Practical theology

Christian Century, August 23, 2005

PRACTICAL THEOLOGY: As a philosopher who has taught in several divinity schools and seminaries, Nicholas Wolterstorff has noticed that the teaching of the practical disciplines is chaotic and that those who teach them are deemed second-class faculty. The assumption is that when students pursue the practical disciplines they will simply apply all that is taught in the rest of the seminary curriculum.

Wolterstorff recommends that preaching, liturgics, pastoral counseling and administration be taught in the context of the reading of theology--from the church fathers to liberation theology--with a view to the kind of communities the students will ultimately minister to. Referring to the medieval teaching of theology for the formation of the monastic community, he observes that "it would be fascinating to mine the tradition of formation theology to see what we can learn about forming our communities to be seekers of justice" (Theological Education, volume 40).