Talking about God in Practice: Theological Action Research and Practical Theology

By Helen Cameron

Talking about God in Practice details the challenges and complexities of real theological conversations with practitioners, whilst providing an example of appropriate process, and a model of theological understanding by which to negotiate these complexities fruitfully.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SCM Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9780334047612

Book preview

Talking about God

in Practice

Theological Action Research

and Practical Theology

Helen Cameron, Deborah Bhatti,

Catherine Duce,

James Sweeney, Clare Watkins

© The Authors 2010

Published in 2010 by SCM Press

Editorial office

13–17 Long Lane,

London, ec1a 9pn, UK

SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

(a registered charity)

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www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of

the publisher, SCM Press.

The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Authors of this Work

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

978-0-334-04363-8

Originated by The Manila Typesetting Company

Printed and bound by

CPI William Clowes, Beccles, Suffolk

Contents

List of Appendices

List of Figures

Introduction

Part 1 The Problem and Emerging Responses

1 The Problem of Talking about God in Practice

2 Practical Theology as a Response

3 Action Research as a Response

Part 2 A Fresh Response

4 Characteristics of Theological Action Research

Part 3 Theological Action Research: The Process Explained

5 What Is Theological Action Research?

6 Who Do We Need to Be to Do Theological Action Research?

7 Setting up Theological Action Research

8 Doing Theological Action Research

9 Reflection Leading to Renewed Practice and Theology

Part 4 Worked Examples of Theological Action Research

10 Theological Action Research in a Parish

11 Theological Action Research in a Diocese

12 Theological Action Research with a Faith-Based Agency

Part 5 Theological Action Research: An Initial Evaluation

13 Evaluating Theological Action Research: Learning Points in Theology and Method

Conclusions

Appendices

Bibliography

Index

List of Appendices

1 Grid of ARCS Research Projects

2 Agendas for Warm-Up Meetings

3 Set-Up Questionnaire

4 Example of Remit Document

5 Flow Chart for One Cycle of Theological Action Research

6 Example of Information Sheet

7 Example of Consent Form

8 Example of Evaluation Questionnaire

9 Example of Interview Schedule

10 Example of Focus Group Schedule

11 Guide to Reading Data

12 Agenda for Joint Reflection Meetings

List of Figures

4.1 The Action–Reflection Cycle

4.2 The Four Voices of Theology

Introduction

This book is the product of four years of research in which the authors worked as a team to develop a fresh approach to practical theology. The term ‘team’ is not used lightly in that we are unable to say which of us should be credited with any particular part of what we have developed. The way in which the book is written reflects our different voices but we have designed the book together and commented on each other’s writing. As is our convention in our publications, we list our names alphabetically except for the first named author, who has undertaken the final editorial work.

The research was motivated by a desire to find more faithful ways of relating theology and practice, ways that did justice to the whole discipline of theology and to the complexity of practice. We were also quick to realize the benefits of working ecumenically, in this case a project based at a Roman Catholic college joined by a Church of England research centre. While the research took place at a time of turbulent relationships between the two churches, at the level of practice in diocese and parish this collaboration was welcomed and found to be enriching.

The relationship between the book and the ARCS project

This is the first book-length treatment of the ARCS project. Action Research: Church and Society was initiated by the Pastoral and Social Studies Department of Heythrop College, University of London in 2006. One year in, the project became a collaboration with the Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a Church of England Theological College. This broadened the range of the organizations the project worked with and enabled comparative perspectives to emerge. The ARCS project had as its focus the ad extra or outward looking work of dioceses, parishes and faith-based agencies, mainly working in London. This book reports two of the main outcomes of the project so far. First, a methodology called theological action research, and second, a model for theological reflection, called the four voices of theology. A comprehensive report of the ARCS project in the form of a monograph is also planned.

The purpose of the book

This book aims to share Theological Action Research (TAR) as a methodology and the four voices of theology as a model for theological reflection in sufficient detail for others to try them out and develop them further. This book has been written before the monograph in response to requests from students and others wanting to make use of our approach.

The intended readership

The book is written for a number of audiences:

for students and academics undertaking research in practical theology, who wish to explore our approach

for those studying and teaching practical theology who wish to understand some of the practical challenges involved in theological reflection

for practitioners who might find TAR helpful, such as those in dioceses, parishes and faith-based agencies.

The structure of the book

The book is divided into five parts each with a particular purpose.

Part 1 examines the problem that confronts so much research in practical theology, that of talking about God in practice. Chapter 1 sets out the problem as we understand it. Chapters 2 and 3 describe two emerging responses to the problem: Practical Theology and Action Research.

Part 2 is a single chapter, Chapter 4, which contains an initial statement of the characteristics of TAR and the four-voices model of theological reflection.

Part 3 is a step-by-step guide to undertaking TAR. It starts with a brief overview in Chapter 5 and a description of the team approach that TAR requires in Chapter 6. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 describe the research process. You will find that Part 3 will guide you through the appendices, which offer working documents that assist with TAR and provide examples of research instruments.

Part 4 offers three worked examples drawn from the ARCS project. They come from different stages of the project as the methodology evolved and so each chapter concludes with some lessons we learned, which were used to refine TAR. These examples are partial accounts of the work done giving an illustration of the methodology and its outcomes rather than a full description of the research.

Part 5 offers an initial evaluation of TAR. The approach is still under development and so our claims are tentative. We end with an invitation to develop the methodology further.

How to use the book

This book has been designed to set out a problem, make some proposals, describe how a fresh proposal, TAR, can be enacted, offer worked examples and then evaluate TAR as a response to the original problem.

We accept that there may be those looking for a quicker route. For those wishing to use this book as a guide to undertaking TAR, we suggest you start with Chapters 4 and 5, then skip to one of the worked examples in Part 4 and then work your way through Part 3. For those wanting to understand the academic claims we are making about TAR as an approach to Practical Theology, we invite you to read Parts 1, 2 and 5 before looking at the guidance and examples in Parts 3 and 4. Appendix 1 gives an overview of the groups we have worked with and the issues tackled.

And finally . . .

Most of our ARCS team meetings have taken place in either the board room at Heythrop College or the Seminar Room at Ripon College Cuddesdon. A photo would expose our working method. A large table covered in papers, laptops, cups of tea, coffee and juice and the food which is so essential to brain function. At one end of the room a white board, with lists and diagrams. A tape recorder to capture the vigorous conversation which is possible when the common aim of developing faithful practice is present. What can’t be so easily captured are the epiphanies, the moments of recognition, the struggles for right discernment which we have received as a gracious gift. But this is only half the story; most of the work of the project has been done by our partners in their contexts whether alone or in dialogue with us. These conversations have been just as lively, with laughter often signalling a fresh epiphany. We hope you will read this book as an invitation to join the conversation.

PART 1

The Problem and Emerging Responses

Part 1 of the book explores a key problem in researching Christian practice and offers two emerging responses to this problem. Chapter 1 explores the problem of talking about God in practice. It examines the way in which talk about God has moved to the margins of contemporary culture and the difficulty of using theology to explore Christian practice. In Chapter 2 the response of practical theology is described as a response to practice from within the discipline of theology. In Chapter 3 the response of action research to the problems of researching practice from within the social sciences is described. These chapters aim to give a summary overview and prepare the way for Part 2, in which Theological Action Research is proposed as a fresh response to the problem.

1

The Problem of Talking about God in Practice

The rule ‘no politics or religion’ is sometimes needed to keep conversation civil. People have different reactions to religious talk. Some wax eloquent. Others are embarrassed, or irritated. Even in religious circles, words and their tone can be crucial. A parishioner watching a DVD presentation approved, because:

they’ve got it down to the nitty-gritty of ordinary everyday life. Not too pious, holy pie in the sky, just quietly living ordinary lives.¹

This is the kind of God talk that connects with experience – but theology seems to be something different. In the minds of many, ‘theological’ is synonymous with ‘irrelevant’, dissociated from human experience and cut off from the everyday business of living.

‘We don’t do God’ has been a common saying ever since Alastair Campbell used it to prevent Tony Blair being questioned about his faith. The surprise is how many of those who ‘don’t do God’ today are actually believers. Some feel prevented from being upfront because of their job or position, as Prime Minister Blair was. But even in some religious bodies, faith convictions are kept in deep cover. Looking for public funding for a church social project, for example, is often a pragmatic reason for not advertising faith, lest it be seen as proselytizing. But it is the strong reaction to public declarations – from hostility to blank incomprehension – that more than anything inhibits any mention of God in polite company. Religion has become a new taboo.

The taboo takes a mutant form within the Church. For example, during research interviews, parishioners in a Church of England parish were frank about their discourse not being very explicitly theological – they ‘didn’t do Jesus’. As one person put it:

The only expectation I think [this parish] places on people is to be present in a church and to celebrate God as you understand him. ²

The conclusion, nevertheless, was: ‘It’s so non-expectational that it’s magnetic!’ Too much religion might, apparently, be counter-productive!

Again, volunteers at a churches’ cold weather shelter project found God talk problematic:

I think these are very profoundly difficult questions about evangelism, and some people feel very evangelistic . . . But that doesn’t strike me as the flavour of this particular project, and no one has ever mentioned to me the idea of pushing a more evangelistic agenda on to it. I think it would change it.³

But, they were in for a surprise at how their ‘guests’ spoke. One guest commented:

I am finding it interesting that despite the difference of the churches here, actually they’re coming together as a body, as it should be, in the Body of Christ and actually working together and establishing some sort of unity and strength in unity together to help the outside.⁴

The volunteers had to admit: ‘They were a lot more religious than [we] thought . . . they are very conscious of being in a church, much more than we are.’ One person’s excess of religion is just what someone else needs!

Theology in today’s culture

The cultural prejudice today is more resistant to religion than to faith or ‘spirituality’. What meets with suspicion are the structured forms of faith, faith with a hard edge. This includes theology. Theology has an image problem. It was never easily accessible to the non-theologian given the highly speculative form it took in recent centuries. And now the word has acquired authoritarian overtones. ‘Theology’ is bracketed with ‘theocracy’ and seen as a throwback to medieval times. To brand a discussion point ‘theological’ is to accuse it of obscurity, delving into trivia, avoiding the real matter in hand. Our scientific and secular culture is not only non-theological, it has turned anti-theological – theology being bracketed with ‘religion’.

It is also the case that the analytical discourse of theology can be off-putting to the enthusiastic believer. Its measured approach does not always resonate with the people in the pews. Even the clergy can have a jaundiced view. The preoccupations of committed church people – about, for example, spirituality and/or social justice – come in their own characteristic modes. In spirituality, the mode is ‘expressive’ rather than analytical. Social justice agencies rely on the socio-economic disciplines rather than the theological. Parents, teachers and clergy fret about the irreligion of the young, and look for effective ways of handing on the gospel truth. Critical theological enquiry might not serve their purpose. And bishops, who have to defend Christian positions in a hostile culture, are not always patient with theological speculation.

But theology has actually been driven, especially over the last half century, by the sense that the well tried practices of the past no longer embody faith and mission effectively. The reason, in a word, is secularization. Our culture has shed much of its previously presumed Christian idiom, and we are now constrained to find new ways to portray Christianity. We think about things differently because material and social conditions have changed.

As people of faith struggle with the dilemmas of social change, the pervasive doubts about religion can feed into their self-perception. Faith-based organizations – schools and colleges, health care facilities, social action projects, voluntary organizations – find their identities being subtly remoulded

Reviews for Talking about God in Practice

[Ben Peltz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book provides a helpful paradigm for ministry leadership and inviting theological reflection. It combines many of the things I have studied during my Doctor of Ministry - missional theology, contextualization, action research, and practical theology - and provides a practical process for weaving them together in practice.