634
Watkins Ali, A Womanist Search for Sources, 63-64.

197
Emmanuel Lartey adds further refinement to the definition with the addition of resisting,

empowering, and liberating.635 Finally, this new sustained focus on the healing,

sustaining, guiding, reconciling, nurturing, resisting, empowering, and liberating of

troubled persons grows out of data gathered from three sources. For Wimberly, these

three sources are: 1) revelation about the human condition uncovered by the social and

behavioral sciences, 2) wisdom from the classical theological disciplines, and 3) insight

garnered from reflection on the pastoral ministry event.636

During the development of pastoral theology, the awareness and importance of

secular sources of knowledge, particularly psychology and the human sciences, created

the need for Christian pastors to respond in appropriate fashion to these sources.637

Because pastoral theology is distinguished by close attention to the individual, many

engaged with psychological resources to serve as practical and prescriptive tools for

ministry. In this sense, pastoral theology, and pastoral care and counseling within it, is a

distinctive twentieth century phenomenon. Bonnie Miller-McLemore states:

In a sense, pastoral theology is a modern study of religion par excellence, coming

to fruition precisely as a result of new so-called objective, measurable, empirical
means of knowing the truths of human experience.

In other words, she continues: the field did not consolidate its academic position until

after the social sciences, psychology in particular, had given new life to the study of the

person, religious experience, pastoral care and ministry.638 For example, The Society of

Pastoral Theology founded in 1985 describes pastoral theology as a constructive

635
Emmanuel Lartey and James Poling, In Living Color: An Intercultural Approach to Pastoral Care and
Counseling (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2003).
636
Edward Wimberly, Counseling African American Marriages and Families (Louisville KY: Westminster
John Knox, 1997), viii.
637
Elaine Graham, Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty (Eugene OR: Wipf
and Stock Publishers, 1996), 63.
638
Miller-McLemore, Liberating Faith Practices, 177.

198
practical theological enterprise focused on the care of persons, families, and communities

that draws on interdisciplinary methods. This focus on care, whether the critical

engagement in acts of care or response to needs posed for such care, situates pastoral

theology as a distinct form of contextual theology.639 For this reason, Miller-McLemore

proposes reimagining Boisens powerful foundational metaphor: the living human web

suggests itself as a better term for the appropriate subject for investigation, interpretation,

and transformation.640

The Relationship Between Pastoral and Practical Theology

But what is the relationship between pastoral theology and practical theology?

This question deserves brief mention because of my previous attention to the field of

practical theology. Ed Farley comments that the relationship between practical theology

and pastoral theology has a complex and confusing history. Most typical, Farley says, is

the usage of practical theology as a term to include all disciplines of church or ministerial

activity and pastoral theology as a narrower term for studies pertaining to pastoral

care.641 Woodward and Pattison consider pastoral theology as a discipline within

practical theology and describe common ground between the two approaches. They

describe pastoral and practical theology together as a prime place where contemporary

experience and the resources of religious tradition meet in a critical dialogue with current

639
Nancy Ramsay, Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the Paradigms (Nashville, TN: Abingdon
Press, 2004), 5.
640
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Living Human Web: Pastoral Theology at the Turn of the Century in
Through the Eyes of Women, ed. Jeanne Stevenson Moessner (Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 16.
641
Edward Farley, Practical Theology, Protestant in Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, ed.
Rodney Hunter (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1990), 935.

199
disciplines that is mutually and practically transforming.642 Woodward and Pattison note

that contemporary North American theologians have been keen to identify themselves

distinctively as either pastoral or practical theologians.643 In general, pastoral theologians

tend to focus on care and counseling, particularly those issues concerned with the

flourishing of individuals and groups. On the other hand, practical theologians have

been more traditionally academic and scholarly, concerned with establishing broad

theoretical theological and ethical frameworks for understanding situations.644 In

conclusion, Woodward and Pattison believe that the two areas have much more in

common and overlap significantly such that to draw differences between the two seems

to be more of emphasis than substance.645

Like Woodward and Pattison, Barbara McClure argues that the primary objective

of pastoral theology is to help create the conditions for human flourishing.646 For

McClure, pastoral theology is the branch of theology that is concerned with the basic

principles, theories, and practices of caring and counseling: Pastoral theology is a

reflection on concrete human experience with the explicit goal of formulating practical

methods of dealing with problems or crises that can be used in the context of ministry.647

More specifically, pastoral theology is concerned with how theology connects with

642
James Woodward and Stephen Pattison, Introduction in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and
Practical Theology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), xv.
643
Woodward and Pattison, The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology, 2.
644
Ibid., 3.
645
Ibid., 3. Woodward and Pattison suggest a phenomenological definition of pastoral and practical
theology as a place where religious beliefs, tradition, and practice meets contemporary experiences,
questions and actions and conducts a dialogue that is mutually enriching, intellectually critical, and
practically transforming, p.7
646
Barbara McClure, Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care and Counseling: Reflection on
Theory, Theology and Practice (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010), 3.
647
McClure, Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care,19-20.

200
concrete experience, thus, it is a mode of contextual and practical theology.648 McClure

investigates the inherent individualism present and persistent in the field, which she sees

as a dominating and a constraining ideology in Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral

Care and Counseling. For McClure, pastoral theology:

seeks to bring religious and moral meanings to bear on the needs, problems, and
activities of everyday human experience to interpret their significance, understand
their etiologies, and guide appropriate and healing interventions.649

McClures end goal is to move the ministry beyond individualistic limitations and instead

offer healing and conditions for human flourishing in more complex, effective, and

socially adequate ways.

As a pastoral theologian who understands her work as situated within the broader

enterprise of practical theology, Miller-McLemore remains a pastoral theologian at heart

because of its appropriation of psychology as a key means to comprehend what matters

most to persons.650 According to Miller-McLemore, both pastoral and practical

theologies seek to articulate a dynamic theology that complicates and enriches the study

of religious traditions and texts through proximity to practice, activity, events, and

situations.651 However, there are crucial differences between the two areas, particularly

that pastoral theology pays particular attention to human pathos and is preoccupied with

everyday concerns that evade and disrupt traditional categories, doctrines, and loci in

theological and religious study.652 This emphasis on human struggle contrasts with

practical theology, which has an important breadth. It encompasses pastoral

648
Ibid., 20.
649
Ibid., 20.
650
Miller-McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 1.
651
Ibid., 3.
652
Ibid., 20.

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theology.653 In short: Pastoral and practical theologies are theologies caught in the act

of peoples lives.654

Gerkin and Crisis

A leading figure in the mid-twentieth century revival of pastoral theology and

scholar at Emory, Charles Gerkin proposes that what makes pastoral counseling pastoral

is the willingness of the counselor to help translate and interpret the stories of human

lives. Gerkin emphasizes the role of the pastoral counselor as one who addresses the

human identity paradox: how the self lives with the tensions of suffering and human

expectation. Gerkin reflects on the influence of Boisen and his insistence on beginning

with the individuals experience, and he expands Boisens famous metaphor in The

Living Human Document: Revisioning Pastoral Counseling in a Hermeneutical Mode.

The metaphor of the living human document is important because it means that a

persons experience is worthy of attention, but also that the integrity of her experience

should be valued and taken as an authoritative source of theological reflection. Gerkin

understands the basic tools of pastoral counseling are hermeneutical tools, the tools of

interpretation.655 For Gerkin, a hermeneutical perspective sees all human language

systems, including both theology and psychology, as efforts to penetrate the mystery of

what is beyond human understanding and make sense of it.656 James Poling refers to

Gerkins approach as a narrative hermeneutical perspective that uses the stories of

653
Ibid., 16.
654
Ibid., 15.
655
Gerkin, The Living Human Document, 20.
656
Ibid., 19.

202
individuals and groups as case material.657 Since the basic tools of pastoral counseling are

the tools of interpretation, pastoral counseling may be understood as a dialogical

hermeneutical process involving the client and therapist. The pastoral counselor aids in

helping the client translate, interpret, and re-interpret the stories of her life. Gerkin states,

We must exercise our need and capacity to make meaningful interpretations of who we

are, what the world is, and what, given our situation, is most meaningful what Tillich

calls our ultimate concern.658

For Gerkin, pastoral theology has crucial communal dimensions having to do with

initiating persons into the community that nurtures faith and with sustaining individuals

in their efforts to lead faithful lives while under the strain of everyday life in a

predominantly secular world.659 Gerkins work has four distinct levels, one of which is

doing crisis ministry with individuals and families.660 Working with individuals and

families in crisis gives Gerkin a unique perspective and he uses case material to approach

and understand the nature of a crisis. Gerkin introduces Crisis Experience in Modern Life

as concerned with crisis as it is experienced most commonly by contemporary persons.661

Rather than a book on how to-do crisis intervention, Gerkin seeks to fundamentally

understand what is going on in a given human situation with the greatest breadth and

richness of perception possible.662 Gerkin is attracted to the idea of understanding the

situation in its greatest breadth. He refers to this again when he discusses the advantage

657
James Poling, A Critical Appraisal of Charles Gerkins Pastoral Theology, Journal of Pastoral
Psychology 37, vol. 2 (Winter 1988): 85 (85-96).
658
Gerkin, The Living Human Document, 49.
659
Gerkin, Introduction to Pastoral Care, 29.
660
The other three levels, as expanded by Gerkin, involves maintaining congregational communities,
building community in the midst of diversity, and providing pastoral leadership. Gerkin, An Introduction to
Pastoral Care, 240.
661
Charles Gerkin, Crisis Experience in Modern Life: Theory and Theology for Pastoral Care (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 1979), 11.
662
Gerkin, Crisis Experience in Modern Life, 12.

203
of the pastoral care perspective, that within it lies a certain capacity to see particular

human problems with both great breadth and profound depth of perspective.663 Gerkin

uses case material and specific cases of crisis experience to demonstrate the different

dimensions of crisis present, experiences which together make up the human experience

of finitude and vulnerability.664

Gerkin delineates between a crisis event and a crisis experience. Crisis is often

associated with an event and in this sense, a crisis is an occurrence that triggers or

initiates a set of dynamic forces and processes within and around an individual, family, or

community.665 Crisis as an event is often unexpected and specific, exceptional and

unpredictable upheavals resulting from unusual circumstances such as divorce or a

disabling accident.666 Gerkin, however, prefers the term crisis experience to refer to

the multiple factors of meanings, ideas, and feelings, conscious and unconscious

processes which taken together form a gestalt.667 Using systems theory, a crisis

experience is what happens when the equilibrium or vital balance in the life space of an

individual, family, or community is disrupted or interrupted by some more or less drastic

change in the dynamic relationships within the system.668 In this way, Gerkin admits to

using a wide-angle lens in his attempt to understand and define crisis. Fundamentally,

he sees crisis as a multidimensional encounter in which a complex network of factors

comes together to shape a particular crisis experience.

663
Gerkin, Crisis Experience in Modern Life, 12.
664
Ibid., 14.
665
Ibid., 41.
666
Ibid., 229.
667
Gerkin, Crisis Experience in Modern Life, 41.
668
Ibid., 71.

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 Gerkin defines crisis as: for modern persons, an extreme or boundary situation in

which the fundamental contradiction between human aspirations and finite possibilities

becomes visible in such a way as to demand attention.669 For Gerkin, crisis causes

persons to confront our human vulnerability, finitude, and the perhaps utter impossibility

of hopes and wishes. Persons are forced to confront the unknown and many powerful

forces, both personal and cultural, come together to exert pressure on the situation. Crisis

is most often associated with an event that interrupts life, such as death, divorce, illness

or a job loss and are precipitants of crisis for everyone who experiences them.670 He

adds: But the core of crisis experience is awareness of contradiction, finitude, and

vulnerability; and the elemental choice presented is one of faith.671 For Gerkin, a crisis

is to be seen fundamentally as any threat to the ultimate meaning of things and, as well,

it is a boundary experience.672

According to Gerkin, experiencing death is the primary paradigm of crisis

experience. Our definition of crisis as the extreme or boundary situation in which

persons become aware of their finite existence compels the selection of death and dying

as the primary paradigm.673 This includes catastrophic death, terminal illness, suicide,

coping with the vulnerability of dying, and exploration of deaths meaning. But even

beyond this, Gerkin makes crucial links between crisis and anguish, bereavement, grief,

hopelessness, despair, alienation, loneliness, all within the context of broken

relationships. Dealing with death and dying becomes a part of the adult task because for

Gerkin, it is in adulthood that persons experience both the fullness and the realistic

669
Ibid., 32.
670
Ibid., 39.
671
Ibid., 33.
672
Ibid., 72-74.
673
Ibid., 74.

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limits of life most completely in a kind of tension between what is possible and what is

desirable.674 During the college years, students often confront death for the first time.

During an interview, Hanover College President Sue DeWine revealed that one quarter of

college students will experience the death of a loved one during college, and often, for

the very first time.

Overall a crisis, for Gerkin, is a boundary experience that confronts the unknown

which brings change and awareness of contradiction, finitude, and vulnerability. Often

unexpected and unpredictable, crisis disrupts life and reveals a fundamental contradiction

between human aspirations and finite possibilities. Persons are forced to confront the

unknown, including the utter impossibility of hopes and wishes. Death is the primary

paradigm of crisis, for Gerkin, and dealing with death and dying becomes a primary task

of an adult. In short, a crisis is a threat to ultimate meaning.

Whitehead and Whitehead

James and Evelyn Whitehead, as a historian of religion and a social psychologist

respectively, bring together theology and the psychological disciplines to construct a

Christian based approach to Eriksons work on adult development. Their text Christian

Life Patterns focuses on the psychological and religious challenges of adult life. They

challenge the misconception that once adulthood is reached, development is over;

moreover, they directly confront the expectation that adulthood is a time of stability and

permanence. Instead, for Whitehead and Whitehead, adulthood is a time of crisis.675

674
Ibid., 79.
675
Evelyn Whitehead and James Whitehead, Christian Life Patterns: The Psychological Challenges and

206
 Although they do not identify explicitly as pastoral theologians, their work on

adult development reflects pastoral theological sensitivity and I include it because of its

valuable insight as a lens to understand the essays. Whitehead and Whiteheads attention

is focused on those who seek to minister to adults in crisis. However, their perspective

and attention to loss is important. They state: In the midst of a crisis a person is often

challenged to let go some part of the self, even before it is clear what will replace this

loss.676 This loss of some aspect of the self is a necessary challenge in the midst of a

crisis. Using the work of Peter Marris on loss and change, they describe crisis in terms of

loss. In crisis, a person will likely lose his bearings; the ordinary reference points that

previously anchored his values and sense of self no longer avail.677 This loss of bearings

and ordinary reference points, especially concerning ones sense of self, results in the

experience of discontinuity and loss.

The first characteristic of crisis is disorientation. Disorientation results from the

experience of discontinuity and loss loss of control over the situation and a loss of some

part of the self. This sense of loss is experienced in a myriad of ways: the loss of hopes

and wishes, the loss of security, the loss of a future, the loss of bearings, and most

significant, the loss of a part of the self. For Whitehead and Whitehead, the role of the

pastoral caregiver is to acknowledge and mourn the loss, while gradually letting go of

the lost object. The task is thus dual: to identify and accept the loss while interpreting

ones life so that the positive value of the lost object survives.678 Using language of

ORT, they highlight that the lost object must be mourned and accepted. Something is

Invitations of Adult Life (New York: Crossroad, 1995), 53-55. Because they use an Erikson framework,
these college students would be adults, specifically young adults in the first phase of adulthood.
676
Whitehead and Whitehead, Christian Life Patterns, 55.
677
Ibid., 53.
678
Ibid., 53.

207
lost, but yet something can be gained. Whitehead and Whitehead discuss the

disconcerting aspects of crisis involving disorientation, ambivalence, and loss; however,

their focus is ultimately on suggesting ways to reinterpret loss into opportunities for

growth.

Examining the Essays: Crisis

Looking to the essays and their description of a negative event, I ask: how might

they best be described? Using the literature from pastoral theology, I look through this

lens to determine if these experiences are revealed as crisis. In a crisis, persons are forced

to confront the unknown, including the utter impossibility of hopes and wishes. A crisis is

a boundary experience that confronts the unknown which brings change and awareness of

contradiction, finitude, and vulnerability. Often unexpected and unpredictable, crisis

disrupts life and reveals a fundamental contradiction between human aspirations and

finite possibilities.

Drawing on Whitehead and Whitehead, I looked to the essays for themes of loss

and disorientation. What I noticed were accounts of grief, hopelessness, loneliness,

ambivalence, anguish, and despair. Within these accounts of struggle, significant loss was

being experienced. Sometimes these losses involve death including three accounts of

suicide while others discuss falling apart or the anxieties of confronting an unknown

future. These stories seem to reflect what Whitehead and Whitehead describe as the

challenge of crisis: to let go some part of the self, even before it is clear what will

208
replace this loss.679 For Gerkin, crisis causes persons to confront the unknown and the

impossibility of hopes and wishes. Because death is the primary paradigm for crisis, I

looked to the essays and found six accounts that discuss death.

Crisis: Death

Hanover College President, Sue DeWine, quoted statistics that said one in four

college students will experience the death of a loved one during college, and often

confront death for the very first time. Six essays reflect on the experience of death and

their moving stories emote grief and bereavement. Sharon states:

This year my Aha moment came when one of my good friends suddenly died.
My friends death was hard to deal with. It filled my mind with questions, anger
and sadness. Through all the emotions that I was feeling, her death made me
realize that tomorrow is not promised. I may be here today, but I dont know
about tomorrow. For that reason, I need to live my life to the fullest.

Sharon reflects on the questions, anger, and sadness that resulted from her friends death.

Her conclusion, and part of her a-ha moment, is to face and accept finitude by living life

to the fullest. Amanda describes her feeling of abandonment and turmoil as she tried to

deal with a death in her family:

I began to question, I started to scrutinize, and learned how to doubt or ignore the
God I once knew was there beside me And I felt abandoned and adrift within a
sea of changing friends I didnt and still do not know how to react, how to
incorporate God into such a desolate realm of familial turmoil. I began to feel
abandoned, alone, worthless, and forgotten. Confronted with death, I lost my
spiritual identity again because I could not comprehend how the God that I had
known all of my life would suddenly throw me into such a testI became
spiritually dormantI fought violently with my emotions, feeling incapable of
being loved or loving others.

Jesse expresses his deepening relationship with a friend who lost his father in a

freak industrial accident. Jesse was with his friend when he heard the news and was

witness to his friends constant struggle to comprehend the accident. This death and its
679
Whitehead and Whitehead, Christian Life Patterns, 55.

209
ramifications allowed Jesse to step in as a steady presence through his friends grieving

process. Another student, Rebecca, reflects on what she learned in grief counseling.

Because she was having a very difficult time dealing with her friends suicide death,

Rebecca started grief counseling and in the midst of her process, a lot of personal

discovery was made.

Two other essays involve suicide. In one essay, Ted very candidly describes the

tumultuous beginning of his freshman year of college when he learned about the suicide

of a very close friend back home:

It was a big struggle for me coming to college and knowing only one other
person. To make matters worse, the one person I knew was my girlfriend of two
years who had just broken up with me. Also, within the very first week of
classes, I found out that one of my very close friends from back home had
committed suicide. So I found myself at college, not knowing anyone, two hours
from home, and heartbroken over the loss of my girlfriend and very dear
friendThis time in my life became a deep valley and the lowest of lows for me.
I didnt want to eat. I stayed in my room constantly. And I slept a lot because I
couldnt feel the pain when I was asleep. I was hurting and I needed help.

Ted openly discusses a deep depression in which he did not want to eat and slept

constantly. Heartbroken over the death of his friend, he details the depths of loneliness of

experiencing death far from home. In another essay, Tina describes making a decision to

drive a suicidal friend to the hospital. Although her friend did not die, this brush with

death was deeply moving for Tina: It finally got to the point where my friends and I had

to drive her to the hospital and leave our beloved, suicidal friend in the hands of the

psychiatric ward. I was then faced with the immense reality that no matter what I did, I

could not save her. I could not save her anymore than I can save myself.

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 Crisis: Loss

Looking through the lens of crisis, another theme emerged: the loss of a part of

the self. In eight different essays, the students discussed losing a part of their self by

experiencing a difficulty or hardship. From feeling like a failure to stepping out of a

comfort zone, students described an encounter with a situation that challenged their

bearings and assumptions they had about themselves and their world. Troy writes that he

turned to hopelessness and despair. That semester, fall of sophomore year, was the

worst of my life. Trying to quit the team in December, I fell apart in the coachs office,

and finally reached rock bottom. Marcia reflects on her inability to fulfill her own

expectations, as well as what she felt was expected of her: As I sat there fruitlessly

staring at my books and my computer screen I felt like I was failing. Failing myself, my

calling, my vocation, my salvation, worst of all, my Lord. I felt like I was a

disappointment to God because of the academics I wasnt easily producing. Courtney

writes about her struggle to keep up with the demands of college life: I quickly lost the

energy, focus and passion needed to really make a difference. I got frustrated and burnt

out.

Alexis examines her experience of stepping out of her comfort zone. Her loss of

self is reflected in the realization that she no longer felt confident about herself and the

loss of security that entailed. Alexis writes: At that moment of oh crap, I realized that I

was stepping out of my comfort zone for the first time in my life. I didnt really know

what I stood for, what I believed in, or what talents I possessed to make me a unique

contributor to the community, and the world more generally. Another student, Theresa,

comments on the void she felt in college when she realized that something was missing in

211
her life. She describes feeling a loss of self by articulating about a distinct void: I also

felt that despite the great experiences I was having as a college freshman, something was

missing in my life. I thought and prayed about the void I was feeling, I discovered that I

sincerely missed the youth activities I had been so involved with as a high school

student.

In two other essays, the students discuss a loss in terms of an ideal held about the

self and the world. Carrie saw herself as an activist and her interest in social justice was

encouraged on a campus that promotes diversity. But during a training session for

resident assistants, Carrie was called a racist. Carrie felt she was called racist only

because I was white. This really struck me and confused me and still does to this dayI

could not and do not understand how someone who barely knew me could just look at me

and call me racist for the sole reason because I was white; not because of any of my

actions or any of my words, only the color of my skin. Carries own ideal image about

herself was confronted by a stressful situation. And ideals she thought she shared with

others were lost. In the other essays, George confesses that he lost his ideal image of the

United States: I felt shame in my country that supported El Salvadors oppressive

government, prolonging the revolution and causing pain and death to many Salvadorans.

The exploding bullet that ravaged the praying heart of Romero as he was giving mass

was designed and built in the US. The elite battalion that murdered the Jesuits was trained

and equipped by the US.

Crisis: Confrontation with the Unknown

For Gerkin, crisis causes a confrontation with the unknown, where hopes and

wishes for the future are challenged. Powerful forces, both personal and cultural, come

212
together to exert pressure on the situation in a crisis. During crisis, persons are forced to

confront finitude and the vulnerability of life. In nine of the essays, confronting the

unknown was a theme; furthermore, this confrontation with the unknown is usually added

to the already stressful and pressure-filled environment of college life. Sarah writes:

Whether self-inflicted or imposed by some outside force, college students are

constantly under some type of pressure. Perhaps this is due to our newfound
responsibility, and ability to effectively manage our time. Failure to embrace
these requirements all too often results in a highly stressful situation, induced by
procrastination or angst. In my case, a great deal of pressure came from within
me, as I tried to make sense of the events surrounding my college experience.

This pressure, combined with an unseen and unknowable future, confronts students as

they try to navigate and explore opportunities. Elizabeth writes that: For the first time I

questioned what it was exactly that I was doing and what I was planning to do with my

life. These major life decisions are often made apart from family; yet, family and

outside forces usually add pressure through persistent questioning about future plans.

This can be a very difficult situation, as Ted adds: I was desperate to decide on what I

was going to do with my life. I was trying so hard to hear God calling me that it was

stressful and draining.

Pressure, stress, and anxiety color many of the accounts of crisis. Change is a

constant experience for emerging adults and, in one essay, Mark highlights the fast and

furious pace of some of these changes: College is a time where you do an incredible

amount of growing in a short period of time. Sometimes huge discoveries are made and

other times circumstances change so rapidly that you can barely keep up with yourself.

The future and its weighty concerns are also ever-present and the realization that major

decisions are entirely in my hands heightens feelings of stress and anxiety. As Lisa

explains:

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 When I graduated from high school, I knew what was coming next college. But
after college, there are choices. For the first time, my future seems entirely in my
hands, and yet I feel more out of control than ever before. I like to have a plan,
and contemplating a future of many choices (and the known and unknown
consequences of those choices) is unsettling. This is the anxiety that colors my
thoughts during these first weeks of school.

These anxieties involving the future are often waylaid through the construction of a

plan. Discussed earlier in Chapter Four, a plan is often formulated by emerging adults

regarding their majors and future careers. Difficulties arise, however, when those plans

and possibilities are confronted by reality. Future projected plans are frequently revised

and sometimes destroyed completely. Holly confesses:

I willI will...I willthis was the mentality I entered college with. I thought I
had my life mapped out on a piece of paper and I believed that there was no
possible way I would become a college statistic and change my major at least one
time. To make a long story short, I have contemplated at least ten different
majors, have decided that I have no idea where I will end up, what I will be doing,
or if I will even unite in marriage one day.

Regina echoes this sentiment when she explains what happened to her plan: I felt pretty

confident that that was a great plan. The only problem was that as much as I enjoyed

biology, I found out that I didnt love it. The classes required were a constant struggle for

me, so much that instead of enjoying what I was doing, it felt like a burden. Student

enter with ideal images of a future life that can quickly unravel when confronted by

reality. Emily adds:

I came into college with the idea that I had everything figured out. I was going to
attend undergraduate for four years, obtain a degree in the sciences, and then go
on to medical school. This was the vision I had imagined since I was a little girl
and I was positive everything would go according to plan. My perfect, ideal
image began to quickly unravel when I started my job at the medical center.

Although Emily admits that this experience was difficult, even destabilizing, in the end it

offered her the chance to explore different options. Finally, Vicki describes the

214
disorientation she felt when her plan was confronted by the reality of classes. She

explains: As a freshman, I had plans of completing my four years and then attending law

school. This was something I had been thinking about for some time; however, as I got

into the routine of classes, I suddenly felt myself not so excited by the thought of

studying law.

In summary, there were a lot of descriptions of crisis experience within the

essays. Crisis is catergorized as a boundary experience that confronts the unknown and

which brings change. The question (what has been your biggest a-ha moment in college?)

fundamentally asks a question about a change. Often, the description of the a-ha moment

revealed a need for change or as a response to a change already made. Rather than slow-

moving growth as change over time, some change comes quickly and unexpectedly,

creating uncertainty and anxiety. In response to the question, over 60% of the essays

describe a negative event. Pastoral theology draws attention to these moments of struggle

and angst in the midst of peoples lives. Drawing on Gerkin, Whitehead, and Whitehead,

a crisis is a boundary experience that confronts the unknown and brings change and

awareness of contradiction, finitude, and vulnerability. Often unexpected and

unpredictable, crisis disrupts life and reveals a fundamental contradiction between human

aspirations and finite possibilities. Using this definition, I examine the essays and three

basic crisis categories emerge: crisis as death, crisis as loss, and crisis as confrontation

with the unknown. These stories are accounts of hopelessness, loneliness, ambivalence,

and despair; overall, they contained distinct themes of loss and disorientation. Death is

also a pertinent theme, which includes three accounts of suicide. Overall, these accounts

of crisis indicate that emerging adults, despite all their opportunities and golden

215
tomorrows, also experience deep pain and struggle. Added to the instability of an already

chaotic life, a crisis forces a confrontation with the unknown, including the utter

impossibility of hopes and wishes. Because of these experiences and my own, I make

specific recommendations for higher education to provide resources to specifically deal

with crisis in Chapter Eight.

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 CHAPTER VII

PRACTICES
Many times in college students have ideas, good ideas. I believe the simple game of
Capture the Flag showed my friends and me what can happen when students do not limit
themselves and do not limit God in what can be accomplished. Andrew, essayist

A pattern that immediately caught my eye was that the essayists were doing

something in the midst of their a-ha experience. This active sense of participating in an

activity or event, which spurred the a-ha moment, occurred in ninety-four percent of the

essays. Additionally, there were particular categories of activities that seemed to directly

impact their formative experience. These events varied: participating in social service

trips, reflecting on texts, working in an internship, conversing with a mentor, or playing a

game of capture the flag. In the midst of participating in such events and activities,

something happened to help change the way in which the essayists thought about

themselves and about life. A certain sense of embodiedness and activity precipitated the

a-ha moments.

I wanted to describe these accounts as practices; rather, I could see categories and

groupings of activities around particular themes, which looked like a practice. For

example, ten essays described their a-ha moment in the context of participating in a social

service event; I wanted to describe this as a practice of social service. However, turning

to the vast literature on practices, I struggled to find a singular definition that described

what I was seeing (or thought that I was seeing). Instead by reviewing the literature on

practices, I borrow from different practical and pastoral theologians in order to construct

my own definition of practice. A practice is a communal and contextual, purposeful

217
activity strategically undertaken by embodied persons. I use this definition of practice as

a lens with which to view the essays. From this practice lens, five basic categories (or

congeries) of practice emerge: practices of service, practices of fellowship, practices of

work, practices of reading and reflection, and practices of conversation. I argue that the

essayists offer stories of the person-forming power of practices; furthermore,

embedded in these essays are important lessons about practices that can be learned and

taught. In the end, I encourage higher education and those interested in college student

life to consider these practices in their programmatic development. Listening to the

voices of these emerging adults, it seems clear that the activities that engender and

precipitate their a-ha moments are important; furthermore, these practices can be learned

and taught.

Problems with Practice

As a practical theologian, the concept of practice seems like a good place to

start. First, practical theology holds the subject of practice to be a pertinent and

significant subject. That is to say, practical theology has an inherent interest in practices;

in fact, some scholars, like Elaine Graham, argue that practices should be the focus of

pastoral and practical theology. Second, the scholarly literature in theology concerning

practices has become all the rage in religious and theological studies in the past decade.

Practices language is everywhere today.680 Thomas Long states that the term practice

has lately reentered the theological stream with revived energy.681 Others, like Francis

680
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge,unpublished essay, 27.
681
Thomas Long and Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Teaching Preaching as a Christian Practice (Louisville, KY:

218
Schussler Fiorenza complain: The term practice has become a shibboleth. Theologians

use it as the password to cross from the dry desert of intellectualism into the land where

theory and practice overflow each other.682 For Joyce Ann Mercer, practice is

something of a buzzword in theological circles spurred on by recent developments in the

field of practical theology as well as some scholarly border-crossing into sociology,

philosophy, and ritual theory.683 In short, the field is abuzz with the language of practice.

The concept of practice is everywhere; consequently, the concept of practice is prominent

in practical theology.

Turning to the literature on practices, I quickly became overwhelmed. Practices

language is everywhere and its use within the field is not at all consistent. In a panic, I

looked up the word shibboleth: it refers to a kind of pet phrase used to distinguish a

particular class or set of persons from another. Originally, shibboleth was the test word

use by the Gileadites to distinguish the fleeing Ephramites who could not pronounce the

sounds sh/th; however, Fiorenzas use of shibboleth is an incisive and important critique.

Fiorenza refers to the password mentality of todays practices language: everyone is

using it to get ahead, but no one really knows what it means. Practice is a catch phrase

used to get by and is employed in order to be included in the group; but in the end, for

Fiorenza, the word appears to be nonsense.

Bonnie Miller-McLemore offers a similar criticism as Fiorenza. In her own

attempt to describe and define pastoral and practical theology, she found that behind

definitions lie untold political battles over turf, ideological clashes over ultimate

Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 12.

682
Francis Schussler Fiorenza, Theory and Practice: Theological Education as a Reconstructive,
Hermeneutical, and Practical Task, Theological Supplement (1987), 113.
683
Joyce Ann Mercer, Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood (Duluth, GA: Chalice
Press, 2005) 13.

219
commitments and epistemological skirmishes over what counts as knowledge.684 To

define is also to rule, remarks Miller-McLemore, and although dictionaries contribute to

the perception that all is a fairly cut-and-dry task, definitional tasks are complicated and

tensions are real. Furthermore, she comments specifically on the concept of practice: To

trace the evolution of terms in the study of theology and practice is to mark power

struggles.685 These power struggles are real, involving time and resources, and

embedded with particular ideologies. And, often, these power struggles are hidden and

unspoken. She states: Like language and culture itself, definitions shape reality and

determine who has access to producing and maintaining knowledge.686 Following

Miller-McLemore, offering definitions is difficult work: it requires careful consideration

and attention to hidden meanings, political undercurrents, and concealed ideologies. I

attempt in the next section to trace some of the hidden meanings and political

undercurrents around the concept of practice; furthermore, I choose carefully from other

definitions by being explicit about their ideologies.

I also wondered if my desire to focus on what the essayist were doing might be

better described using other words: actions, activities, tasks, habits, endeavours,

engagements, disciplines, rituals, or praxis. However, none of these words seemed to

adequately reflect the active sense of interacting and reacting I was seeing; furthermore, it

was clear that there were clusters of similar activities having comparable effects and

these events needed to be explored and held up. I decided that a survey of the literature

684
Miller-McLemore, The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge, 2.
685
Miller-McLemore goes on to expand Schreiters analysis of power by examining how the modern
dichotomy between theory and practice operates to suppress and control knowledge. Miller-McLemore,
The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge, 3.
686
Ibid., 20.

220
on practices would allow me to construct my own definition of practice which I could use

to help describe the essays.

In the end, my search for a simple and easy definition of practice came up empty-

handed. The problem with practice is that is everywhere and yet no consensus exists

about the concept. Underlying definitions of practice are marked by hidden and unspoken

power struggles; for this reason, offering definitions is difficult work. Although

characterized as the focus of pastoral and practical theology, practices appear to have the

buzzword mentality of a growing fad. Within the scholarly literature, the concept of

practice lacks a singular definition and it presents a series of quandaries rather than a

stable set of ingredients.687 For this reason, I carefully construct an effective history of

practice. Beginning with the practice-theory divide, I situate the theological conversation

on practices by examining several contemporary approaches. Drawing from the resources

of each, I construct the definition of practice that I use to examine the essays.

Effective History: Practice

Miroslav Volf traces the history of practice by discussing the practice versus

theory divide. This divide is rooted in the understanding of knowledge that divides theory

from practice. Volf cites Aristotle and his distinction between episteme and techne:

theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge.688 According to this distinction, the goal

of theoretical sciences is truth, and the goal of the practical sciences is action.689 Here,

687
Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Laurie and Leigh Schmidt and Mark Valeri, Practicing Protestants: Histories of
Christian Life in America, 1630-1965 (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press, 2006), vii-viii.
688
In my conclusion, I continue this discussion but include a third partner, phronesis.
689
Miroslav Volf, Theology for a Way of Life in Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian

221
the assumption is that theory is conducted very much removed from the practical in order

to render a value-free view of reality; on the other hand, practice is distanced from

theory since it describes how things should be done. In this relationship, the theoretical

sciences (in which knowledge is pursued for knowledges sake) are understood as a

higher form of knowing or wisdom than the practical sciences, which are pursued for

their usefulness. This Aristotelian schema and practice versus theory divide has raised

debate, specifically in theology when the question is asked: where does theology fit in?

Volf adds:

Obviously, if theology is a theoretical science, then it only secondarily has

something to do with practices; one has to make separate inquiry into practical
implications of knowledge pursued for its own sake. But if theology is a practical
science, then practices are from the start included within the purview of its
concerns.690

The practice versus theory divide is rooted in an understanding of knowledge that divides

theory (episteme) from practice (techne). A hierarchy of theory over and against practice

is assumed.

Fast forward to the twentieth century: postmodernity has deconstructed

oppositional pairs and dualistic thinking because of their tendency to imply relationships

of superiority and inferiority. One role of the academy has been to underscore the

propensity in Western thought to construct knowledge using oppositional pairs which

ultimately creates hierarchies and the subordination of one over and against the other:

black versus white, female versus male, and in this case, practice versus theory.691

Life, eds. Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
2002), 246.
690
Volf, Theology for a Way of Life, 246.
691
Miller-McLemore, The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge, 17. Miller-McLemore quotes
Black feminist Patricia Hill Collins: Thus, whites rule Blacks, males dominate females, reason is touted as
superior to emotion in ascertaining truth, facts supercede opinion in evaluating knowledge, and subjects
rule objects. Dichotomous oppositional differences invariably imply relationships of superiority and

222
Dichotomous oppositional pairs imply hierarchical relationships that often reflect the

status quo; and in the case of practice, the pairing with theory eventually defines one

through the exclusion of the other as well as eventually prefacing one over the other.

Miller-McLemore states:

The hierarchy of theory over practice is as questionable a construction as any of

the more commonly cited hierarchies. Opposition between theory and practice in
academic theology, a legacy of a narrow approach to knowledge, has functioned
in ways similar to other dichotomies, such as those between men and women and
blacks and whites, to establish political status and assign positions of inferiority
and superiority that harm the potential of theology to flourish in diverse places
within and beyond the academy.692

Miller-McLemores critique is incisive because she highlights the inherited suppositions

within certain constructions of practice that define it with and against theory. This

dichotomous thinking functions to enforce political ideologies and systems of domination

and subordination, all of which is harmful to theology and its potential flourishing.

Practice: A Bifurcation

Miller-McLemore argues that the oppositional pairing of theory and practice

ultimately harms the potential of theology to flourish. Therefore, it seems ironic that a

different and almost more damaging dichotomy appears within the literature on

practice. Perhaps better described as a bifurcation, much of the literature suggests two

fundamentally different approaches to practice: one based on the social theorist Pierre

Bourdieu and the other based on the virtue ethicist, Alasdair MacIntryre. This split is

inferiority, hierarchical relationships that mesh with political economies of domination and subordination.
From Patricia Hill Collins, Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black
Feminist Thought, in Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research (Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press, 1991), 42.
692
Miller-McLemore, The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge, 18.

223
made noticeable because scholars often choose one or the other: a concept of practice that

stresses power negotiations in social structures OR a normative vision of practice that

seeks to proscribe a form of more virtuous and sacred living. These two basic intellectual

approaches stand out as the foundation for the theological conversation on practices with

scholars and academics, often citing one or the other. Dorothy Bass summarizes these

two positions by stating:

MacIntyres virtue ethics emphasizes that practices pursue the good in a coherent,
traditioned way, while social scientists influenced by Marxist thought stress the
constant negotiations over power that give particular shape to practices in specific
social situations.693

These two approaches towards practice dominate the scholarly literature and act as polar

opposites. On one end, Bourdieu is a social science theorist who uses the concept of

practice to reflect on social relations and ideologies. Influenced by Marx, Bourdieu takes

a critical stance towards the power arrangements embodied in practices. He calls

attention to the political dimensions particularly positions of domination and

subordination of power differentials by illuminating situations of conflict between

prevailing groups and less powerful social actors.694 On the other end, Alasdair

MacIntyre relies on Aristotelian virtue ethics as grounds for the concept of practice in the

good life where social practices contain internal goods. The good life does not happen

through haphazard action, but instead is achieved through intentional action and

reflection. Virtues are those values which enable us to give moral substance and direction

693
Dorothy Bass, Introduction, in Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life, eds.
Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass (Grand Rapids, MI; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 6.
694
Maffly-Kipp et al., Practicing Protestants, 2-3.

224
to practice.695 MacIntyre develops the concept of practice as the means by which human

action is the bearer of a consistent and historically rooted system of values.696

This bifurcation is reflected in the account of practice given by Laurie Maffly-

Kipp, Laurie Schmidt, and Mark Valeri in the text Practicing Protestants. The authors set

out to confront the concept of Christian practice as an aspect of American religious

history and to bring questions about practice into more sustained historical and theoretical

focus.697 Recognizing that the concept of practice lacks a singular definition and presents

a series of quandaries rather than a stable set of ingredients, the authors divide the

scholarly literature into the basic two intellectual lineages: social theorists and

contemporary theologians. Leading social theorists of practice, like Bourdieu and

Catherine Bell, are posed on one side and theologians, like Dorothy Bass and Craig

Dykstra, on the other side. They admit that these two groups often stand in tension with

one another.698

The authors go into detail concerning the work of Bourdieu and his argument that

practices reflect exterior social conditions. Practices allow room for resistance,

negotiation, and redirection. They state:

In Bourdieus terms, practice was an inevitable aspect of social existence; practice

was equated with the habits of body and mind, the customary acts and routine
disciplines that formed the very texture of everyday life.699

In this sense, critical emphasis is placed on the hegemonic, regulatory, and structuring

character of practice. For Bourdieus concept of practices, a particular logic of social

695
Elaine Graham, Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty (Eugene, OR: Wipf
and Stock Publishers, 1996.
696
Graham, Transforming Practice, 99.
697
Maffly-Kipp et al., Practicing Protestants, vii-viii.
698
Maffly-Kipp et al., Practicing Protestants, viii.
699
Ibid., 2.

225
and cultural fields manifests. On the other end, the second intellectual lineage that they

call constructive theology lies with Bass and Dykstra. This group has drawn upon the

images of the virtuous life, via Alasdair MacIntrye, and practices as a way to get there; in

essence, their interest is in revitalizing the Christian life through a sustained recovery of

practices.700 Their focus is on cultivating certain practices, even spiritual practices, in

the hopes of seeking more virtuous or consecrated lives. Proponents of this approach are

ecumenical in nature, all are convinced that in the self-conscious cultivation of

particular types of traditional Christian habit lies the key to a renewal of the Christian

life.701 This group seeks to restore and revitalize Christian life through a sustained

cultivation of particular types of traditional Christian habits that they call practices.

In their account, Maffly-Kipp, Schmidt, and Valeri reinforce a basic dichotomy in

the theological conversation on practice: Bourdieu and Bell describe the landscape of

everyday practices in terms of ideological and political dimensions; Bass and Dykstra

seek to form more virtuous and sacred living.702 The authors state:

If our first group of theorists assume that social structures are generally
hegemonic, with resistance located in small scale tactics of getting by or making
room, Christian theorists view such regulatory structuring as largely human,
enabling and supportive.703

In short, the assumption is that social scientific thought adopts a critical stance towards

the power arrangements embodied in practices, while Protestant theorists are more

interested in strengthening practices they take to be basically benevolent.704 One, and

only one, perspective raises up the influences of power and political control in practices,
700
Ibid., 3.
701
Ibid., 4.
702
Ibid., 4.
703
Ibid., 4.
704
Dorothy Bass, Ways of Life Abundant, in For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological
Education, and Christian Ministry, eds. Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 30, footnote 10.

226
and the other skips along in mamby-pamby land and revels in the enabling and

supporting arms of practice. But is this a helpful distinction? Furthermore, it is even

true?

Dorothy Bass resists this classification. She devotes a lengthy footnote to this

matter in For Life Abundant. She recognizes that theories of practice are identified by

two main schools: social scientific thought and constructive theological thought.

However, this dichotomy that one perspective is critical while the other (hers) is

seemingly superficial is unhelpful and incorrect. She states:

In fact, Dykstra and I believe that each Christian practice incorporates critical
and self-critical perspectives, though it is true that our normative and theological
understanding of practices does indeed lead us to see each Christian practice as a
whole as good.705

Bonnie Miller-McLemore highlights this and other oversights. She, too, questions this

dichotomy and dualism in approach to the concept of practice. She also asks why the

authors overlook the substantive literature in practical and pastoral theology as a

significant middle ground between these two groups. Practical and pastoral theology, as a

significant middle ground between the two perspectives, has long supported work that

has delved deeply into practices and religious experience. Additionally, Miller-

McLemore questions their use of constructive theology and practical theology as

transposable and interchangeable terms.706 Although she commends their good work on

the project, she calls for better scholarship on practice and its history in the academy. The

portrait painted by Maffly-Kipp, Schmidt and Valeri sets up a harmful dichotomy that

presents an adversarial image of the practices literature that doesnt quite exist. As

705
Bass, For Life Abundant, 30, footnote 10.
706
Miller-McLemore, The Politics of Practical Theological Knowledge, 29-30.

227
historians approaching a historical subject, their painting of the present situation seems

rather curious.

Furthermore, not all theologians, constructive or practical, cling to MacIntyres

virtue ethic as the automatic default for the concept of practice. As I will explore,

theologians Elaine Graham, Ted Smith, James Nieman, and Joyce Ann Mercer do not

rely on MacIntyre for their concept of practice. Instead, they affirm the embodied nature

of practices and their distinct social function within culture. Graham recognizes the

importance of MacIntyres appraisal of the moral norms built into practices, but argues

that practices are not simply moral entities; they have creative and epistemological

significance as well.707 Smith advocates for a concept of practice on a smaller scale

than MacIntyre, which he believes is more effective for framing questions about telos.

Nieman rejects MacIntyre for his muddiness and instead looks to a clear and durable

concept of practice. Finally, Mercer contends that MacIntyres understanding of the term

is basically individualistic and ignores social enactment and transformational possibility;

moreover, he ignores the ability of a given practice to bear alternative meanings. 708

Mary McClintock Fulkerson also criticizes MacIntrye: Forms of theology

relying upon a MacIntyrean definition of practice have refrained from recognizing the

racialized, gendered, and otherwise power-laden nature of Christian tradition.709

Furthermore, The concern for identity expressed in the MacIntyrean-inflected practice

focus has left unexplored the ways power is always a part of any contemporary

707
Graham, Transforming Practice, 99.
708
Mercer, Welcoming Children, 15
709
Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Theology and the Lure of the Practical: An Overview, Religion Compass
1/2 (2007), 300. (Overall 294-304).

228
situation710 Fulkerson is clear: if theology is a practice (which she argues it is), then

social location of theologians needs factoring in the analysis.711 Although Fulkerson does

not say so, I would say that many MacIntyrean-based definitions of practice appear to

ignore the important issues of social location and the way in which individuals internalize

their values, standards, and mores of society. In this sense, Graham, Mercer, Smith,

Nieman, and Fulkerson reinforce the pronounced critique: MacIntyre does not offer the

resources for a critical and contextual perspective on practice.

Theories about Practice

But first, I want to situate the conversation on practices as it has evolved in the

literature. In my opinion, to begin a conversation about practices is to begin with Craig

Dykstra. His work on practices, with Dorothy Bass as a strong and consistent

conversation partner, has done much to push the discussion and literature about practices

in the past thirty years.712 Dykstra began his work originally because he was unsatisfied

with the resources on practices and found theology burdened by a picture of practice that

is harmfully individualistic, technological, ahistorical, and abstract.713 In Reconceiving

Practice in Theological Inquiry and Education, he suggests the work of MacIntyre as a

corrective for the concept of practice; by doing so, Dykstra fundamentally alters the

710
Fulkerson, Theology and the Lure of the Practical, 300.
711
Fulkerson asks: How is the intellectual imagination, regardless of good intentions, constrained by such
factors? The Lure of the Practical, 300.
712
Dorothy Bass, Foreword, in Craig Dykstra, Growing in the Life of Faith: Education and Christian
Practice, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), xiii. Bass remarks that she has been
privileged to share in this work of the foundation-supported projects which sponsored books and other
resources.
713
Craig Dykstra, Reconceiving Practice in Theological Inquiry and Education, in Virtues and Practices
in the Christian Tradition: Christian Ethics after MacIntyre, eds. Nancey Murphy, Brad Kallenberg, and
Mark Thiessen (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997), 162.

229
theological conversation on practices. Dykstra firmly plants an approach to practice

which grows out of MacIntryres definition.714 Dykstra believes that virtues and wisdom

result from participation in practices; therefore, practices deserve a pivotal place in

Christian formation, theological study, and theological education. Dykstra makes

suppositions about the nature of practice: that it might be the conditions under which

various kinds of knowledge emerge, like knowledge of God, of ourselves, and the world.

Because he believes thinking and doing cannot be separated, Dykstras approach

combines thinking and acting as inextricably intertwined in meaningful human activity.

In 1997, Dorothy Bass came out with her edited volume Practicing Our Faith.

This set of essays originated in Dykstras insight that the idea of practice provides a

potentially helpful way of addressing the yearning of contemporary people for deeper

understanding of and involvement in the redemptive practice of God in the world.715

Bass defines practices as those shared activities that address fundamental human needs

and that, woven together, form a way of life.716 These practices are described as

constituent elements within a way of life that is responsive to and illuminated by Gods

active presence for the life of the world.717 Furthermore, Bass highlights that practices

can change how we live each day and together and form the basis for a faithful way of

life. The collaborating authors identify twelve particular practices that contribute to a
714
A practice, for MacIntyre, is any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human
activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve
those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity, with
the result that human powers to achieve excellence, and human conceptions of the ends and goods
involved, are systematically extended. Dykstra, Reconceiving Practice in Theological Inquiry and
Education, 169. This definition appears originally in MacInyres After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
(Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981) 187-88. This article first appeared in Lewis
Mudge and James Poling, Formation and Reflection: The Promise of Practical Theology (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1987).
715
Dorothy Bass, Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for Searching People, (Edison, NJ: Jossey-Bass,
1997), xiii.
716
Bass, Practicing Our Faith, xi.
717
Bass, Practicing Theology, 3.

230
Christian way of life. 718 These twelve practices offer the basic categories for all practices

and are composed of seemingly ordinary activities done over time which contain

standards of excellence. For Bass, our deepest and dearest purpose is to contribute to the

search that is going on all around us for a life-giving way of life.719 Christian faith is

described in terms of a life-giving way of life; discerning and encouraging practices is

central to forming the shape and substance of this life.

Dykstra expands upon the concept of practice via MacIntyre in Growing in the

Life of Faith. Practices involve ordinary activities with multiple levels of complexity and

broad ranges of participation; they involve both experience and guidance and, as a result,

practices can be learned and taught.720 In a section titled What is a practice? Dykstra

unpacks MacIntyres definition to name some very specific characteristics of a practice.

A practice is a cooperative human activity which is socially established and provides for

moral progress as well as having standards of excellence. Dykstra states:

In sum, then, practices are those cooperative human activities through which we,
as individuals and as communities, grow and develop in moral character and
substance. They have built up over time and, through experience and testing,
have developed patterns of reciprocal expectations among participants.721

Dykstras example of a practice, via MacIntyre, is baseball. Baseball operates as a

coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity which

over time has established rules and through which, powerful internal goods are realized.

Dykstra extends this definition to include God and the Christian faith, where faith is

made alive and shaped by practices. For Dykstra, practices allow people to recognize and
718
These 12 practices are: honoring the body, hospitality, household economics, saying yes and saying no,
keeping Sabbath, testimony, discernment, shaping communities, forgiveness, healing, dying well, singing
our lives.
719
Bass, Practicing Our Faith, 195.
720
Craig Dykstra, Growing in the Life of Faith: Education and Christian Practices, (Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 44.
721
Dykstra, Growing in the Life of Faith, 69.

231
participate in the work of Gods grace and allow space for Gods redemptive activity,

through Christ, to be made known and experienced.

Bass and Dykstra continue their theological conversation on practices in

Practicing Theology. The stated purpose of this volume is to rectify a perceived omission

in their earlier work on practices, specifically that Practicing Our Faith offered little

attention to specific Christian beliefs or to the process of reflection by which Christian

people sustain the integrity of these beliefs.722 Instead, Practicing Theology is an

invitation for systematic theologians to reflect on the concept of practice and move into a

process of reflection on the vital messiness and adaptive interplay of practices, as they

are expressed in Christian communities, both past and present. This text offers a range

of theological interpretations of the role of practices in a way of life that is attuned to

Gods grace.723 Bass and Dykstra think carefully about a way of life that is deeply

responsive to Gods grace and how it can take shape among human beings. Christian

practices address needs that are basic to human existence as such, and they do so in ways

that reflect Gods purposes for humankind. When they participate in such practices,

Christian people are taking part in Gods work of creation and new creation and thereby

growing into a deeper knowledge of God and of creation.724 Christian practices are

things people do together over time to address fundamental human needs as a response to

Gods presence for life in the world.725 Here the focus is on life as lived and the study

of these practices as a generative force for theological reflection.

722
Bass, Practicing Theology, 3.
723
Bass, For Life Abundant, 12.
724
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra, A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices, in Practicing
Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life, eds. Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass (Grand Rapids,
MI; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 21.
725
Bass and Dykstra, A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices, 18.

232
 This focus on life as lived is reflected in the attention given to practices by

systematic theologians in Practicing Theology. Kathryn Tanner focuses on the practice of

welcome and highlights the real-life negotiations involved. Tanner argues that

theological reflection instead arises within the ordinary workings of Christian lives to

meet pressing practical needs.726 These practical needs are (sometimes) met by practices

as forms of social coordinated action. Furthermore, she argues that Christian practices

need not be an exception to a more general description of practices: The ambiguities,

inconsistencies, and open-endedness of Christian practice are, however, the very things

that establish an essential place for theological reflection in everyday Christian lives.727

Volfs stated contention is that at the heart of every good theology lies not simply a

plausible intellectual vision but more importantly a compelling account of a way of life,

and that theology is therefore best done from within the pursuit of this way of life.728 He

uses the term practice as cooperative and meaningful human endeavors that seek to

satisfy fundamental human need and conditions and that people do together over time.729

Volf argues that Christian beliefs normatively shape Christian practices, and engaging in

practices can lead to acceptance and deeper understanding of these beliefs. All the

authors in Practicing Theology do not agree on one succinct definitions of practice and

practices relationship with beliefs, even if they do agree that both are essential to the life

of faith.

726
Kathryn Tanner, Theological Reflection and Christian Practices, in Practicing Theology: Beliefs and
Practices in Christian Life, eds. Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass (Grand Rapids, MI; William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2002), 228.
727
Tanner, Practicing Theology, 232.
728
Volf, Practicing Theology, 247.
729
Ibid., 248.

233
 For Bass and Dykstra, practices are a path to the abundant life. Focusing on

practices allows for theological reflection on ordinary activities: specific people doing

specific things within a shared framework of meaning. Thinking and reflecting about a

life composed of practices aids people to more fully to understand their shared life of

response to Gods active presence in Christ and to embody Gods grace and love to

others amid the complexities of contemporary life.730 Theology both shapes and is

shaped by practices. Furthermore, Bass and Dykstra understand their approach towards

practice differs from others because it is theological and and thus normed not only

internally but also through the responsive relationship of Christian practices to God.731

Bass and Dykstras For Life Abundant continues a conversation that focuses the

attention of theologians, pastors, and others on Christian practices and their role within a

faithful way of life that takes shape in and for the good of the world.732 This volume

represents more than a decade of research as it has developed ways of thinking about and

strengthening Christian practices.733 Bass contends, It has seemed to us, therefore, that

to be called Christian a practice must pursue a good beyond itself, responding to and

embodying the self-giving dynamics of Gods own creating, redeeming, and sustaining

grace.734 Bass states the following as a summary of a theological and normative

understanding of practices interprets:

730
Bass, Practicing Theology, 7.
731
Bass and Dykstra, A Theological Understanding of Christian Practices, 21, footnote 8.
732
Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra, Introduction, For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological
Education, and Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008),
12.
733
This book reflects the work of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith,
a Lilly Endowment project based at Valparaiso University. Bass and Dykstra, For Life Abundant, 12.
734
Dorothy Bass, Ways of Life Abundant, in For Life Abundant: Practical Theology, Theological
Education, and Christian Ministry, eds. Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 30.

234
 practices as the traditioned yet always-emerging patterns through which
communities live as Jesus disciples, responding to Gods grace and to the needs
of humans beings and all creation. It interprets practices, in short, as forms within
and through which a Christian way of life takes shape.735

Ultimately, practical theology attends to the following question: How might a way of life

that is life-giving in and for the sake of the world be best understood and described, and

how might contemporary people come to live it more fully?736 For Bass and Dykstra, the

answer seems to be encouraging specific practices from the Christian tradition.

In the end, for Bass and Dykstra, practices are those shared activities that address

fundamental human needs and that, woven together, form a way of life. Christian

practices are things Christian people do together over time in response to and in the light

of Gods active presence for the life of the world. For both, practices are shaped by the

context of Christian faith that is both attuned to present-day needs and taught by ancient

wisdom. Again, they base their definition on MacIntyres development of the concept of

practice as the means by which human action is the bearer of consistent and historically

rooted system of values. Specifically, Bass and Dykstra want practices to be bearers of

tradition since they rest on a complex convention of interactions over time. Practices are

rooted in the past, and although they can change in present communities and

circumstances, they are historical in that they are activities people engage in together over

time.737

Tradition and convention are two important aspects of their concept of practice;

additionally, these two aspects were difficult to find when I looked to the essays. The

activities I was witnessing were not traditional or conventional; instead, they were

735
Ibid, 32.
736
Bass and Dykstra, Introduction, in For Life Abundant, 2.
737
Bass and Dykstra, Practicing Theology, 26.

235
spontaneous and open-ended. The activities of the college students were not rooted in the

past, nor were most even tied to a faith tradition or a faith community. For example, one

essay discusses a flag football game during which an a-ha moment occurred. It was hard

to understand how a game of flag football might be tied to the ancient wisdom of biblical

communities or even as a part of a complex convention of interactions over time.

Moreover, not all of the essayists are Christian; in fact, one important essay reflects on

fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Many essayists do not really mention God

and only about a quarter mention a particular faith tradition. Bass and Dykstra are clear:

their use of practices is rooted in the Christian tradition. Christian practices are things that

Christians do over time to address fundamental human (Christian) needs.

For Bass and Dykstra there are twelve practices, as described in Practicing Our

Faith. These practices are: honoring the body, hospitality, household economics, saying

yes and saying no, keeping Sabbath, testimony, discernment, shaping communities,

forgiveness, healing, dying well, and singing our lives. I saw some potential in the

categories of shaping communities, hospitality, and especially discernment as

descriptions of practices of the essayists. However, the twelve practices described by

Bass and Dykstra did not describe the activities I was witnessing. I should say that I had

started with their definition and had wanted it to work as a way to analyze the essays; in

short, I had expected to use it. But as I worked my way into the essays, I realized my

expectation was misguided: trying to fit the essays into their framework was like trying to

fit a circle into a square hole: it just didnt fit. I wondered if their twelve practices might

better describe adult practices. Perhaps there were more than just twelve practices out

236
there; perhaps some practices might be constructed based on the evidence of the essayists

in order to suggest practices for a younger generation.

However, I also realized my approach towards practices was fundamentally

different from Bass and Dykstra. Simply put: my task is to describe, whereas their task is

to prescribe. Their task is to prescribe because they ultimately offer guides and

recommendations via particular practices for more virtuous living. As example, Bass

offers a summary of Dykstras lifelong interest with two questions: What does it mean to

live the Christian life faithfully and well? And how can we help one another to do so?738

Although unstated, it seems like these questions are at least partially answered by the

concept of practice. For Dykstra, practices are those activities which guide Christians

towards the abundant life; because practices can be learned and taught, they function as

prescriptive ways to the life abundant. Additionally, Dykstra plants his approach firmly in

the Protestant faith; he claims that this traditions practices have great wisdom to impart.

Because practices are historical and rooted in tradition, he excavates Christianity for

normative suggestions of the virtuous life. Dykstra believes people can be habituated into

believing the truths of Christianity through the practices of Christian life.739

These insights highlight the overall telos of Bass and Dykstras concept of

practice: they ultimately want to recommend to people to ways in which to live a better

and more virtuous life. My task, however, is more focused on the life as lived of the

college students: often complicated, messy, and defying categorization. My task is to

listen to the voices of the college students and glean from their statements particular

aspects of their experience through thick description. Trying to fit their activities into

738
Bass, Growing in the Life of Faith, xiii.
739
Maffly-Kipp et al., Practicing Protestants, 4.

237
Bass and Dykstras definition of practice was forcing them into a very square peg. Rather

than proscribing things for college students to do, my task is to start with their experience

and describe what they are actually doing. The hope is that the lessons learned in the

essays can be passed on and encouraged in other spheres, particularly in higher

education.

However, I do want to draw on the important work of Bass and Dykstra because I

found aspects of their definition very compelling, once the Christian language and the

focus on tradition are stripped away. Practices are ordinary and shared activities that

address fundamental human needs that can change how each day is lived. Practices

involve cooperative human activity within a shared framework of meaning. Practices

involve multiple levels of complexity and broad ranges of participation; furthermore,

practices can be learned and taught. The insight that practices can be learned and taught is

one of the most compelling aspects of Bass and Dykstras work on practices. This implies

that we can learn from what other people are doing and additionally, we can pass those

lessons on to others. This assertion supports my basic aim to learn from the essays in

order to teach lessons about better practices.

I return to Miller-McLemores early criticism of the portrait Shifly and others

paint of the concept of practice. Besides offering an unhelpful dichotomy with Bass and

Dykstra on one side and social theorists on the other, Miller McLemore asks why the

authors overlook the substantive literature in practical and pastoral theology as a

significant middle ground between these two opposing groups. She contends that

practical and pastoral theology has long supported work that has delved deeply into

practices and religious experience and names this as an important middle ground between

238
the apparent bifurcation on practices. Following Miller-McLemores lead, I locate this

important middle ground in the work of Elaine Graham, Ted Smith, James Nieman, and

Joyce Ann Mercer. Using their work on practices, I excavate important aspects of

practice found within the middle ground of practical and pastoral theology.

The Middle Ground: Graham, Smith, Neiman, and Mercer

Elaine Graham describes her model of pastoral theology as the interpretation of

purposeful practices.740 In Transforming Practice, Graham insists that living in todays

world is to live uncertainty where all grand narratives have been dissolved; theology

must confront the postmodern triad of pluralism, diversity, and skepticism. More

specifically, the discipline of pastoral theology should confront postmodernism and

reconceptualize itself as the articulation and excavation of the sources and norms of

Christian practice.741 Graham envisions a new and central role of pastoral theology

where the focus becomes directed towards the practices of faith communities;

furthermore, womens experiences, liberation theology, and the stories of people are the

sources of practical wisdom and ultimately, for transforming practice.

Graham advocates for pastoral theology to develop a broad category of analysis

when it comes to the concept of practice. As a working definition, we might characterize

practices as purposeful activity performed by embodied persons in time and space as both

the subjects of agency and the objects of history.742 For support, Graham turns to the

social sciences which place the notion of practice at the heart of the dynamics of the

740
Graham, Transforming Practice, 111.
741
Ibid., 106.
742
Ibid., 110.

239
formation and maintenance of the social order, both material and symbolic.743 She traces

the beginning of this critical attention to practice to Max Weber, the most important

theorist of social action.744 Next is Giddens, then MacInytre, whom she quotes at length.

She recognizes the importance of MacIntyres appraisal of the moral norms built into

practices, but argues that practices are not simply moral entities; they have creative and

epistemological significance as well.745 For Graham, there is a wider grounding for

practices other than ethics; practice is more than just a kind of moral discourse towards

virtuous living. She adds:

as a postmodern, gender-sensitive and performative discipline, pastoral theology

is less concerned to legislate about the application of eternal moral norms or rules
articulated outside the situation, as it is concerned to act as interpreter of the
resources by which the faith-community may cultivate its sensibility for
disclosure.746

For Graham, engagement in new practices gives rise to new kind of knowledge: practice

may also be intrinsically disclosive of new realms of understanding: reading a poem and

making a connection with a deeper level of meaning or experience; or listening to the

stories of other as in a pastoral encounter or therapeutic conversation.747

Turning to Pierre Bourdieus idea of practice, Graham argues that practice both

reflects and reinforces social relations and ideologies. Bourdieu emphasized the

inventiveness and unpredictability of practice as well as the self-reflexivity of practice of

human actors as the subjects of agency and objects of history.748 Again, Grahams defines

a practice as purposeful activity performed by embodied persons in space and time as

743
Ibid., 97.
744
Ibid., 98.
745
Ibid., 99.
746
Ibid., 209.
747
Ibid., 99.
748
Ibid., 102-3.

240
the subject of agency and the object of history.749 Grahams use of the later phrase as

the subjects of agency and objects of history specifically reflects Bourdieus perspective

that the concept of practice mediates the divide between structure and agency.750

Practices are in some sense rule-governed and institutional but are also still dependent on

individual and collective agency for their maintenance. Graham states: Embodied

practices have meaning; but the meaning is implicit and inseparable from the practices

themselves.751 Since Max Weber, emphasis has been placed on the centrality of practice

as a key concept in understanding how human culture is produced and reproduced.752

Practices are processes by which social relations are generated and practices both reflect

and reinforce social relations and ideologies. Graham concludes: Practice is constitutive

of a way of life, both individual and collective, personal and structural.753

Again, for Graham, practices are activities performed by embodied persons in

space and time and pastoral theology, as a discipline, should focus on these practices.

Graham describes her model of pastoral theology as the interpretation of purposeful

practices and therefore, as a discipline pastoral theology is not legislative or prescriptive,

but interpretive.754 The process is interpretive and inductive; pastoral theology should

begin by looking carefully at the actual practices of faith communities. Graham states:

In this sense, practical theology helps communities of faith both to articulate and

749
Elaine Graham, Practical Theology as Transforming Practice, in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and
Practical Theology, eds. James Woodward and Stephen Pattison (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000),
110.
750
Graham states: Such perspectives effectively mediate between theories of society which regard human
relations as determined by the laws of history or forces of nature, and those which portray human culture as
little more than agglomerations of the random activities and choices of individual actors. Rather, practice
emerges as something which mediates between structure and agency, seeing culture as a human creation
which nonetheless persists over time. Graham, Transforming Practice, 97.
751
Graham, Transforming Practice, 103.
752
Ibid., 98.
753
Graham, Transforming Practice, 110.
754
Ibid., 208.

241
practice what they preach or believe and also to better articulate or preach what they

practice.755 By examining practices, Graham sees this pursuit as one for phronesis,

harkening to Aristotles notion of practical knowledge, what she calls a performative

practical wisdom (phronesis) which we inhabit and re-enact.756 Although Graham does

not expand on her use of phronesis, I will continue this conversation in my conclusion in

Chapter Eight. I follow Graham that if we examine practices, we can uncover accounts of

phronesis.

In For Life Abundant, Ted Smith references the MacIntyre vs. Bourdieu split in

the literature on practices. He leans towards Bourdieu because he specifically interprets

practice on a smaller scale. Smith states that this sense of practice calls for work at a

smaller scale than the one suggested by Alasdair MacIntyres definition of practice.757

Smith goes on to entreat that he doesnt mean to reject MacIntyres definition;

furthermore, Smith confers that Bourdieu and MacIntyre do not present mutually

exclusive definitions.758 For example, for Smith, MacIntyre is more effective for

framing questions about the telos of preaching as a whole. However, Bourdieus

approach offers a tighter focus and a smaller scale of analysis where actual sermons are

congeries of practices, each with a telos of its own (for better or for worse).759

Particularly helpful for Smith is Bourdieus recognition of practices as durable and

transposable. But Smith cautions that this smaller scale of analysis risks giving up

755
James Woodward and Steven Pattison, Introduction, in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and
Practical Theology, eds. James Woodward and Stephen Pattison (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000),
105.
756
Graham, Practical Theology as Transforming Practice, 110.
757
Ted Smith, History, Practice, and Theological Education, in For Life Abundant Practical Theology,
Theological Education, and Christian Ministry, eds. Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra (Grand Rapids, MI:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 217, footnote 2.
758
Smith, For Life Abundant, 217, footnote 2.
759
Ibid., 217, footnote 2.

242
questions of purpose of the whole.760 Smith is helpful by making this distinction

between a smaller scare of analysis (Bourdieu) and one that looks broadly to the future

goal (MacIntyre); in addition, these approaches are not mutually exclusive. Although

explicitly unstated, the assumption is that both approaches might be used in conjunction

with one another for a more thorough and critical view of practices. In the end, Smith

opts for a tighter focus where actual sermons are congeries of practices. I adopt from

Smith, and will sometimes use, his term of congeries of practices to describe the

categories I found within the essays.

James Nieman cites that vague terms and fuzzy thinking contextualizes the

conversation on practices.761 Nieman seeks a portable, supple, durable heuristic

definition of practice while avoiding the twin traps of either false simplicity or mind-

numbing detail.762 Surveying the range of contemporary approaches to practice, Nieman

recognizes five basic features that often appear: the what (actions), who (common), why

(meaningful), how (strategic), and where (purposive).763 In other words, Nieman states, a

practice can be recognized as including common, meaningful, strategic, purposive

actions.764 Ultimately, he rejects MacIntyres concept of practice because of his

muddiness in exploring the distinction between simple actions and fuller practices in his

famous definition, although he often and unhelpfully blurred the same line in the

examples he chose.765 Nieman admittedly discards MacIntyre because he aims to

760
Ibid.,
761
James Nieman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, in Teaching Preaching as a Christian Practice, eds.
Thomas Long and Leonora Tubbs Tisdale (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 19.
762
Nieman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, 20.
763
Ibid., 19-20.
764
Ibid., 20.
765
Nieman specifically references MacIntyres work in After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame,
IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 187-88. Neiman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, 19.

243
develop a clear and durable understanding of the concept of practice.766 Practices, as

suggested by Nieman, are patterned, common actions that are strategically undertaken

toward realizing distinct communal goals.767

For Joyce Ann Mercer, practical theology is a way of engaging in theological

action and reflection in connection with the life practices of persons and communities.768

Practical theology takes seriously local contexts and practices in the everyday lives of

people. Mercer highlights the current disparity concerning practice: on one hand, it is

something of a buzzword in theological circles but on the other hand, its increasingly

popular use has the term functioning as a synonym for human activity a practice is

merely what people do.769 Mercer mediates this divide and instead, uses the term

practice in two ways throughout her book, Welcoming Children. She states: Practice

refers to the productive, person-forming power of practices as socially shaped and shared

forms of action. It refers also to the strategic and tactical ways in which persons engage

in actions in a particular context.770 This person-forming power of practices expresses

the dynamic and transformational potential of practices. In this sense, practices are also

sites for resistance, transformation, and change.771

Engaging the perspective of Bourdieu and Bell, Mercer emphasizes the critical

and transformative aspect of practice. Using these two social theorists, Mercer highlights

that practices are a form of activity that is situational and strategic; furthermore,

embedded within practices are a misrecognition of what it is doing, and which both

766
Ibid., 20.
767
Nieman, Why the Idea of Practice Matters, 43.
768
Mercer, Welcoming Children, 13.
769
Ibid., 13-14.
770
Ibid., 14.
771
Ibid.

244
structures and resists power/status relations between groups.772 Practices involve an

element of misrecognition: they have meanings beyond what they appear to mean.

Mercer states: Practices can even mean something different from what their practitioners

may articulate as their meanings.773 Furthermore, this misrecognition is a key to the

transformational potential of a practice because it indicates the ability of a given practice

to bear alternative meanings within its purview.774 Mercer offers a key insight into the

nature of practices that is important for my discussion: practices can mean many

different things, even different from what the practitioner (or essayist) might imagine.

This state of misrecognition allows for a plurality of interpretations regarding practice;

moreover, misrecognition inadvertently allows for the transformative potential of practice

through different meanings.

Overall, Graham defines practices as purposeful activity performed by embodied

persons; she calls for the field of pastoral theology to re-situate its focus on these

practices. Because practices are constitutive of a way of life, reflecting on practices

cultivates phronesis, or practical wisdom. Furthermore, engaging in practices leads to

new practices. Smith is helpful because he insists on working on a smaller scale of

analysis: in his case, an actual sermon and in my case, a set of essays. Smith states that

actual sermons are congeries of practices: these congeries are groupings of practices,

similar to my five categories of practice. Practice, as a durable and transposable

offers a tighter focus and a smaller scale of analysis. Nieman also wants a clear and

durable concept of practice which includes common, meaningful, strategic, and

purposive action. He defines practices as patterned, common actions that are strategically

772
Ibid., 14.
773
Ibid., 15.
774
Ibid.

245
undertaken toward distinct communal goals. Finally, Mercer contends that practices are

productive activities that contain shared forms of action and also which have person-

forming power. Additionally, practices involve strategic and tactical ways in which

persons engage in actions within a particular context. Embedded within practices is

misrecognition which allows for a multiplicity of interpretations and the holds the

power of transformative potential.

All these theologians agree (Bass, Dykstra, Tanner, Volf, Graham, Smith,

Nieman, and Mercer): practices are part of the everyday living of ordinary people within

a variety of contexts. A practice is constitutive of a way of life, both of the individual and

the community.775 All agree that practices are meaningful clusters of human activity and

shared forms of action which address fundamental human needs; furthermore, practices

are unpredictable and inventive in their response to human need. Practices have multiple

levels of complexity with broad ranges of participation. Practices are the real stuff of life,

of life as lived, and complicated, messy, and otherwise very ordinary. Bass states:

Yet messy everyday practices, embraced humbly yet boldly, are precisely the
forms of life that bear help and grace and companionship and challenge for
figuring out what to do next within the actual complexities of contemporary
society.776

This challenge for figuring out what do next is answered through the study and

examination of practices because these purposeful activities are ultimately the sources of

practical wisdom (phronesis). Examining the lives and stories of everyday people with

excruciating care in respect to their communal actions yields important insights that can

be learned and taught. Finally, all would agree that the person-forming power of

practices is an important focus of pastoral and practical theology.

775
Graham, Transforming Practice, 110.
776
Bass, Ways of Life Abundant, in For Life Abundant, 34.

246
 Examining the Essays: Practices

From all these theologians I construct a basic definition of practice: communal,

contextual and purposeful activity strategically undertaken by embodied persons. If I use

this as a basic lens to view the essays, ninety-four percent of the essays describe

particular practices. Further reflection generated five general categories of practice that

emerge: practices of service, practices of fellowship, practices of work, practices of

reading and reflection, and practices of conversation. Of the forty-eight essays, only three

did not describe an activity or a practice. One described a vision, another detailed a self-

revelation involving procrastination. Otherwise, over ninety percent of these emerging

adults describe an activity that coincided with their a-ha moment. I will quote many at

length as they describe the doing of something with the becoming of something. I will

also say that this is the category that I see the most potential in and the one I was most

excited about discussing. On the one hand, it seems obvious: going on social service trip,

participating in fellowship, conversing with a mentor, or reading can have a profound

impact. But what appears to be obvious is not practiced in higher education; rather, these

kinds of activities are not part of a college curriculum, although they are often associated

with a campus environment.

The a-ha moment occurred in the midst of doing what? If a practice is a

communal, contextual and purposeful activity strategically undertaken by embodied

persons, five basic categories emerge, otherwise known as congeries of practice. I

describe the following five general categories, or congeries, of practice: practice of

247
service, practice of fellowship, practice of work, practice of reading and reflection, and

practice of conversation. These categories are groupings of similar stories that appear to

have comparable shared forms of action. These kinds of activities, best described as

practices, encourage formation, flourishing, and growth. Best of all, as highlighted by

Dykstra and Bass, practices can be encouraged, learned, replicated, and taught.

Practice of Service

This category consists of experiences involving social justice, social action

awareness, social service trips, and more generally, helping others. In short, these account

express acting for another and not just for the self.777 Ten responses, almost a quarter of

the essays, reflect on a service experience involving helping others. Shelley offers a

compelling case example: Shelley spent a summer working for a social service

organization serving homeless and low-income people in a large city. Living in the

organizations transitional housing afforded Shelley an intense look into the lives of the

poor: Working with inner city youth, living in a large city, and facing social issues on a

personal level allowed me to have a life-changing summer. Furthermore, Shelley goes

on to list four major changes as a result of this service experience: first, she

acknowledges the sheer enormity of life and the world; second, she realized that she can

function independently; third, she developed a new sense of confidence; and finally, she

affirmed her calling to continue to work with the poor. She goes on to say that beyond

these personal insights, her views on social justice actually have changed; issues like

poverty, hunger, homelessness, racism, and sexism where abstract terms for her before,

777
These accounts would offer an interesting discussion with Arnetts developmental marker of the self-
focused age of emerging adulthood. Perhaps by stepping out of the self-focusedness, even for a moment,
adds to the further development of the identity.

248
but that the personal relationships I formed completely changed my perception of the

social problems people face each day in our society.

Jackies weeklong service trip to Atlanta was an amazing confirmation of my

love of service. This service trip helped her realize that there are great opportunities in

nonprofit organizations: Now I know I can make a living by serving others and

nonprofits are a great way to do so. Similarly, Anns a-ha moment occurred during her

involvement with a campus group for social justice. For the very first time, Ann felt

very non-materialistic but also an acute sense of futility: For the first time I questioned

what it was exactly that I was doing and what I was planning to do with my life. It

became clear that social justice, politics, and world affairs were incredibly important to

her and this vision was confirmed with other social service projects in which she

participated.

Another student, Kate, fell in to a variety of social justice based events It

was during the course of these events when she realized that beyond feeling like she was

doing a good deed donating to local care groups, it was the reality of hunger and

homelessness that took her experience to a different level. Kates service in one event led

her to service in other areas. Exposure to stories about the border of Mexico made her

realize that I needed to be immersed in a situation that dealt directly with the issues of

social justice day in and day out. Kate signed up for more service work, this time on

the border. Her a-ha moment was when I realized that I need to learn, need to love, and

then I can serve alongside those suffering injustice.

A further example is Marcia who wrote about her trip to South Africa to study

and work with AIDS patients. As a nursing student, this trip secured in her mind that she

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will return one day to help those with AIDS in Africa. A similar experience was reflected

on by Pete when he wrote about a social service trip to El Salvador to learn about the

community and people ravaged by a civil war Two emotions became readily

apparent: shame and pride. The shame came from being a US citizen, supporters of their

oppressive government and makers of the weapons that took Bishop Romero. But the

pride also: I felt pride in the human races defiant ability to forgive, love, and live. Pete

writes of a touching moment he had with an elderly man from a village they were visiting

who thanked me from coming and for my solidarity. Finally, Stephanie reflects on

involvement with her Social Action Leadership Group were working with others reminds

her of the joy in giving. But also, she recognizes in her a-ha moment the difficulty of not

being able to help everyone, everywhere; however, that doesnt mean you should stop

trying.

This category of practice of service reflects the impact and importance of

serving others. As some of the essays suggest, it is also leads to more service and the

seeking out of new opportunities. But also, there seems to be a profound impact when

one is confronted with the realities of poverty, hunger, and homelessness, in tandem with

the luxuries of college, meal plans, and warm beds. One these stark realities of this world

are experienced, these emerging adults are confronted with a change in perception. In

many ways, I see this practice of social service the most profound practice and the one I

was most excited to see, which I will expand upon more in the conclusion.

Practices of Fellowship

These activities include worship, youth groups, theatre productions, and even a

game of capture the flag. In the midst of these fellowship experiences, something

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changes: either a new personal insight or the feeling of merging with a larger group. For

thirteen of the essays, the a-ha moment occurred as a result of a fellowship activity. One

of the more striking accounts, and one that serves as a fitting first example of fellowship,

is Andrews account of a game of capture the flag, titled An Impacting Evening of

Unity. Andrew took part in the leadership of a campus event whose purpose was to unite

the different Christian and Catholic fellowships on campus. But, Andrew states, this

was no ordinary game. This was a game of unity, filled with joy and fellowship.

Andrew describes a general feeling of tension between the various fellowships but

during the game of Capture the Flag, and the spontaneous activities that continued after,

there were no tensions or boundaries. This event was impacting and influential in my

college career because it truly showed me that we, the students, could make faith in

college what we want it to be. He adds:

Witnessing how God was able to take an idea and allow it to grow to something
bigger and more dynamic than we had planned was also extremely influential in
regards to how I think about how God can work today. Furthermore, this event
opened the door for future events where all could come and share in community,
allowing God to continue his mission of unity at -blank-. Many times in college
students have ideas, good ideas. I believe the simple game of Capture the Flag
showed my friends and me what can happen when students do not limit
themselves and do not limit God in what can be accomplished.

This activity of capture the flag demonstrates several key aspects of a practice: a

common, yet meaningful experience, whose ordinariness is transcended by its impact on

the lives of emerging adults. It was also this account that confounded definitions of

practice, like Bass and Dykstra, which required tradition and ancient wisdom. Capture the

flag, as a game of sport, although similar to MacIntyres example of baseball, does not

reflect well in the Christian tradition or ancient biblical wisdcom.

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 Other students reflect on the power of a youth group as a fellowship activity. Julie

discusses the impact of freshman year, its unforeseen struggles, and also that it felt like

something was missing in my life. Through prayer, she realized that what she missed

was the youth activities I had been so involved with as a high-school student. Julie had

held leadership positions within a youth group and missed the sense of involvement and

community. Contacting her schools chaplain, Julie was introduced to a local youth group

and within that fellowship, her a-ha moments occurred. Julie states: Working with

blankhas been an incredible blessing, one that God led me to, and because of my

experiences with the group, I am now discerning a call into youth ministry, a call I was

able to further explore

Next, Tom discusses going through a very deep depression after a crisis. He

states, Not long after I reached this low in my life, I was introduced to a local churchs

youth group. The youth minister and college minister took me under their wings. It

was here that the practice began, the practice of attending this fellowship meeting: I

regularly attended the youth and college meetings at the church. Through this

participation and attendance he began to understand a new kind of relationship he could

have with God and This is the biggest aha moment in my college experience. For

Tom, life is about God and I want to do all that I can to fulfill the two greatest

commandments given by Jesus: Love God and Love Others. By attending the youth

group at church, Tom formed a new relationship with God.

Other students remarked on the powerful feeling of fellowship within the context

of worship. Whitney reflects on his involvement with planning the liturgy for his schools

worship service. Planning music, being involved in the choir, and leading in prayer are

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events where voices join in song and prayer in communion with one another, the world,

and with God. These are the kind of experiences that bring me joy and a sense of

fulfillment. For Whitney, being involved with the liturgy engendered a series of aha

moments that have helped me to come to a deeper understanding of who I am and what

my life is asking of me. I am most alive when I am leading and walking with others in

faith. Participating in the fellowship of worship, Whitney states, In doing this I have

come to realize that not only do I love music ministry, but I am actually a talented

conductor and director. And better yet, there is a need in the world for this kind of

ministry. The aha or realization of a blessing in these experiences is that my hearts

desire and passion is also my lifes calling and the worlds need.

Meg also reflects on the power of communal worship and begins her essay: One

of the most profound aha moments Ive had in college, is experiencing a truly gathered

Quaker meeting. A class on Quakerism required students to independently attend three

meetings in the area. Having grown up Quaker, Meg visited a meeting some distance

away in order to experience a rural, conservative meeting. I was not expecting to

experience a worship that would deeply change my understanding and approach to

Quaker worship. This experience was vastly different from another other Quaker

meeting and Despite the sense of familiarity, once entering the Meeting I was

immediately taken aback by the silence. It was powerful, deep, and present. Later, It

was hard for me to describe and put into words the power and palpability of this silence.

The silence seemed like a deep presence. It was separate from us, but at the same time we

were an active part of it. .. I had never felt such a strong deep communal presence both

outwardly and inwardly. This deep communal presence is more than just the feeling of

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fellowship, but the essay is clear that the power of participating in a kind of fellowship

activity can herald in the opening for profound feelings.

I resisted the category of Christian practices in part on behalf of the essay by

Sahar, involving fasting during a holy month of Islam. Her aha moment occurred

during the month of Ramadan in which one prays and fasts, from sunrise to sunset

without food or water. It allows oneself to practice control over oneself and a time to

learn more about faith and life. Islam, a way of life, is part of my identity and enriches

my life daily. Sahar discusses a very personal moment that happens at pre-dawn, before

fasting, on a stroll with a friend and they begin to chase a herd of deer. Sahar states: In

that moment, even though our behavior was quite extraordinary, nothing mattered but the

fulfillment and happiness I gained and shared. She reflects on her faith and some of the

negative feelings she has received because of inherent misperceptions about her cultures

faith in Islam. In the end, Sahar asks: Through sharing our experiences, can we

understand each other, respectful of others and oneself? Faith is a beautiful, human

experience that should be shared and celebrated. In sharing and celebrating with others,

in a spirit of fellowship, people are formed and changed.

A final example is a story that has been quoted previously and involves Sandras

involvement in a production of Vagina Monologues. What is important for this section is

her description of how she felt in the context of performing the play: I felt infinite. I

experienced such a powerful feeling in that moment: I was making a statement through

my involvement and my commitment. I was working to create a change in our world a

change that I truly believe in. I involved myself with a group of other people equally

committed to this cause. And I was involved in something bigger than myself so

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inconceivably bigger than little, insignificant me. This comment is significant because it

raises an aspect of this category that is important: involvement in a group and

participating in something bigger than the self has a positive formative impact. I

describe this as fellowship, but it also indicates a need for merger into something more

than just the self.

These activities of fellowship, like service, seem to encourage student to seek out

and participate in other fellowship activities. It becomes a practice in the sense that it

produces the desire to participate repeatedly in activities, like worship, that involve the

greater community. Almost 30% of the essayist responded by describing a fellowship

activity that precipitated the a-ha moment. And, in the midst of these fellowship

experiences, something changes for these emerging adults.

Practice of Work

Practices involving work evolved as a category because about fifteen percent of the

students discussed the impact of an internship or work-study job. This practice of work is

more than just the exasperated command from parents in cartoons like Zits: get a job!

Perhaps better: get a work-study job or internship that reflects interests in particular fields

of employment. Work-study offers the opportunity for students to work part-time and

receive compensation as part of their financial aid. For example, Barb discusses her a-ha

moment when she started her work-study job at a medical center. Upon entering college,

she thought I had everything figured out. I was going to attend undergraduate for four

years, obtain a degree in the sciences, and then go on to medical school. This was the

vision I had imagined since I was a little girl, and I was positive everything would go

according to plan. However, My perfect, ideal image began to quickly unravel when I

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started my job at the medical center. This job gave her a clear picture of the life of a

doctor: Unfortunately, it did not match up with the pretty photo in my head. Through

her work-study job, Barb realized that her reasons for wanting to be a doctor were very

superficial and her a-ha moment was that working in the medical field did not match up

to what made me really happy and full of life.

This trend of the a-ah moment happening within the context of a new work

experience occurred within six of the essays. Not always a positive experience,

participating in a work environment either for money or for experience was credited

with engendering the a-ha moment in about fifteen percent of the essays. Two accounts

describe jobs they didnt like: both reflect on how this real world experience highlighted

what they did NOT want to do; furthermore, it also caused reflection and exploration on

how their talents might be better utilized. Another essay discusses a work study job that

had a more positive result: Georgias friend was going abroad for a semester and asked

if Id be interested in her work-study job. The work study was working as a teachers

aide and on a whim, she took it. I have to admit that since Id never worked in the

school setting, I was very intimidated and, in the beginning, I doubted my decision about

choosing to work there, but I had no idea that this opportunity was simply setting the

stage for the rest of my college career. In short, Georgia loved her job: I started

noticing that each morning, when Id prepare for the day, I would get so happy at the

thought of going into work because I couldnt wait to be back in the presence of my

students. It was during this time that she decided to re-track her life away from a

medical career and become a teacher. This a-ha moment was the greatest feeling to

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finally know what my calling was; I was still going to be able to work with people and

help them like I had planned, but in a different way.

Another work practice mentioned in the essays is having an internship. Mario

states: My internship helped me more clearly understand my sense of vocation. As an

intern in a campus ministry program, he worked alongside three other interns to share

our experiences and receive feedback from the associate chaplain. Through these

experiences, three central passions were confirmed: studying scripture, teaching scripture,

and spending time with people. My aha! moment came as a result of this

feeling.Another student, Kevin, credits an internship in historical research and

gravestone restoration. Working everyday at the slow and patient work of gravestone

restoration, Kevin realized: Aha! It came on a sunny May afternoon in a graveyard,

where I sat in gym clothes scrubbing away at marble epitaphs with a toothbrush.

Awkward as it sounds, my call to ministry came in a cemetery. In the context of this

activity, Kevin had hours of solace to speak to God, but more importantly to listen and

take it all in. Working every day with toothbrushes worn to the nub alone in a

cemetery, Kevin had the time and space to hear his call to ministry. Real world

experiences, outside of the classroom, offer different contexts with which student can

experience (and sometimes make money!) Not always a positive experience, these

essayists are clear that work-study jobs and internships are beneficial in charting ones

future course.

Practice of Reading and Reflection

The practice of reading and reflection was a category I was surprised to find.

Students quoted different texts at length and discussed important insights and conclusion

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they gained. About 15% of the essays discussed reading an important book and through

reflection, they applied those insights to their own life. Authors who were quoted ranged

from Os Guiness and Parker Palmer to the Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions, and

also included authors like George Vaillant, John Dewey, Ghandi, Henry Nouwen, and

Richard Wright. It is the nature of college coursework to involve copious amounts of

reading, and although some texts were from class, most texts did not seem part of course

material.

Several of the essayist quoted text, some students quoting at length and even

footnoting. Heather describes reading Life of the Beloved by Henry Nouwen. She reports

being frustrated and burnt out. In the attempt to help others, Heather realized that I

had focused all my energy into helping others and was severely neglecting my own

physical, spiritual and emotional needs. Reading Nouwen, it spoke to my heart. The

most profound realization was: hearing that God loves me and believing it are two

different things and I must admit that I am blessed and broken before I can be shared.

Her a-ha moment came out of reading Nouwen, who spoke to her heart, and confirmed

her own blessed and broken nature.

One example stands out given my discussion of practices. Ryan discusses college as

a rite of passage and most people who have gone through this rite have experienced

moments in their studies that have formed, shaped and ultimately changed them. He

traces his moment to reading early texts on Christian worship. He states:

My formative moment did not end in the discovery of these early texts though.
My exposure to these early texts helped blaze a trail on the path of my own
spiritual renewal. Merely reading a text was not enough for me. I began to
realize that although these texts were ancient, they were far from dead. I found
that the practices I was reading about were alive with meaning and symbol.

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Although he describes his own change as slow, reading and reflecting on these texts

encouraged him to liturgical expand his own horizons. He began to incorporate these

ancient prayers and practices in worship and attend other services that used traditional

liturgy. My relationship with the ancient traditions of the Church changed from an

intellectual knowing of various practices, to a formative experience. This essay is

important also because his language, as well as a couple of others, encouraged me to

adopt the language of formation and formative experience.

This category of practice involving of reading and reflection of engaging

written material and having the time and space to reflect on its meaning seems

important given todays current context where most reading is done via e-mail, texts, or

twitter. Reading comprehension is on the decline and more electronic texts are now sold

than paper copies. Reading and reflecting as an activity can generate insight and facilitate

a-ha moments. Amy quotes two passages about the life of the artist and the life of the

intellect. These two passages were in her mind when she went to a mass one night.

During the blessing of the gifts, it struck me. It was like the stars had aligned; everything

came into focus for one brief second. Her a-ha moment was involved understanding how

her passions might be gifts from God and that her lifes work as an artist is utilizing those

gifts.

Reading and reflection often expands vision and offers new possibilities in

thinking. Through reading particular texts, John explains his aha moment occurred when

he expanded the idea of what ministry could be. I had no real concept of the diversity of

ways in which God calls us as His ministers in the world: He called some to be business

leaders, some to be teachers; some to be nurses, doctors, lawyers, and the list goes on.

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For John, after reading texts by Guiness and Palmer, ministry and being a minister is

more than just preaching on Sundays. Brittany mentions reading material from a general

education requirement that allowed him to develop a perspective I had never seen

before. The critical insights gleaned totally changed the way she saw racial identity and

this a-ha has provided me with the tools to think critically and a wider perspective in

other issues facing society.

The Practice of Conversation

This category of practice is based on the reported experience of the essayists when

they describe an important conversation or series of conversations. Within the space of

conversation, students ask questions, listen, and have questions asked of them to which

they must respond. A previous chapter referenced the power of a single conversation, one

happening at a bagel shop and the other at a book store. Both of these lightning strike

experiences demonstrate the formative influence of a single encounter and the power of

words. Moreover, almost one-quarter of the essays discussed the impact and influence of

conversation. Tammy discusses the power of conversation and exchanging ideas with

others: We build our identities as collections of these experiences. It is anecdotes from

those who are close to us, rather than faceless statistics, which change our minds about

important issues.

This exchange of anecdotes, opinions, and life stories within conversation among

peers is incredibly important. Janice is a primary example of the power of conversation;

in fact, she gives a methodology on how to do it! Her a-ha moment is modest, simple

and to mequite profound. Janice recalls a quote: A good conversation is as stimulating

as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. She jokes that although she knows the

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powerful effects of coffee as a college student, but a good conversation, that was

something I was missing in my life at the time. From that moment on, I made it a point in

my day to have a good conversation. She made a conscious decision to ask people

how they were and then really stop and listen; she stopped asking about the weather.

Janice states:

I found myself returning to my dorm room at the end of the day and feeling a
sense of fulfillment and contentment. I could not sleep at night in pondering
things I had learned about people, appreciating connections I had made or the
grateful feeling I had that someone shared part of their day and life with me. Two
years later, I still practice such questions.

Janice practices conversations as an activity that involves a true exchange between

persons; conversation involves taking time to listen and to talk. Janice adds: Everyone

has a story; everyone has something that they want to share. Take time to listen, take time

to be present and honor their moments when they open their life up to yours. Gadamer

could not have said it better.

Conversations in the context of a mentoring relationship are also mentioned. Abby

as a mentor to high school students describes her turning point was when I began to

give back to the younger mentors in faith who were asking the same questions that I had

been asking a year before. She explains that this process challenged her beliefs, and I

began to see what type of person I am striving to become. I realized the unique gifts that I

possess and how I can use them to help others in life, and to be a more holy person

myself. On the other side, being mentored through guided conversation is also helpful.

Trent mentions the importance of conversations with his advisor during a difficult time.

Maxwell was told by a professor that he was a scholar and therefore, I should confront

every aspect of my education with this mode of thinking. Due to this new fact, I became

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more motivated to excel in my classes and improve my overall grade point average.

Maxwell adds, that after the event, I began to visualize life in a manner that I have never

thought of before. I had the enthusiasm and determination to enhance myself spiritually,

physically, and mentally. I contribute to the enlightened thinking process to the fact that I

took to the idea of scholar and created my own personal definition.

To sum up: practices are part of the everyday living of ordinary people within a

variety of contexts; practices are unpredictable and inventive in their response to human

needs. Practices have multiple levels of complexity and broad ranges of participation;

they are meaningful clusters of human activity with shared forms of actions which

address fundamental human needs. More specifically, I define a practice as a communal

and purposeful activity strategically undertaken by embodied persons. Using this

definition, five categories or congeries of practice emerge: practice of social service,

practice of fellowship, practice of work, practice of reading and reflection, and practice of

conversation. I argue, specifically my last chapter, that these kinds of practices are

ultimately the source of practical wisdom, phronesis. Examining the lives and stories of

everyday people with excruciating care in respect to their communal actions yields

important insights that can be learned and taught. Embedded in these essays are powerful

accounts of the person-forming power of practices.

Furthermore, these kinds of practices often to lead to more practices, more

activities involving the homeless, more flag football games, more social service, more

conversations, more fellowship, more exploration, more work, more reading: overall,

more participation and involvement in community. In this sense, more is better! This

sense of becoming and participating in more is reflected in Miller-McLemores statement

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that practical theologians teach a practice knowing that participation in that practice will

cultivate the kind of knowledge, phronesis, which deepens the students capacity for that

practice.778 It seems that by participating in these practices, the essayists capacity and

desire for that practice increased and deepened.

778
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology and Pedagogy: Embodying Theological Know-How, in
For Life Abundant, ed. Dorthy Bass and Craig Dykstra. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 2008), 180.

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 CHAPTER VIII

PHRONESIS
To describe situations thickly, it is useful to understand the formal pattern of practical thinking. To
describe situations is to describe how people think and act practically in specific contexts. To describe
779
situations is to describe the forms of phronesis that actors use in concrete situations.

At the beginning of this dissertation, I claim that the voices in the essays have

something significant to add to the growing interest in the lives of college students. I

argue for a rich, thick, and complex set of interpretive lenses to examine the essays. I

assert that the resources of practical theology and critical hermeneutical theory provide a

methodology to support multiple theoretical perspectives despite competing claims and

assumptions. In this case, critical hermeneutic theory offers a methodology which uses

both religious and scientific perspectives to compare and contrast particular images and

interpretations of humanity. The hope is that one can discover, as Browning asserts,

those perspectives that more adequately describe the human condition. This is what

makes our view a form of critical hermeneutics.780 My construction of the lenses is

important because they offer contrasting images of the same data, but many comparisons

are obvious. One clear pattern is the role of mentors. The essays reveal again and again

the importance of an adult and each lens touches on the importance of such mentors as

professors, chaplains, coaches, or counselors. More will be stated about mentors and

adults at the conclusion of this chapter in my seven suggestions for higher education.

My hypothesis is that a practical theological study of the lives of forty-eight

college students, as expressed in their own words, has descriptive and explanatory power

779
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 97.
780
Browning, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, x.

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for interpreting and understanding college student development and formation. Because

meanings are often hidden, hermeneutical investigation can bring explicitness of

implicitness, to unveil the essence of the lived experience of a few, which allows for

insight into the possible lived experience of others.781 The hope is that uncovering and

dialoguing with the wisdom of a few can lead to insight and understanding into the lived

experience of others.

My objective thus far has been to provide an orientation to the essays in the hopes

of proposing suggestions to those in higher education. I claim that embedded in these

essays is a kind of a real-life wisdom, phronesis. In Chapter Seven, I defined practical

theology and stated that practical theology ultimately seeks to clarify and cultivate

phronesis. I want to expand this statement and offer that practical theology and

phronesis are one and the same. In this chapter, I trace phronesis to Aristotle, where

Gadamer makes important connections between phronesis and hermeneutics. Browning

expands on this as critical hermeneutical theory which is nearly identical to practical

theology. Therefore, I conclude that phronesis and practical theology are nearly identical

and have the same common goal: human flourishing. I expand briefly upon the

implications, particularly in relation to the education of emerging adults.

In order to make these conclusions, I chart the concept of phronesis and offer an

effective history of the concept. I begin with Aristotle and his use of the concept in

Nicomachean Ethics and its wider use in Greek culture. For Aristotle, phronesis requires

a deep knowledge of human beings and its ultimate end is eudemonia, human flourishing.

Next, I move to Gadamer, who makes important connections between phronesis and

hermeneutics. For Gadamer, phronesis illustrates the true meaning of understanding as

781
Torres, Ethnic Identity Development, ASHE Reader.

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conversation and dialogue; further, phronesis offers a kind of model for the central

problem of hermeneutics: application. Browning expands upon Gadamers claim that

there are important analogies between the understanding process, hermeneutics, and

Aristotles understanding of phronesis. For Browning, phronesis provides a framework

for descriptive theology and ultimately guides the entire practical theological project.

Ultimately, I try to make important connections between phronesis and practical

theology. If we consider Aristotles concept of phronesis, including Gadamers assertion

of a close connection between phronesis and hermeneutics, and Brownings insistence on

grounding the field of practical theology in critical hermeneutical theory, then practical

theology is the pursuit of phronesis. Phronesis and practical theology are one and the

same. In the end, I offer seven suggestions of interest to those in higher education, or

anyone interested in college students and their flourishing parents, mentors, chaplains,

administrators, faculty, and student development theorists.

Aristotle and Phronesis

Aristotle describes phronesis as one of five intellectual virtues, all of which are

related to truth. Three are important for my discussion: phronesis, techne, and episteme.

As I discussed in Chapter Seven, Aristotle made careful distinctions between episteme

and techne: theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Techne is often translated as

technical know-how or a skill that is learned (but can be forgotten) that is a means to an

end (practical knowledge). Techne represents the knowledge of the craftsperson who

knows how to make a specific thing; therefore, techne as a rational activity is also

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inherently interested in application.782 Epistme is referred to as theoretical knowledge

and is concerned with what is universal, usually taking the form of scientific

demonstration (scientific knowledge).783 The search for an enduring and foundational

reality is the search for epistme and has been a long standing aspiration for many in

positivistic science. As Volf stated earlier in Chapter Seven, the practice-versus-theory

divide is rooted in an understanding of knowledge that divides theory (episteme) and

removes it from practice (techne).784

Aristotle, however, distinguishes phronesis as another kind of reasoning distinct

from both episteme and techne: phronesis is a kind of knowledge and reasoning which is

required to make workable decisions about the common good.785 In Nicomachean Ethics,

Aristotle claims that phronesis involves the ability to deliberate about what is good for

the self and for others. Aristotle names Pericles as the exemplar for phronesis because he

was able to extol the virtue of thoughtful reflection as well as discern what was good for

himself and for other human beings.786 Aristotle states, that someone with phronesis:

782
Part of the modern societies abandonment of phronesis in favor of techne occurs with Aristotle partially
at fault. Joseph Dunnes account, Back to Rough Ground: Phronesis and Techne in Modern Philosophy
and in Aristotle, suggests a certain polarity between techne and phronesis can be discerned within the
concept of techne itself. Said in another way: For Aristotle is far from univocal in his useage of techne and
to the extent that he fails clearly to differentiate between its theoretical (analytical) and its experiential
(active) sense, he contributes significantly to the rationalization of techne that so firmly grips the modern
imagination. Dunne demonstrates why robust accounts of practical reason, though scare in modernity, are
indispensable. Modern culture has come under the spell of the ubiquitous menace of technocratic
consciousness. Technocratic consciousness is exemplified technique, rigor, efficiency, control,
predictability, rationality and by the behavioral objectives model that promotes the image of reason as
an agent of planning, mastery, and control. The result has been the hegemony of technical reason, techne,
over and against phronesis. Dunnes task is therefore to combat the hegemony of technical reason (techne)
by explosing its limits and offereing instead an alternative kind of reasonableness such as Aristotle worked
out with his notion of phronesis.
783
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, 146.
784
Volf, Practicing Theology, 211.
785
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 19
786
Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman and general in ancient Athens during their golden age.
Pericles was a magnificent orator, known for his scrupulous honesty, and 461B.C. 429 B.C. is known as
the Age of Pericles. Pericles promoted arts and literature while deepening and extending reform in
democracy. He is credited with many of the buildings on the Acropolis and mostly noted for The

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 be able to deliberate beautifully about things that are good and advantageous for
himself, not in part, such as the sort of things that are conducive to health or to
strength, but the sort of things that are conducive to living well as a whole.787

For Aristotle, phronesis is an intellectual virtue that enables one to grasp the truth about

human action by making practical judgments about the common good.788 Aristotle also

defines phronesis in the Nicomachean Ethics as a true and reasoned state of capacity to

act with regard to the things that are good or bad for man.789 In short, someone with

phronesis can deliberate beautifully about things that are conducive to living well as a

whole.

This last phrase living well as a whole is translated from the Greek term

eudaimonia, and is also translated as human flourishing or genuine happiness. For

Aristotle, the goal of phronesis is to reach eudaimonia. Said another way, the telos or

goal in phronesis is eudaimonia which has been translated as genuine happiness, as

human flourishing or as being well and doing well.790 Eudaimonia is a central concept

in ancient Greek ethics and in classical Greek, eudaimonia is used as a term for the

highest human good. Further, in the same section of the Ethics, Aristotle writes that in

order to understand what phronesis means, we must look at a person who possesses

phronesis the phronimos.791 Perhaps Aristotles longer definition of phronesis,

Parthenon; Pericles is also credited as the chief reason Athens was an educational and cultural center of the
ancient world. For more, see Christian Meier, Athens: A Portrait of the City in Its Golden Age (New York:
Metropolitan Books, 1998).
787
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Joe Sachs (Newburyport MA: Focus Publishing, 2002), 106
(6.5.1140a25-28).
788
Aristide Tessitore, Reading Aristotles Ethics: Virtue, Rhetoric, and Political Philosophy (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1996),
789
Noel, Jana, On the Varieties of Phronesis, Educational Philosophy and Theory 31, no. 3 (1999), 273.
790
Don Flaming, Using phronesis instead of research-based practice as the guiding light for nursing
practice, Nursing Philosophy 2, 255.
791
Noel, On the Varieties of Phronesis, 274-75.

268
previously stated, might be more succinctly summed up as: A phronimos should be able

to deliberate beautifully about eudaimonia.

Phronesis might best be typified, at least for the purpose of my argument, as

practical wisdom. Aristotelian scholars have recognized a lack of clarity and consistency

in the translation of phronesis.792 Other characterizations of the concept of phronesis are

prudence, practical thinking, moral discernment, pastoral wisdom, understanding,

practical knowledge, moral knowledge, practical reasoning, theological know-how, and

ethical know-how.793 Phronesis is best conceptualized as a capability to deliberate on

how to direct change as to ultimately enhance the quality of life for all. Phronesis, then,

requires a deep knowledge of human beings in order to enhance conditions for the

possibility of individual and communal transformation; the end goal of phronesis is

human flourishing. In the practical world, things could be one way or another. Phronesis

is deliberative and takes into account different circumstances, trade-offs, weighs

uncertainties, requires judgment, addresses particulars, and:

is iterative and shifts aims in process when necessary. Practical reasoning is the
stuff of practical life. It is not theoretical science. It is not enduring and it is not
foundational. Its aim is to arrive at good but imperfect decisions with respect to
particular circumstances.794

792
Ibid., 273.
793
Phronesis appears to be a confused, confusing concept when one thinks in a Cartesian framework,
where subjective and objectivity exist, that the subjective-objective distinction is a fundamental one, until
the subjective becomes virtually synonymous with the private, idiosyncratic, and arbitrary, then the very
idea of phronesis seems like a confused concept. Knowledge must be objective or else it is only pseudo-
knowledge. When values enter, they must be treated as noncognitive emotional response or private
subjective preferences. From this perspective, especially in its positivist variants, talk of practical or
political wisdom and phronesis as a special type of rational activity may have a certain charm but fails to
live up to the promise of serious scientific knowledge. See, Bernstien, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism,
47.
794
Elliot W. Eisner, From episteme to phronesis to artistry in the study and improvement of teaching.
Teaching and Teacher Education 18 (2002): 375 (--385).

269
Phronesis, as one piece of Aristotles comprehensive writings on the ethics of human

action, looks to address the ways that people act in everyday situations. It deals with

human action in terms of practical situations by looking at the question What should I do

in this situation?795

Gadamer, Phronesis, and Hermeneutics

In Truth and Method, Gadamer makes significant statements about hermeneutics

and phronesis. He states: In considering the structure of the hermeneutic process I have

explicitly referred to the Aristotelian analysis of phronesis.796 Gadamer formulates

important connections between Aristotles concept of phronesis and his model of

understanding as conversation or dialogue because: Human understanding in its basic

form is a dialogue or conversation in which practical questions are brought to the object

of conversation from the beginning and not just added at the end.797 In brief, Gadamer

uses phronesis as a model of the process of understanding because it demonstrates the

way in which application is a necessary and indispensable moment in the hermeneutic

process. Gadamer states:

If we relate Aristotles description of the ethical phenomenon and especially of

the virtue of phronesis to our own investigation, we find that Aristotles analysis
is in fact a kind of model of the problems of hermeneutics.798

795
Noel, The Varieties of Phronesis, 274.
796
Ibid., 313.
797
Ibid., 194.
798
Ibid., 289.

270
Phronesis is a kind of model of the problem of hermeneutics because it demonstrates

the way in which application is a necessary and concurrent moment in the understanding

process.

One of Gadamers strongest arguments comes from his use of Aristotle to

investigate the way in which application is an essential moment of the hermeneutical

experience. Bernstein states: It is Aristotles analysis of phronesis that, according to

Gadamer, enables us to understand the distinctive way in which application is an essential

moment of the hermeneutic experience.799 As stated earlier, Gadamer is interested in this

moment of application because he sees this as an indispensable moment of the

interpretive process. Understanding, interpretation, and application are three internally

related moments that occur together in the hermeneutical moment. As explained in

Chapter Two, previous to Gadamers claim in Truth and Method, application was seen as

a distinct and separate element in the hermeneutic process. Bernstein sums it up: every

act of understanding involves interpretation, and all interpretation involves

application.800 For Gadamer, understanding and interpretation, whether in science, law,

history, medicine, philosophy, or theology, have a broad concern with application.

For support on application, Gadamer looks to Aristotle and his distinction

between phronesis and techne (technical knowledge). For Aristotle, both phronesis and

techne are inherently interested in application. Gadamer personifies the knowledge of

each as the knowledge of the craftsman and the knowledge of the ethicist. And although

he gives a distinct outline as to how the two kinds of knowledge are different, what is the

799
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, 38
800
Ibid., 38.

271
same is that they are both interested in application from the beginning.801 He states that

these two types of knowledge still include the same task of application that we have

recognized as the central problem of hermeneutics.802 Because the central problem of

hermeneutics is the task of application, Gadamer explicitly insisted that Aristotles theory

of phronesis illustrates the true meaning of understanding as dialogue or conversation. I

quote Gadamer at length, partly because this is Brownings favorite passage from

Gadamer.803 Gadamer states:

We too determined that application is neither a subsequent nor merely an

occasional part of the phenomenon of understanding, but codetermines it as a
whole from the beginning. Here too application did not consist in relating some
pregiven universal to the particular situation. The interpreter dealing with a
traditionary text tries to apply it to himself. But this does not mean that the text is
given for him as something universal, that he first understands it per se, and then
afterward uses it for particular applications. Rather, the interpreter seeks no more
than to understand this universal, the text i.e. to understand what it says, what
constitutes the texts meaning and significance. In order to understand that, he
must not try to disregard himself and his particular hermeneutical situation. He
must relate the text to this situation if he wants to understand at all.804

Gadamer is clear application is not an afterthought or an activity done at the end of the

understanding process. Application codetermines understanding from the beginning.

Further, there is no pre-given universal theory to be then applied to the situation as a

solution to a problem, but instead requires attention to details and particulars. Concern

with application happens when the researcher relates herself to the text and the text to her

world. Gadamers hermeneutics is like phronesis because neither applies abstract

universals to concrete situations. In both hermeneutical conversation and moral judgment,

801
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 315-320.
802
Ibid., 313, original emphasis.
803
Browning, Reviving Christian Humanism, 22.
804
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 321.

272
concern with application is there from the beginning.805 This interest in application from

the beginning implies more nearly a radical practice-theory-practice model of

understanding that gives the entire theological enterprise a thoroughly practical case.806

As discussed earlier, an important implication is that this formulation razes the practice-

theory divide and instead offers a radical practice-theory-practice model. Gadamer firmly

refutes that theory and practice are separate movements over and against one another, but

instead, are interrelated movements in the process of all understanding. Or as Browning

states, one moves from theory-laden practice to a retrieval of normative theory-laden

practice to the creation of more critically held theory-laden practices.807

Browning, Phronesis, and Practical Theology

Browning is clear that the full implications of Gadamers thought have not been

fully realized or grasped. Brownings research in practical theology began in studying

congregations, where he voiced concern that no discipline had the methods for assessing

the distinctively theological and ethical claims of religious communities.808 His interest

in the situation of congregations was primarily practical and he wanted to advance

multidimensional descriptions of congregations. In order to do this, Browning makes his

agenda clear: I both define and argue for the epistemological grounds of a critical

practical theology. These epistemological grounds are established when implications of

805
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 39.
806
Ibid., 39.
807
Ibid., 7.
808
Browning, American Congregations, 193.

273
Gadamers theory of understanding as dialogue are grasped fully.809 More specifically,

Browning argues that Gadamers view of the close relations between hermeneutics as

dialogue or conversation and Aristotles view of phronesis is often overlooked. Browning

states:

I depend much as Gadamers claim that there are important analogies between the
interpretive process that he calls hermeneutics and Arisotles understanding of
phronesis or practical reason.810

Aristotles conception of phronesis illustrates the true meaning of understanding as

conversation for Gadamer. Browning states: For Gadamer, both phronesis and

understanding are historically situated inquiries guided from the beginning by interests in

practical application.811 Further, Browning states:

Gadamers close association of hermeneutics and phronesis suggests a very

different structure for both theology as a whole and the traditional view of
practical theology. If one takes Gadamer seriously, all theology (and all the
humanities and the social sciences) becomes practical through and through. All
attempts to understand, even within theology, are guided from the beginning by a
broad concern with application.812

Browning major claim is that the close association between hermeneutics and phronesis

suggests a very different structure for theology. This association challenges the traditional

view of practical theology; further, this relationship challenges all forms and ways of

knowing in the humanities and the social sciences.813 Instead, a different structure for

understanding emerges where all disciplines become becomes practical through and

809
Ibid., 193.
810
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 11.
811
Browning, American Congregations, 194.
812
Ibid., 196.
813
Browning states: If we accept Gadamers claims about the close relation of hermeneutics and
phronesis, psychoanalysis and most psychotherapy should be seen as practical hermeneutical attempts to
reconstruct through dialogue the experience of the client. Since this reconstruction comes through dialogue,
it necessarily entails a reconstruction of the experience of the therapist or counselor as well. Research and
inquiry, in the context of therapy, are dimensions of the wider task of the practical reconstruction of
experience, both the clients and the therapists. Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 85.

274
through. Overall, theology is a practical discipline; just as in the humanities and social

sciences, theology is guided from the start by a broad concern with application.

To add to this radical position, I quote Browning again from my Introduction.

Browning is firm that the full implications of Gadamers thought challenges the

foundations of theology and all disciplinary boundaries. In From Culture Wars to

Common Ground, Browning states that this proposition silently informs every page. He

states:

When done rightly, good theology will look a lot more like good social science;
that is, it will describe the world it is addressing with much more care and nuance
than theology generally does. The converse is also true. When done rightly, good
social science will look a lot more like good theology; that is, it will take more
responsibility for revealing and critically defending the implicit norms and ideals
that unwittingly guide its descriptions of the social world.814

Browning believes that a thin line separates a hermeneutically conceived theology and

a hermeneutically conceived social science. Both are guided by application from the

beginning. Theology can and is practical if we acknowledge that we bring practical

concerns to it from the beginning. And according to Browning, both Gadamer and

Aristotle prioritize the concern for application in practical matters from the beginning.

All three thinkers share one fundamental idea: practical thinking is the center of human

thinking. Fundamentally, then, Browning is interested in how religious communities

exhibit practical thinking. Focusing on practical thinking, on phronesis, helps to answer

the questions: What should we do? How should we live?815

To understand the impact of this position and these questions, Browning contrasts

phronesis with the questions of techne (technical reason) and theoria (theoretical reason).

814
Browning et al., From Culture Wars to Common Ground, 335.
815
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 10.

275
Reason as phronesis is different from theoria which asks the more dispassionate,

objective, or scientific question of: What is the case? or What is the nature of things?816

Techne, or technical reason, asks the question: What are the most effective means to a

given end?817 Browning explains:

Since the Enlightenment, the modern experiment has been dedicated to the
improvement of human life through the increase of objective scientific knowledge
(theoria) that is then applied to the solution of human problems (techne).818

But phronesis offers a powerful third partner for dialogue and offers a new direction for

thinking about the problems of human life. In contrast to theoretical reasoning or

technical reasoning, practical reasoning deals with the way people act in everyday

situations. It deals with human action in terms of practical situations by looking at the

question: What should we do in this situation? Phronesis focuses its primary attention

on the situation, on perceiving all that is involved in the situation, and on being able to

act in best accordance with the particular situation.819 For Browning, phronesis is guided

by application and like hermeneutics, is practical through and through. To describe

situations is to describe the phronesis used, how people think and act practically in

specific contexts.820 Browning believes phronesis provides a framework for descriptive

theology and guides the entire practical theological enterprise.

If there is one quote that sums up my entire project, it would be a quote from

Browning when he states:

816
Ibid., 10.
817
Ibid.
818
Browning adds: The rebirth of practical philosophy signals a wish to question the dominance of
theoretical and technical reason, to secure in our culture and in the university a strong role for practical
reason, and to demonstrate that critical reflection about the goals of human action is both possible and
necessary. See Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 34.
819
Noel, The Varieties of Phronesis, 279.
820
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 97.

276
 To describe situations thickly, it is useful to understand the formal pattern of
practical thinking. To describe situations is to describe how people think and act
practically in specific contexts. To describe situations is to describe the forms of
phronesis that actors use in concrete situations.821

As the first step, descriptive theology should advance multidimensional descriptions of

situations. The purpose of descriptive theologys job of describing situations is to help

understand how communities and persons exercise phronesis through discerning the

thickness of meaning within a situation. Browning states: Descriptive theology attempts

this deep understanding of others, their situations, and their identities.822 In describing

situations thickly, it is useful to see the focus of the special human sciences as

illuminating different aspects of phronesis.823

Thick description, as the first step in Brownings complicated methodology, seeks

to understand how persons use and exercise phronesis. I as have stated previously, I take

only this first step of Brownings full four-fold methodology. My hope is that I might be

able to complete the full hermeneutical circle and move beyond this first step of thick

description some day. However, so far, I have tried to complete this first step by raising

the historical consciousness of phronesis by outlining an effective history of the concept.

The purpose of this section is to highlight the key ideals and presuppositions behind the

term and ultimately, tie phronesis into practical theology. To recap, Aristotle describes

phronesis as another kind of knowledge whose telos is human flourishing. Phronesis

aims to arrive at decisions regarding human flourishing and requires a deep knowledge of

human beings. Gadamer highlights Aristotles concept to make important connections

between hermeneutics and phronesis. For Gadamer, phronesis illustrates the true

821
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 97.
822
Ibid., 84.
823
Ibid., 93.

277
meaning of understanding as conversation. Browning expands upon Gadamer and uses

his argument to construct the epistemological grounds of a critical hermeneutics. When

the implications of Gadamers theory of understanding are fully understood, theology

looks different. For Browning, critical hermeneutics offers a framework with which to

compare and contrast particular images or lenses and interpretations of humanity.

Browning also believes that critical hermeneutical theory and a critical practical theology

are nearly identical. Therefore, important connections can be made between phronesis

and practical theology. In many ways, practical theology encapsulates the pursuit of

phronesis. Both are inherently interested in human flourishing and both are

hermeneutically conceived modes of being. Both phronesis and practical theology hope

to discover those perspectives that more adequately describe the human condition.824

Phronesis, Flourishing, and Practical Theology

As I have stated, Aristotles concept of phronesis has as an ultimate goal of

eudaimonia, or human flourishing. Human flourishing is the ultimate end of human

conduct and is a state conducive to living well as a whole. Someone with phronesis is

called a phrominos, one who can deliberate beautifully about eudaimonia. In particular,

phronesis offers a model of understanding that encapsulates the practical theological

endeavour. If one follows the line of thinking, beginning with Aristotle and phronesis,

and into Gadamers insight into hermeneutics and phronesis, then, according to

Browning, critical hermeneutics and practical theology are nearly identical. Taking this

824
Browning, Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies, x.

278
line of reasoning one step further, phronesis and practical theology are also nearly

identical and have a common goal: human flourishing.

Making a direction connection between phronesis and practical theology is not a

new or radical statement. But, I believe it is a connection that deserves highlighting as its

implications are far reaching for the field, particularly in terms of its methodological

commitments and the implications for the education of emerging adults. As I have

previously cited, other scholars make connections between phronesis and practical

theology. For example, in Chapter Seven, Elaine Graham states that the examination of

practice is the pursuit of phronesis, a performative practical wisdom (phronesis) which

we inhabit and re-enact. 825 Additionally, she describes her model of pastoral theology as

the interpretation of purposeful practices: In this sense, practical theology helps

communities of faith both to articulate and practice what they preach or believe and also

to better articulate or preach what they practice.826 As another example, Christian

Scharen discusses the key role practical theology plays in educating and forming

ministers.827 The notion of embodied learning is one way to make sense of how such

wisdom and imagination develop. This kind of holistic understanding is more like what

Aristotle called phronesis practical wisdom in which one does quickly the right

thing, in the right way, and at the right time.828 This kind of knowledge is learned

through participation and held in a profoundly embodied way.829 Randy Maddox echoes a

825
Graham, Practical Theology as Transforming Practice, in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and
Practical Theology, eds. James Woodward and Stephen Pattison (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000),
110.
826
James Woodward and Steven Pattison, Introduction, in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and
Practical Theology, eds. James Woodward and Stephen Pattison (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000),
105.
827
Christian Scharen. Learning Ministry Over Time: Embodying Practical Wisdom,265.
828
Ibid., 267.
829
Scharen attributes this sentiment to Craig Dykstra and references his article Reconceiving Practice in

279
similar sentiment about a kind of knowledge that theological reflection generates: In

large degree the move toward recovering theology as a practical discipline could also be

seen as the move toward recognizing that theological reflection, in its most primary

sense, is such phronesis.830

Even correlating practical theology with the telos of phronesis, human

flourishing, is a well stated premise of the field of practical and pastoral theology. As

discussed in Chapter Six, Miller-McLemore contends that a commitment to a theology

of experience has led the discipline to the inadvertent creation of alternative loci of angst

and flourishing.831 More so, McClure argues that the primary objective of pastoral

theology is to help create the conditions for human flourishing in ways that are more

complex, effective, and socially adequate.832 Woodward and Pattison note that

contemporary North American theologians focus on those issues concerned with the

flourishing of individuals and groups.

Further, Browning states: The entire education task is an act of phronesis.833

This position is upheld in Miller-McLemores article Practical Theology and Pedagogy

where she makes a bold claim:

basic to the practice of teaching in this field is a particular way of theological

knowing that has important implications not only for the teaching of practical
theology but also for the definition of the field and for the larger enterprise of
theology itself.834

Theological Inquiry and Education.

830
Maddox, The Recovery of Theology as a Practical Discipline, 669.
831
Miller-McLemore, Also a Pastoral Theologian, 1.
832
McClure, Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care and Counseling, 3.
833
Ibid., 228.
834
Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Practical Theology and Pedagogy: Embodying Theological Know-How,
171.

280
This way of theological knowing is a form of phronesis that, in this context, might be

called pastoral wisdom or theological know-how.835 As with practice, continued

participation in that practice will deepen and cultivate phronesis. Miller-McLemore states

that practical theologians teach with the expectation that participation in that practice

will cultivate the kind of knowledge, phronesis, that deepens students capacities for

further participation in the practice.836 But, she reminds us that the path towards that

kind of theological wisdom and phronesis is never quick or easy.837 Miller-McLemore

contends:

Students must engage in phronetic theological movement from practice to

theory and back again, as practical theologian Don Browning says, or, more
specifically, from theory-laden practice to a retrieval of normative theory-laden
practice to the creation of more critically held theory-laden practices.838

For Browning, Aristotle emphasized the role of tradition and community in the

formation of phronesis.839 Phronesis is not about isolated contemplation, but instead is a

capability to reflect upon different modes of action, which always requires practice and

cultivation. In this sense, Aristotles phronesis as a capacity is not ascribed to every

human being and only to those that have been properly educated, which leaves the

concept open for criticism of its elitist connotations.840 Aristotle himself did not think of

it as a virtue that could be cultivated in every person; instead, but only to those gifted

individuals who had been properly educated.841 For Bernstein, however, Gadamer

softens the elistist connotations of phronesis by integrating it with his understanding of

835
Ibid.
836
Ibid.. 180.
837
Ibid.
838
Ibid., 184.
839
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 174.
840
Bernstein, 165.
841
Ibid., 165.

281
dialogue.842 Bernstein also concludes that if one follows out the logic of Gadamers line

of thinking, then this demands that we turn our attention to the question of how we can

nurture the type of communities required for the flourishing of phronesis.843 Aristotle

emphasized the role of tradition and community in the formation of phronesis.844 The

context of Aristotles reflection on the intellectual virtues came from his involvement

with training political leadership; therefore, phronesis must be learned and taught and it

required education and practice. Phronesis requires a deep knowledge of human beings in

order to enhance conditions for the possibility of individual and communal

transformation.

One of Brownings central questions is how can Christian communities become

vital centers of dialogue that can contribute to the good of the society and the world? One

answer, says Cahalan, is that:

Browning proposes that the Christian community strives to create, nurture, and
enhance the conditions for the possibility of individual and communal
transformation through the ongoing practice of phronesis, practical reasoning, or
reasoning-in-dialogue.845

Phronesis, for Cahalan, must attend to the multi-varied contextual conditions of

contemporary life; moreover, the telos of practical theology is to guide the community to

live and act faithfully. Cahalan adds, For Browning, the practice of practical reason

(phronesis) allows religious communities to engage in critical hermeneutical

dialogue.846 Furthermore, because situations are created by the struggles of practical

842
Ibid., 190.
843
Ibid., 158.
844
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology,174.
845
Cahalan, Three Approaches to Practical Theology, 71.
846
Ibid., 71.

282
action and practical reason, human struggles can answer questions about what to do and

how to live.847

In short, Cahalan states that practicing phronesis allows one to engage in critical

hermeneutical dialogue. Said another way, the telos of practical theology is to guide the

community to live and act faithfully. Shortened, Cahalans statement might be: the telos

of practical theology is eudaimonia, or human flourishing. Because human flourishing is

also the goal of phronesis, practical theology and phronesis have a common telos.

Browning says it yet another way, albeit a bit more convoluted:

The structure of practical reason provides the framework for descriptive theology;
it also guides the normative reconstructive task of the entire fundamental practical
theological project. Phronesis, as I will account for it, guides both the descriptive
and the normative-critical task. 848

Phronesis provides a framework for descriptive theology and ultimately guides the entire

fundamental practical theological project. That framework has also been called critical

hermeneutical theory. Because Browning makes a case that critical hermeneutics and

practical theology are nearly identical, phronesis are practical theology are also very

similar.

In conclusion, perhaps the essays are best described as accounts of human

flourishing. Practical theology is intrinsically interested in human flourishing, which is

also the telos of phronesis. But stating that both practical theology and phronesis have the

same end goal is a bit redundant. For many neo-Aristotelian ethicists, human flourishing,

or eudaimonia, is the ultimate end of all human conduct. Human flourishing is an all-

inclusive end that includes all final ends. Human flourishing is something plural and

complex, not monistic and simple. As already noted, this view of human flourishing

847
Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology, 107.
848
Ibid., 93.

283
amounts to a version of moral pluralism, because there are many goods that help to define

human flourishing.849 Further, the role of phronesis in ethics has recently become

prevalent in order to bridge the gap between the good and virtues of the individual and

that of the good and virtues of the larger community. In this case, the concept of human

flourishing offers a more satisfactory account of the ends of human action and the

relationship between virtue and self-interest. However, for the Greeks and many

contemporary ethicists, the concept of human flourishing is the ultimate end of all human

conduct and the telos of all ends.

My ultimate goal is to draw from the wisdom embedded in the essays and give

suggestions for higher education. These suggestions are accounts of phronesis as they

reflect the situation of everyday life and they are accounts of human flourishing.

Phronesis is not the stuff of theoretical science or startling conclusions. It often states the

obvious and seeks to illuminate practical judgments about the common good. The nature

of phronesis is not enduring and not foundational; instead, phronesis offers good but

imperfect suggestions with respect to particular circumstances. Phronesis doesnt apply

abstract universals to concrete situations or provide quick and ready answers to

theoretical questions. My suggestions may appear obvious and may, as one critic

suggested, read as anyone might conclude from a casual glance at the essays. But I set out

to learn from the wisdom of the voices in the essays and not to determine results that

would have impact or the power of the unexpected. These are the lessons I have learned

in listening to the voices of emerging adults.

849
Douglas B. Rasmussen. Human Flourishing and the Appeal to Human Nature, in Human Flourishing
edited by Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred Miller, and Jeffrey Paul, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 14.

284
 Seven Suggestions

It seemed clear to me that the students were answering the fundamental questions

of phronesis: What should we do? How should we live? In essence, they were giving

examples of human flourishing. In closing, I draw from the practical wisdom of the

students as they reflect on their lives as lived and construct seven simple conclusions. If

colleges and universities are interested in how students are formed and shaped, I believe

these activities, as suggested by the essayists, help to engender a-ha moments and

formative experiences. Embedded in the essays, I recognized a kind of practical wisdom,

or phronesis, which seemed important to raise up for reflection. Because meanings are

often hidden and must be brought to the surface through reflection, hermeneutics can

bring explicitness of implicitness, to unveil the essence of the lived experience of a few,

which allows for insight into the possible lived experience of others.850 Critical

hermeneutical theory encapsulates that humans are interpretive beings, but also that all

understanding is interpretation. By being more aware of our basic mode of understanding,

critical hermeneutical theory makes us more aware of the reflective dimension in all

understanding. Further, these lessons are important because as Arnett and other

researchers cite, there is a dearth of research efforts focused on this age groups identity

issues, because most research on identity formation is focused on the developmental

period of adolescence. My suggestions challenge this oversight by suggesting identity-

forming activities for emerging adults.

I constructed these lenses because I felt that they would help me better understand

and describe the patterns and dynamics I had begun to discover. The first lens, based on
850
Torres, Ethnic Identity Development, ASHE reader.

285
psychosocial theory, explored the new life stage theory of emerging adulthood as a way

to examine the essays. Because of the essayists focus on themes of identity, exploration,

and instability, I argue in Chapter Four that the essayists are better understood as

emerging adults, as they are neither adolescents nor young adults. The second lens is

based on object relation theory (ORT). ORT postulates that our fundamental human drive

is towards relationship and all development and formation takes place within the context

of relationships. I discovered important conclusions about the relationships mentioned in

the context of these self-reported a-ha moments in Chapter Five. Chapter Six uses

pastoral theology to explore the concept of crisis, which was reported in about two-thirds

of the essays. Emerging adults experience acute shifts in their awareness of contradiction,

finitude, and vulnerability; consequently, a crisis can occur. Finally, Chapter Seven looks

specifically at what the essayist are doing in the midst of their self-reported a-ha moment

in terms of a practice. From this practice lens, five basic categories of practice emerge:

practices of service, practices of fellowship, practices of work, practices of reading and

reflection, and practices of conversation. I argue that the essayists offer stories of the

person-forming power of practices. The following seven suggestions are gleaned from

the essays and offered for those in higher education or anyone interested in the lives of

emerging adults.

1) Mentors

Mentors stood out in all four lenses. Mentors play a pivotal role in many of the a-ha

moments. A mentor is an adult who steps in and offers many things: a relationship, a

listening ear, advice, or even as an act of confrontation. A mentor can even be a random

man in a bagel shop. Chapters Five, Six, and Seven mention the role of the mentor, or

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adult, in more detail. In Chapter Seven, the practice of conversation often involves an

adult. Chapter Six reflects on students description of an inimical event and labels this as

a crisis; in many of the crisis accounts, the students reach out to an adult for help. But

most striking is the ORT lens which examines the particular relationships present in the

essays. In a third of the essays, the role of an adult appears, usually as a mentor who

confronts the student much like Winnicott suggests. According to the essays, this adult

is never a parent, but an adult who functions as an advisor or mentor. Although many

interesting comments might be made about the specific role of the adult or mentor,

suffice it to say that mentors, or adults, are extremely important to the emerging adults I

studied.

Much has been written about the importance and impact of mentors. One such text,

mentioned previously, is Sharon Parks Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, Mentoring

Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith. Parks is clear that

mentoring as an activity in a community of learning is important: the nature of the

relationship is transformational and this kind of engagement honors both the potential and

the vulnerability of the student. She seeks to restore the practice of mentoring in college

environments by focusing on higher education as a mentoring community in order to

encourage and enhance development. Parks states: The power of mentoring

relationships is that they help anchor the vision of the potential self.851 Simply stated,

mentors should be available to students on college campuses and at universities. The

essays are clear that relationships and conversations with mentors, or adults, is pivotal in

engendering a-ha moments. Often, a professor, chaplain, youth leader, or coach steps in

to offer pivotal advice or a firm shoulder during a difficult time. Mentors play a
851
Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams, 81.

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fundamental role in several accounts and serve as a springboard for formative moments.

Further, a mentor, or the role of an adult, need not be a relationship that is long standing.

Said another way, the formative power of a mentor can occur in something as simple as a

brief conversation, a bit of advice, or some gentle prodding. In my experience in PTEV,

some faculty groaned about the weighty responsibility and expectations of serving as a

mentor. But this shouldnt necessarily be so. One of the important things I realized as a

mentor working with my own students is that simply inquiring into what they wanted to

do with their lives was enough. One student remarked that his advisor and everyone else

wanted to know about his major and his business classes, but no one had ever asked him:

what do you want to do with the rest of your life? The role of the adult in life of an

emerging adult and its impact can happen in a lightning flash conversation.

2) Social Service

Many students discussed engaging in social service projects. Shelley states: Working

with inner city youth, living in a large city, and facing social issues on a personal level

allowed me to have a life-changing summer. For others, it can become a way of life.

Jackie states: Now I know I can make a living by serving others and nonprofits are a

great way to do so. Because of the impact of social service in many a-ha moments, it

seems appropriate to encourage higher education to provide for opportunities for

emerging adults to engage in social service. The lenses helped to display the

characteristics of the social service experience. For example, Chapter Seven reflects on

what the students were doing in their self-reported a-ha moments. Over a quarter of the

essayists were engaged in social service activities when the a-ha moment occurred.

According to the essays, social service refers to taking part in social service trips, social

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justice issues, and taking social action; in short, these experiences involve helping others.

More so, Chapter Four reflects on emerging adulthood as a descriptive category that

highlights the need and desire to explore and seek out new identities. Engaging with the

other and confronting poverty, homelessness, and despair is part of the realm of

possibilities that emerging adults need to experience. In particular, the experience of a

social service trip during spring break seems an ideal environment to help students have

a-ha moments: they are taken out of their world, placed in a new environment,

surrounded by a cohort group, and asked to engage the real world. Identities are

confirmed and confronted. If Arnett is correct, this is a developmentally necessary step of

emerging adulthood.

There is rich evidence within higher education on the impact social service and

the value of service learning. The essays are certainly clear that participating in social

service activities, social justice issues, taking social action, and helping others in need is

very influential in their a-ha moments. Again, over 25% of the essays reflect on some

kind of service experience where working in solidarity with the oppressed is life-

changing. Further, these experiences often lead to participation in more social service

events. Higher education should encourage students to donate their time and energy to

such social service activities or make classes possible that encourage service learning.

3) Work Study and Internships

As Arnett points out in Chapter Four, many emerging adults enter college with a

Plan. But this Plan is subject to many revisions during the emerging adult years. Plan

revision and in some case, outright Plan disintegration, were found throughout the essays.

Many of these Plan revisions came about by engaging in work opportunities in their field

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of interest. In some cases, these work experiences confirmed talents and gifts for the

work; in many cases, the experiences confirmed that this work was NOT for them. In all

cases, work and internships allow for a clarification of identity for emerging adults.

Chapter Seven reflects on the practice of work and the essays accounts of

internships and work study which allowed student to acquire income as well as gain real

world experience. Barb states: My perfect, ideal image began to quickly unravel when I

started my job at the medical school. Sometimes this real world experience resulted in

deciding not to follow that career path and sometimes, just the opposite: it confirmed

talents and gifts in the process. But having internships and work study opportunities for

students seem invaluable in providing real-world experience combined with an

environment that can text weaknesses and confirm strengths. In their search for new

identities discussed in Chapter Four, it seems important to encourage college students to

find opportunities to try out different professions and work situations.

4) Support Fellowship Groups

In Chapter Five, co-hort and peer groups were the most important relationship

category mentioned in the essays. These groups are also referred to as fellowship groups:

a group of students with a common interest and participation in particular activities in

Chapter Seven. The effect of fellowship groups on emerging adults is a powerful

formative force for many reasons: it acts as a way to take a stand or make a statement, it

demonstrates the impact of a collective effort, or it results in a powerful feeling of

fellowship and belonging in something greater than the self. In over 40% of the essays in

Chapter Five mentioned the importance of these groups. Further, in Chapter Seven, the

practice of fellowship was important and mentioned in almost 30% of the essays. This

290
practice revolves around group activities like youth groups, theatre production, worship,

and even a game of capture the flag. In the midst of these fellowship experiences,

something changes and the result is an a-ha moment for some of the essayists. Many of

these fellowship activities demonstrate the key aspects of a practice: a common, yet

meaningful experience, whose ordinariness is transcended by its impact on the lives of

emerging adults.

And according to Hanover College President Sue DeWine supporting fellowship

groups is easy! In my interview with her, she believes that most a-ha moments happen

outside the classroom in other activities. And although money prohibits new campus

groups from forming, she always has enough money to buy T-shirts. DeWine mentioned

a story of a new group that wanted to form a singing group on campus that sounded like a

take-off on Glee. The students wanted her support and so, she offered to give them

money to get T-shirts which was enough to get the group excited and started. Simple

actions like this show how easy it can be for higher education to sponsor and encourage

fellowship groups. For emerging adults, having co-hort groups and peer groups is

immensely important for their development and formation.

5) Resources and Staff for Crisis:

Chapter Six is devoted to the concept of crisis and its appearance in the essays. As I

stated previously, I was surprised to find very personal and moving accounts of inimical

event in about two-thirds of the essays. I was surprised because the question asks about

their biggest a-ha moment in college and yet twenty-nine of the essays respond by

including an account of a negative event. I describe these events as a crisis and highlight

some of their important revelations about the adverse experiences of college students. For

291
example, the crisis is often mediated by an adult who steps in to help or is asked to help.

These accounts are clear that despite all the possibilities that life brings to emerging

adults, some of those possibilities involve pain, struggle, and confrontation with the

unknown. And these trends appear to be growing; for example, new evidence cites that

25% of college freshman are clinically depressed.

It appears that where there are college students, there will be crisis. Although not

unexpected, I do believe that the real impact and extent of these crisis experiences are

underestimated. Added to this is an ever-shifting campus environment whose instability

and pressure can cause crisis in and of itself. Furthermore, resources for crisis are not

meant as pamphlets on suicide prevention and eating disorders, but actual staff who can

foremost listen and attend to crisis as it comes. Often, colleges have chaplains and

psychologically trained counselors on hand for these situations; however, from my

experience with the 88 PTEV schools, these resources often seem stretched and thin with

the growing numbers of issues that these resources are forced to confront.

6) Encourage Students to Explore and Dream

As Chapter Four discusses, these essayists are in the age of identity exploration and

it is a crucial period of identity development. For emerging adults, identity is formed in

the context of trying out new possibilities and exploring new directions. Over three

quarters of the essays scored themes of exploration and identity. For many of the

essayists, the a-ha moment is a fundamental change in how they perceive themselves and

their identity. If Arnett is correct, this is a crucial period of development where exploring

and searching are developmental necessary for the formation of adulthood.

292
 I think college student are often barraged with the question: what is your major?

Then folks ask: well, what are you going to do with that? But rather than ask college

students about their major, ask them about their aspirations and what they would do if

they could do anything in the world. My short-hand is usually to ask: whats your dream

job? If emerging adulthood is a new developmental lifestage for people age 18-25 in

industrialized nations, then exploration must be encouraged!! Emerging adulthood is the

age of possibilities and exploration. The essays were dominated by themes of identity

exploration, possibilities, adventures, and new beginnings. I believe it important to

encourage exploration for emerging adults without resenting the freedom or the person

experiencing it.

7) Get Students Reading and Talking about Books!

Another trend in the essays was the mentioning of a book or passage that was part of

the a-ha moment. Almost one-quarter of the essayists refer to or quote a text. I dont

think the power of a good book can ever be underestimated. Having stated that and in

age where phones can read books, classes and class material are on-line, and electronic

books have now surpassed regular books in sales I think that getting students to read a

good book cannot be overestimated. The essays are certainly clear that reading and

reflection are formative activities. Getting college student to read a text and then setting

up space for further reflection as an important suggestion seems a simple and obvious

idea. Examples of texts that work well with college students from my own experience are

Hermann Hesses Siddhartha, Parker Palmers Let Your Life Speak, Will Campbells

Brother to a Dragonfly, Adams Watership Down, or my personal favorite Wendell

Berrys Jayber Crow. Further, it appears easy to adopt a book for the year to read and

293
discuss as a campus, class, or fellowship group. I saw a small community in Idaho adopt

a book for the summer and they distributed free used copies with stickers on the front

explaining the program and activities. Or smaller groups, like in a college fellowship

group, can benefit from even one night of discussing a particular book. And for college

faculty who want to include texts about living lives that matter, Mark Schwehn and

Dorothy Bass made that easy with their Leading Lives that Matter: What We Should Do

and Who We Should Be. This text is an excellent collection of essays and excerpts from

William James to Theodore Roosevelt, from Dorothy Sayers to Dorothy Day, all

reflecting on the meaning of work that is meaningful and significant. These are the kinds

of conversations emerging adults seems to crave and desire during a particular part of

their development where thinking about these things impacts their future adult

development.

As an ending, I start with the beginning sentence of Gadamers introduction:

These studies are concerned with the problem of hermeneutics. The phenomenon
of understanding and of the correct interpretation of what has been understood is
not a problem specific to the methodology of the human sciences alone. The
understanding and the interpretation of texts is not merely a concern of science,
but obviously belongs to human experience of the world in general.852

Gadamers investigation begins with resistance to modern sciences claim of universal

truth via the scientific method. Gadamer is interested in the experience of truth that

transcends the domain of scientific method and believes that a deeper understanding of

the phenomenon of understanding can provide the recognition that science philosophys

claim of superiority has something chimera and unreal about it.853 Richard Bernstein

observes that contemporary hermeneutic theory blossomed during a time of increasing

852
Gadamer, Truth and Method, xx.
853
Ibid., xxi-xxxiv.

294
doubts about logical positivism; therefore, hermeneutic theory directly challenges the

claim that the natural sciences alone can provide genuine knowledge.854 As a corrective,

hermeneutic theory offers both a method and methodology of careful textual analysis that

rejects positivistic approaches and instead, offers a vision of reality based on a plurality

of viable interpretations. I end with my favorite quote from Richard Berstein who states:

The outstanding theme in Gadamers philosophic hermeneutics is his fusion of

hermeneutics and praxis, and the claim that understanding itself is a form of
practical reasoning and practical knowledge a form of phronesis. Initially
Gadamers appeal to phronesis was introduced to clarify the moment of
application or appropriation that is involved in all understanding. But in arguing
that hermeneutics itself is the heir to the older tradition of practical philosophy,
Gadamer has sought to show how the appropriation of the classical concepts of
praxis and phronesis enables us to gain a critical perspective on our own
historical situation, in which there is the constant threat of danger of the
domination of society by technology based on science, a false idolatry of the
expert, a manipulation of public opinion by powerful techniques, a loss of moral
and political orientation, and an undermining of the type of practical and political
reason required for citizens to make responsible decisions.855

The value of my approach is that this demonstrates the utility of combining both religious

and scientific perspectives to make recommendations based on phronesis. Critical

hermeneutical theory offers a methodology for practical theology that can support

multiple theoretical perspectives despite competing claims and assumptions. This

framework can combine both religious and scientific perspectives to compare and

contrast particular images and interpretations of humanity. Practical theology and critical

hermeneutical theory offer a powerful conversation partner in the larger dialogue

between religion and science.

854
Bernstein goes on to claim: Every defender of hermeneutics, and more generally the humanistic
tradition, has had to confront the persistent claim that it is science and science alone that is the measure of
reality, knowledge, and truth(46). Furthermore, he adds: There are still many, perhaps the majority of
thinkers. who view hermeneutics as some sort of woolly foreign intrusion to be approached with
suspicion(112). Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, 40, 107, 110-114.
855
Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, 174-5

295
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