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2 Setting the Terrain What Is Practical Theology, Anyway? The forecast of religion in America remains tempered, with some spotting trends of decline and others reporting relative stability.1 But almost no one is predicting clear skies and perfectly happy days for American religion as it moves into the next decades of the twenty-first century. While sociologists and cultural theorists (whether academic or popular) continue to discuss a (new or revived nontraditional) spiritual propensity of the populace, the institutions of religion in America are, it appears, unequivocally taking a hit. And no institutions are impacted more directly than theological seminaries and divinity schools. Some predict that nearly a third of mainline seminaries will need to close their doors in the next decade or two. Many are already merging, even across denominational and theological traditions, to remain afloat. A radical reorganization, if not already here, has gathered on the horizon with force and is moving in our direction. As leaders of denominations and educational centers rush to batten down the hatches to either prepare for or mitigate the damage of the high winds of change, they are often turning to practical theology. It is more than obvious that theological education as usual, a theological education that fails to prepare graduates for concrete and lived faith communities, will not do. In the storm of change only a more practical perspective, a practical perspective that connects 1. For an account of decline, see Robert Wuthnow’s After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty -and ThirtySomethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007). For reports of stability, see Mark Chaves, American Religion: Contemporary Trends (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011). Though Chaves sees a relative stability in American religion, he nevertheless mentions that religion has experienced slight declines since the 1970s, and particularly since the mid-1990s. 19 theory with practice, will provide any way to fortify the structures of local congregations and denominations.2 The Bastard Child Practical theology has experienced a revival of relevance. It was born as the bastard child of another radical transition of theological education, born in the ferocious winds of the arrival of post-Enlightenment modernity, which saw a momentous shift in the location of theological education as it moved from monasteries, abbeys, and humanist classrooms to modern research universities. This shift uprooted theological education from places of formation and repotted it in the soil of empirical science. Because of such an environment, practical theology was pushed into the world.3 But its arrival was never celebrated. In the ethos of the modern scientific research university it had no claim to royalty; practical theology’s bloodlines were too mixed with experience and practice (with the practical as opposed to the theoretical) to claim the right of the throne of science. Belittled and ignored, it rested at the bottom of the theological encyclopedia, and it was imagined to be a bottom feeder, hoping to gather up the intellectual crumbs that fell from the table of Bible, systematics, and history.4 Practical theology was to use these scraps to apply the noble scientific theories of the university’s high table to the peasants out in the practice of ministry. It was believed that if budding pastors had the scientific theory (the true meal) of the classic theological disciplines (systematics, history, and Bible), then with a few concluding courses (a little sweet and fluffy dessert) on management and liturgical organization, they were properly nourished and ready to lead.5 2. If one trend has been to turn to practical theology, another trend, arguably congruent with the practical theology, is the turn toward the missional. A number of thinkers in practical theology and missiology have begun to cross-fertilize with each other. For instance, Kenda Creasy Dean and Thomas Hastings have drawn on missional perspectives for practical theology, and Ben Conner has pulled from practical theology for his missiological work. See Kena Creasy Dean, Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004); and Thomas Hastings, Practical Theology and the One Body of Christ: Toward a Missional-Ecumenical Model (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007). 3. Richard Osmer, following Edward Farley and others, has made the point that before the modern research university all theology had a practical edge. Osmer calls such heroes of the faith like Luther, Calvin, Augustine, and Paul proto-practical theologians, explaining that for these fathers (and a number of mothers could be added) all theology was...

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