Isagani V.

Deslate
Seminar in Practical Theology
Gervais Karumathy, Ph. D.
14 January 2020)

PRACTICAL THEOLOGY: A TRANSFORMATIVE PRAXIS IN THEOLOGICAL

by Dr. Jessy Jaison

This article discusses the place of practical theology in theological education.

FRAGMENTATION AND INTEGRATION CRISIS IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

The author observes a seeming fragmentation/disconnection between churches, theological

institutions and mission fields. Church ministries and practices are inconsistent or in

disagreement with current theological training: preaching health and wealth gospel, church

corporatization, for instance; theological institutions fail to show intense commitment to meet

felt needs of churches or mission fields but offer little theological training.

These institutions are caught in either of the extremes of overly cognitive orientation, or total

negligence of academic formation. They end up in the lack of unity and coherence.

The challenge is to find answers as to how far we are able to incorporate the four basic

dimensions of formation- spiritual, academic, ministerial and personal- in our practice of

theological education.

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The author posits that Practical Theology, defined correctly, has the ability to integrate the

fragmented task of theological education by its learning-centred holistic approach. Practical

Theology’s expanded definition does not divide theological education from church ministry or

mission field as it says, “theological education, as we use the term, includes not only seminaries

and divinity schools but also other institutions that deliberately foster the education and

formation of pastors and other ministers, such as teaching parishes, judicatory offices, retreat

centres, publications, para-church organizations and continuing education programmes”

(Jaison, 3).

DEFINING PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

Practical Theology, quoting Pattison and Woodward, is ‘a place where religious beliefs and

practice meets contemporary experiences, questions, and actions and conducts dialogue that is

mutually enriching, intellectually critical and practically transforming.’(2007, 7) In the author’s

own words, “It is a critical, constructive and grounded theological reflection by communities of

faith, carried on consistently in the contexts of their ‘praxis’, which here denotes a combination

of knowledge born of analytical objectivity and distance, practical wisdom and creative skills.”

(Jaison, 4)

He further clarifies it as, “It is the doing of theology that is first informed by the real situation of

people and then allowing us, by a careful hermeneutical process, to reflect theologically on

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those situations and problems and then return to the situation to gently and carefully

transform ” (Jaison, 5).

It does not engage in irrelevant abstractions, like the medieval scholasticism’s discussion

between Duns Scotus and Aquinas as to how many angels can stand on the point of a pin while

Constantinople was under siege by the Turks in 17th century.

Thus, Practical Theologians are “practical thinkers and reflective practitioners” (quoting Hough

and Cobb, 1985) who engage in a transformative process.

APPROACHES IN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY THAT PROMOTE INTEGRATION

According to the author at its core the hermeneutical process of Practical theology is action -

theological reflection – practical contemplation – action.

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Another way of graphically illustrating it in a more detailed way is through the diagram bellow:

Specifically, the various approaches of Practical Theology are as follows:

A. Problem-Based, Action-Oriented Approach

It starts with a problem brought about by the “fundamental shifts in the society in ways people

see religion, sexuality, life and relationships in the multi-cultural, multi-religious and globalized

contexts” which require an on-going review of the theological constructs.

The Church’s life and action is related not only to its self-understanding and comprehension of

its faith, but also to the changing society in which it functions. Thus, Practical Theology is an

action-oriented discipline. It “identifies and articulates a pertinent issue in ministry…; analyzes

the situation as it is; interprets the situation as it should be (biblical/theological centrality);

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deliberates on and list the tasks and designs specific action plan; reflects on, evaluates and

modifies plans; returns to practice.”

It does not engage in mere mental calisthenics with no practical value.

B. Reflective Hermeneutical Approach

Practical theology “seeks answers to ‘what do we do with our theology / how do we understand

our theology in this situation?’ Dealing critically with imposing theology and ethics, it

encourages keen students of theology to evaluate the inherited understandings that guide the

interpretations and actions and to become transmitters of theology into people’s real lives.”

Practical Theology is a “strategic perspective that links the hermeneutical with the empirical so

as to achieve an integrative model that underlies the theological task as a whole” (Ballard,

1996, 63). Its hermeneutical mission is to relate theory and practice.

C. Critical-Correlation Research Approach

Pastoral Theology links and makes use of the hermeneutical perspective of the Humanities with

the empirical perspective of the social sciences. The conventional theological system lacks the

discipline to accommodate eclectic topic with complex practical underpinnings. Pastoral

theology’s educational vision, on the other hand, offers the correlation possibility to

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systematically handle this research concern while intentionally maintaining emphasis on the

centrality of Scripture. Keeping the balance is a challenge to theological education.

The author wrote, “Practical Theology seeks to develop this interdisciplinary skill in Christians to

read their Bible, the world around them and the traditions and cultural practices they uphold

for a much deeper perception of the situation rather than knowledge accumulation confined to

classrooms.”

TRANSFORMATIONAL PRACTICE IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

The overall aim of Practical Theology is to “bring our world into greater harmony with the

Creator’s intention as it arises out of practice and returns to practice” (Jaison, 2010, 11).

Theological training should not limit itself to academic training or certain pastoral skills but

should include personal and spiritual needs and questions of people by maintaining a healthy

balance in theological reflection.

There is also a felt need in learning institutions to liberate teaching and learning styles from

fragmentation to integration. The following pedagogical models, which are among the

traditional patterns of theological education, are now being questioned:

1. Banking Model. It is the idea that the teacher is the sole depository of information.

(contra Freire, 2018) 1.

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 2. Expert-Apprentice Model. The teacher is the master who moulds and trains his/her

disciple.

3. Consumer Model. The student is a consumer and the teacher is a sales person; the

student buys whatever interests him/her.

4. Therapeutic-Individualistic Model. The teacher helps, gives wise counsel to select

courses that would help the student to find satisfaction and personal edification.

And so, graduates of traditional theological institutions and ministerial formation centers, who

have been deprived of an opportunity to gain the skills of practical ministry and reflective

learning during their theological training, feel empty of anything of practical significance for

their life and of lifelong value. They feel unprepared and inadequate to face the world with its

challenges, needs and queries.

Thus, teaching-learning has to be inter-active and empowering. Students have to be given skills

to do Practical Theology- to learn to analyse what is going on around them, to reflect

theologically, to plan and identify an appropriate course or courses of action, and engage the

world and introduce change.

Jesus is the perfect model of a Practical Theologian. The way he addressed the issues posed by

the Samaritan woman and Zachaeus demonstrated that he made “thoughtful engagement with

learner as a co-creator of knowledge.

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practical situations through a well-integrated analysis which was at once fully theological and

rigorously empirical” (Jaison, 2010, 12) and practical.

Summary

In light of the proceeding, the author argues, “all theology is or has to be Practical Theology and

is the task of the whole church”.

Practical Theology-based theological education seeks to overcome ideological captivity and

avoid irrelevant abstractions.

Practical Theology attempts, on the one hand, to make theological schools and mission

organizations envision that the pastoral team is balancing their ministry by interacting with the

academia and, on the other hand, the theological scholars honouring the practical bearing of

their scholarship.

The author admits that we cannot solve all the problems in the world. But as Practical

Theologians, we can instil hope as “we consistently seek the depths and awesome patterns of

God’s grace in redeeming and preserving His creation, which is facilitated by the reflective

hermeneutic task undertaken in life’s struggles of individuals as well as communities” (2010,

13).

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Personal Reflection and Reaction

The situation in some seminaries that mainly provide academic and cognitive training that have

no practical value and unresponsive to ministerial contexts is deplorable. Graduates are

theologically equipped but lack skills to address practical demands of the ministry. This reminds

me of an acquaintance of mine who, immediately after finishing his Master’s in Divinity in the

Seminary went to United Kingdom to pursue further studies. He had no prior pastoral or

ministerial experience or exposure. After finishing his Doctor of Philosophy, he went home

armed with a prestigious academic credential from U.K. and became the senior of a big local

church. The demands and intricacies of doing pastoral ministry in a local church, however, were

just too much for him. He fell into depression and eventually had a nervous breakdown and

needed to undergo psychotherapy. The academic training he had was not enough to address

the realities and issues of pastoral ministry. Theory and practice must be correlated.

On the other hand, some mission groups, in response to this crisis, put up their own contextual

training centres where emphasis is placed on acquiring practical ministerial skills without

adequate academic and theological training. An example of this is the New Tribes Mission

Training Center in the Philippines where students are taught tribal language and culture,

farming, carpentry, community organizing, etc. but very little training on theology and biblical

exegesis. Still, other ministerial formation centers emphasize the development of the student’s

spirituality and spiritual disciplines with little emphasis on academic/theological and ministerial

skills training.

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Learning has to be holistic, involving a balance of both the cognitive (head), affective (heart)

and performance (hands), equipping people for life.

Further, the Critical-Correlation approach in Practical Theology proposed by Jaison offers

flexibility in exploring and choosing the best possible methods to analyse the situation and

reflect on it theologically: ethnomethodology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, as well as social

scientific methods.

This is akin to Chap Clark model for Practical Theology illustrated in the following diagram

(Oberdeck, 2011, 17) which is more detailed than Jaison’s conceptual framework:

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Clark argues that other disciplines should be utilized in analysing an issue: ecology, sociology,

cultural studies, ethnology, psychology, history, among others; before engaging reflectively on

the issue using biblical exegesis/studies (2008, 9-37).

I agree with Jaison that scripture is central to the process of doing theology. However, biblical

exegesis, though central to the process of doing theology, is not sufficient to arrive at a

comprehensive reflection. In addition to biblical exegesis/studies, however, I believe, other

theological disciplines may be used, as much as possible or as far as it is practicable, in the

process of doing practical theology for the reflection to be holistic and more comprehensive.

These include historical theology, systematic theology, church history, missiology, etc..

Theology is a single, holistic field of study with different sub-disciplines. Each sub-discipline

contributes valuable perspective to the whole when included in the reflection process.

The end goal of our theologizing, indeed, is the transformation of an existing situation, finding

solution to a problem, correcting a traditional but wrong practice, belief system, culture, and

unjust social condition. This is praxis, transformative action based on reflection.

This reminds us of Paulo Freire’s “Padagogy of the Oppressed” who also utilized the concept of

praxis. His ground breaking work in devising appropriate pedagogies for teaching marginalized

and oppressed peoples is legendary. Freire developed a philosophy of education that

challenged poor and oppressed people to reflect upon their individual and corporate

experiences and begin to ask critical questions about the nature of their existence. The radical

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nature and effectiveness of this critical approach to the task of teaching and learning brought

Freire to the attention of the military government in Brazil in 1964 and his exile.

Bible school, seminary and ministerial formation center instructors, teachers and professors

should learn from Freire and also use praxis, action-reflection-action in their educational

ministry if they are to be transformative.

Such practical theology mindset can transform the way we think about and do theological

education. And if students and, more so, instructors, professors and facilitators in Bible schools,

seminaries and ministry formation centers are taught this mindset, they will be potent agents

of change and transformation in their sphere of influence, ministry and society.

REFERRENCES

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Ballard, P. and Pritchard, J. (1996). Practical theology in Action: Christian Thinking in the Service

of Church and Society. London: SPCK.

Clark, Chap (2008). “Youth Ministry as Practical Theology” The Journal of Youth Ministry

(Volume 8, Number 1; Fall), 9‐37.

Freire, P.; Ramos, M. B.; Shor, I.; Macedo, D. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed : 50th

anniversity edition. New York : Bloomsbury Academic.

Oberdeck, J.W., (2011).Theology Becoming Flesh: A Trinitarian Model for Youth Ministry.

Association of Youth Ministry Educators. October

Pattison, S. and Woodward, J. (2007). A Reader in Practical Theology, Oxford: Blackwell.

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