FE 103 Practical Theology Video
Summary
TLDRIn this educational video, Tony Mory Alori discusses the intricacies of Practical Theology, emphasizing its evolving nature and resistance to simple categorization. He outlines its four core tasks: attentive (descriptive), interpretative, normative, and pragmatic, each with theological underpinnings. Alori connects these tasks to field education, illustrating how students can integrate practical theology into their internships and theological reflections, fostering a deeper understanding of their experiences within a theological context.
Takeaways
- 🎓 Practical theology is a field that is challenging to define due to its evolving nature, resistance to categorization, and multiple modern interpretations.
- 🔍 The field has transformed over the past 200 years, shifting from a 'theory to practice' model to a more contextual and integrated approach.
- 👨🏫 Practical theology resists specialization, aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice, rather than being a distinct sub-discipline.
- 🌟 It is understood in various ways today: as a discipline, a method, a curricular area, and an activity in everyday life.
- 👂 The first task of practical theology is being attentive, which involves actively observing, listening, and understanding the context.
- 🧠 The second task is interpretative, where observations are analyzed and connected with broader academic disciplines and understandings.
- 📚 The third task is normative, engaging in theological reflection by putting experiences in conversation with established norms and traditions.
- 🛠 The fourth task is pragmatic, focusing on strategic responses and actions derived from the insights gained through the previous tasks.
- 🔗 Field education is integral to practical theology, providing a space for students to apply these tasks and reflect on their experiences.
- 🌐 The conversation between experience and norms can lead to the development of new theologies that address contemporary issues and challenges.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the class on practical theology and theological reflection?
-The class focuses on the connection between practical theology and field education, emphasizing the methods and overview of practical theology and its relation to theological reflection as a tool for integrating field site work with classroom learning.
What is the significance of theological reflection in the context of field education?
-Theological reflection is significant as it serves as a skill set for students to reflect on their work in field sites, integrating that experience with classroom work, following an action-reflection-action practice model of learning.
Why is defining practical theology considered challenging?
-Defining practical theology is challenging due to the field's development over time, its resistance to categorization, and the various ways the term is used today, including as a discipline, method, curricular area, and activity in everyday life.
Who is credited with first speaking about practical theology, and how has the field evolved since then?
-Fredrick Schacher in Germany is credited with first speaking about practical theology. The field has evolved significantly from its initial concept as a theory-to-practice model reflecting modernity to a more contextual and integrated approach in postmodernity.
What are the four tasks of practical theology as described by Richard Osmer?
-The four tasks of practical theology according to Richard Osmer are: 1) the descriptive task (attentive task), which involves attentively observing and describing what is happening; 2) the interpretative task, which involves analyzing and understanding why things are happening; 3) the normative task, which involves theological reflection and putting experiences in conversation with norms and traditions; and 4) the pragmatic task, which is about strategizing and planning how to respond to the situation at hand.
How does the attentive task of practical theology relate to field education?
-The attentive task in field education involves students being present and observant in their field sites, engaging all senses to understand the context and dynamics of the site, which is crucial for effective practical theology application.
What role does the interpretative task play in connecting field experiences with academic learning?
-The interpretative task helps students analyze and connect their field experiences with academic learning by drawing on various disciplines and encouraging reflection on how field experiences relate to classroom teachings.
Why is the normative task considered the heart of theological reflection?
-The normative task is the heart of theological reflection because it involves putting experiences in conversation with theological norms and traditions, allowing for a dynamic interaction that shapes and challenges both the experience and the norms.
How does the pragmatic task differ from the traditional application of theories in practical theology?
-The pragmatic task in contemporary practical theology differs from traditional application by focusing on responding to specific situations with new practices rather than applying universal theories, emphasizing context and adaptability.
What are the theological justifications behind each of the four tasks of practical theology?
-The theological justifications behind the four tasks are: Priestly listening for the attentive task, seeking wisdom for the interpretative task, discernment for the normative task, and leadership for the pragmatic task, each drawing from Christian theological perspectives.
Outlines
🎓 Introduction to Practical Theology and Field Education
The video script begins with a welcome address to the FY 103 class on Practical Theology and Theological reflection. The speaker introduces Tony Moryoralori, a doctoral student in Practical Theology, who will discuss the connection between practical theology and field education. The conversation emphasizes the importance of theological reflection as a tool for integrating field site work with classroom learning, following an action-reflection-action practice model. The session aims to provide a framework for understanding practical theology's role in field education.
📚 The Challenge of Defining Practical Theology
Tony Moryoralori delves into the complexities of defining practical theology, acknowledging the evolving nature of the field over the past 200 years. He discusses three challenges: the field's development, its resistance to categorization, and the varied contemporary uses of the term. The conversation highlights the difficulty of pinning down a single definition due to the field's dynamic nature and its intersection with various theological and practical disciplines. Instead of a rigid definition, the discussion suggests focusing on the characteristics of practical theology.
🔍 The Four Tasks of Practical Theology
Tony introduces Richard Osmer's framework of the four tasks of practical theology: the descriptive, interpretative, normative, and pragmatic tasks. The 'attentive' task involves observing and understanding the context, the 'interpretative' task seeks to analyze and connect observations with broader knowledge, the 'normative' task engages with theological and ethical norms to reflect on the situation, and the 'pragmatic' task strategizes responses to the context. This framework is proposed as a way to understand practical theology's application in field education and theological reflection.
🤔 The Interpretative Task: Making Connections
The discussion continues with the second task of practical theology, the interpretative task, which involves analyzing and interpreting the observed context. This task encourages students to connect their field site experiences with their academic studies, fostering a deeper understanding. The conversation underscores the importance of drawing on various disciplines and sources to enrich the interpretative process, moving beyond personal perspectives to include broader traditions and historical contexts.
🌟 The Normative Task: Theological Reflection and Norms
The third task, the normative, is central to theological work, focusing on the conversation between observed experiences and theological or ethical norms. This task is about wrestling with the tension between personal beliefs and encountered realities, potentially leading to a reevaluation or evolution of norms. The conversation highlights how this process can lead to new theological insights, such as in liberation, queer, and feminist theologies, which emerged from challenging traditional norms with new experiences.
🛠️ The Pragmatic Task: Responding to the Context
The final task discussed is the pragmatic task, which is about formulating a response or plan based on the previous tasks of attentive observation, interpretation, and normative reflection. This task is about applying practical theology in a contextual way, moving from theory to a new practice that is responsive to the specific situation at hand. The conversation suggests that this task is about leadership and strategic planning, aiming to enact change in the field site or any context where practical theology is applied.
🔗 Integrating the Tasks in Field Education
The conversation concludes with a reflection on how the four tasks of practical theology can be integrated into field education and theological reflection. The speaker shares a visual aid that summarizes the tasks and their theological justifications, emphasizing the importance of understanding these tasks to enrich field work and theological reflection. The session aims to foster rich discussions and challenges students to engage deeply with the material, understanding practical theology's role in their field education.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Practical Theology
💡Theological Reflection
💡Field Education
💡Descriptive Task
💡Interpretative Task
💡Normative Task
💡Pragmatic Task
💡Action Reflection Action Practice
💡Fragmentation
💡Postmodernity
Highlights
Introduction to the class on practical theology and theological reflection.
Tony Mory Alori, a doctoral student in Practical Theology, joins the class to discuss the connection between practical theology and field education.
Theological reflection as a tool for integrating field site work with classroom learning.
The action-reflection-action-practice model of learning for the field education class.
The challenge of defining practical theology due to the evolving nature of the field.
The historical development of practical theology from modernity to postmodernity.
Practical theology's resistance to categorization and its aim to heal the fragmentation between theory and practice.
Practical theology understood in four different enterprises: as a discipline, a method, a curricular area, and an everyday activity.
The four tasks of practical theology: descriptive, interpretative, normative, and pragmatic.
The attentive task of practical theology involves being present and observant in a given context.
The interpretative task involves analyzing and understanding the context within a broader perspective.
The normative task is the heart of theological reflection, engaging with norms and values to make sense of experiences.
The pragmatic task focuses on developing a response to the situation after theological reflection.
The importance of living in the tension between experience and norms for creative theological development.
The theological justifications behind each task: Priestly listening, wisdom, discernment, and leadership.
Encouragement for students to engage with the challenges and conversations around practical theology.
Transcripts
hello FY 103 Welcome to our class on
practical Theology and Theological
reflection today um we have here Tony uh
Mory
alori who is working on um doctoral
studies in Practical Theology and he's
going to um reflect with us about
the connection between practical
Theology of which field education is a
part and perhaps more importantly the
methods and overview of practical
Theology and its relation to what you'll
be asked to do which is around
theological reflection so theological
reflection is a tool a skill set uh
something that we're going to be asking
you to do as a way to reflect on the
work work you'll be doing in field site
uh integrating that with the kind of
work you're doing in the classroom so
it's action reflection action practice
model of learning that we are going to
be inviting you to for this whole year
so before we launch into that um Tony
actually thought it was a good idea to
give um some framework from which we
could understand what we're doing and
how we're doing what we're doing so with
that that uh welcome Tony so glad to
have you here and to videotape this
together and I look forward to this this
time of reflection thoughts and
clarifications about uh what we're
hoping to do together in our field
education
class yeah thank you Dean I am so
excited to be here as well so
first practical theology what is
practicable theology and what theology
is Not Practical is there impractical
theology if there is practical theology
I mean I always love to say that as a
practical Theologian um that uh sort of
a modifier practical uh that that's
attached to theology I'm always curious
as what is that and and and why does it
matter yeah and that that is a very
important question to start with and
before we say what is practical theology
I think the question itself
raises um
it there is a challenge in defining
practical theology there is like as we
ask what practical theology is I think
it's important to just deal with the
challenging uh with the challenge of
defining what the field is and um I am
writing a paper right now and in in the
first section I am saying that there are
at least three reasons um
that makes defining practical theology
challenging the first reason is that the
developing of the field uh is is is very
um makes the the definition changing all
the time and uh throughout the at least
200 years there are a lot of different
definitions if we just survey the books
of practical theology about what
practical theology is um I have like
just document of the different
definitions that I have been gathering
in the past four years since I started
working on practical Theology and it's a
10 page Google doc single space just
definitions and there are a lot of
things in common and there are a lot of
things are different so the first reason
is the development of the field makes it
difficult because the the concept has
changed a lot the first person who
actually spoke about practical theology
in in in the term like said practical
theology is Fredick schacher in Germany
and since then the the the field changed
a lot from starting it as you started
saying the uh as a theory to practice
model which actually reflects modernity
where SCH maker left where uh they think
at that time that the the theory and
practice are very different and Theory
lives in detached reality SE separate
from practice and the role of practical
theology as understood at that time was
just the mere application of theory to
practice that changed a lot in
postmodernity starting from the mid 20th
century we started seeing practical
theologians speak about practical
theology in a very different way as you
said in a very contextual in a model
that really acknowledges practice theory
pratice instead of just Theory to
pratice so that's the first reason the
second reason is um that practical
theology actually resists any kind of
categorization as you also implied in
the very beginning um there is a
practical Theologian uh I like him a lot
his name is Terry villing he draws on
Edward Farley another older practical
Theologian who observe that theology has
become fragmented and specialized like
saying this is practical theology this
is systematic theology this is biblical
studies and that lead to the question so
what does practical theology specialize
in what is the specialty of practical
theology however practical theology
itself seeks to heal this fragmentation
seeks to heal this separation between
the the theoretical and the Practical so
that makes it difficult to Define is
there any impractical theology or all
theology
if we are trying to heal this
fragmentation is practical the third
reason is connected to the first two is
that there are a lot of ways this term
um used these days and the best person
who spoke about this is practical
Theologian at Vanderbilt University uh
Bonnie Miller meore and um she says that
practical theology is understood today
in at least four different Enterprises
four different locations it's understood
as a discipline among Scholars people do
PhD and Ms in Practical theology as a
method of doing
theology as a curricular area for
Seminary so we have different um like
subdisciplines and this is how practical
theology was understood for a long time
like religious education uh preaching uh
spiritual counseling so all these were
subis
and practical Theology and the fourth
area is an activity in the everyday life
so she says practical theology can can
be understood in these different uh ways
again as a discipline as a method as a
um curricula uh in seminaries and
theology schools and as an activity uh
among uh everyday life people who try to
understand faith and reflect on their
faith so all that to say uh there is a
difficult there is a like very inherent
difficulty in defining the field so I
think it's much better to think about
what are the characteristics of
practical theology instead of talking
about a definition of practical theology
yeah that's great thank you um and
you're right and having so many
subdisciplines I mean they wouldn't even
call a sub disciplines they would say
there are disciplines that come under
the umbrella of practical theology um as
you say you know religion and society as
one in our in our own curriculum we have
five disciplines that are living under
the discipline of of uh or the field of
practical theology so as we think about
the characteristics right and this is
where I think our uh field
education um
class we are trying me follow
the the kind of characteristics of
practical theology so it might be
helpful to lay out you know what is
happening in our classes uh for two
semesters and what we're trying to do in
our classes um so and we are really
working with these various
characteristics of practical theology so
tell us what are these characteristics
of practical
theology yeah um
to understand the characteristics uh
I will use um a method that is used by
the Practical Theologian Richard bosmer
and uh I just made some modifications in
the language that he uses I think to
make it a little bit more comprehensive
so Richard osmer says that there are
four tasks of practical theology
practical theology does four things and
it's helpful to think about these four
tasks as descriptive more than
prescriptive so it's not a way to say
this is the only way we can do practical
theology it's just describing what
practical theology does in general and
um how we can understand what we're
doing in a way or another within this
big umbrella of what's called stask
practical theology the first task for
osir is what he called the descriptive
task the second task is the
interpretative task the third is the
normative and the fourth is the pragat
so I think it will be helpful to go
through these one by one and see how
these four tasks of practical theology
are are helpful or not helpful for what
we doing in the field because the whole
goal of this goal is to is to help the
students to see how can this method or
how practical theology can be used in
their internships in their field
education in their work as they're doing
that in the different sites right and
it's uh they are tasks and it's also a
lens right I mean they you can see
through these these discrete and
interconnected task so yeah so tell us
about the first task yeah so the first
task the first task I like to call it
the attentive task of practical theology
in in instead of descriptive and the
reason I prefer the the the adjective
attentive because I think it
expands descriptive to something more
than just head centered uh uh activity
related to just describing what is going
on in language maybe in the more
academic field when we think about
practical theology in Academia
descriptive can be helpful but if
practical theology is a broad activity I
think the first characteristic of it is
that it is attentive to what's happening
attentive to a certain context attentive
to a certain activity um
in the everyday life if let's say I am
doing practical theology I would
be attentive to any conversation I am
sitting at I will be listening I will be
seeing I will be observing I will be not
focused only on myself but able to see
what is happening around me and that's
very important in the field it because
like as much as in uh our age where we
understand that it's impossible not to
see things in our own lenses we know in
the postmodern era that our perspective
is always impacted by my background and
by my culture and by the way I am shaped
that's very important and we cannot
ignore this but also we need to
acknowledge that it's very important to
be able to allow the other to be other
without objectifying them and seeing
them only in my lens I will always see
the other in my
but I also need to allow the other to be
that other and the first task of
practical theology is to be attentive to
that other in that in in in our case in
field the other is the particular
situation we are dealing with our site
that can be in the hospital that can be
in a church that can be in a mosque that
can be in any site I need to be
attentive I need to ask what is going on
before I deal with anything else so
that's the first task practical theology
is describing is to be attentive seeing
listening and ask the question of what
is involed yeah and as I think about the
field site mapping assignment that that
that we're asking students to do in I
think week four or five I can't remember
what the week is uh first task is
attending or attentive to the
surrounding we ask students to walk
around the perimeters of their field
site now walk or drive or however around
the perimeter of their field site to
attend to what's going on right
listening for sites uh looking for and
listening and sense like what do you
smell I mean so these are all various
different way of attending and I like
attending attentive because it I think
it's more
embodied right because we attend with
our whole bodies we're not just
describing it you know verbally but
there's some visceral engagement that's
going on as you're kind of looking at
the field site uh the perimeter the
neighborhood that we ask people to do so
that the step of attentive or and
attending um is is is really key to to
begin thank you what is the second task
after you've attended so yeah after we
ask what is going on the second task
asks why is this going on and we try I
still remember last year when we did fil
Ed we try to postpone that a little bit
because we don't want to just jump into
the
Judgment uh uh but at some points we
need to not only see and listen we need
to analyze we need to have this
analytical uh skill to be able to
understand why is this going on um and
uh we can we can uh name this task or
feature the
interpretative task of practical
Theology and
um in the way we deal with it I think we
can draw on different disciplines in
Academia we like we draw on social
science psychology in field Edge we
encourage students especially in what
they will see every class the wlm the
weekly learning moments to answer the
question how is this related to your
other classes how is what you see here
or you dealt with today in the class or
in the field site connect to your
classes and that's the role of the
interpretative it's take the the episode
it takes the the the context that we saw
and it puts it in connection with other
things that makes it
more clear uh more obvious more uh I can
explain it more I can understand it more
so that's second task the
interpreta yeah and as you say uh in the
second semester of the field dead when
we do field site
analysis uh that an analytical piece
that critical and analytical piece that
understanding of power uh Dynamics in it
understanding the history of it and so
again the interpretive is not
just uh self- referential right we don't
just interpret from our own perspective
but we are bringing these
other uh facts and uh documents and
historical um you know data to bear or
Traditions uh to bear on the on the on
the interpretive task and of course we
have our own lenses too but also drawing
on the the yeah traditions and other um
um external to
ourselves that we draw on for our for
interpretations like why is it going on
right that's the that's the critical
critical thinking critical analytical
task so what is a third task yeah I just
want to say that uh I like what you said
about that we use external uh resources
because I think that's makes it more
communal as well it's not only my point
of view which is very important like at
the end I am describing what is going on
or or attending to what's going on from
my own lens but I think the second
question helps me expand my own
perspective and just rely on others
either disciplines or people who are
able to see that in a different so yeah
that's the second task the third task is
very important and I will explain why
without it actually uh there is
something extremely missing the third
task is the normative task of practical
theology
and normative task is what we really
mean by theological
reflection the difference between what
we're doing in a seminary or theology
school or Divinity School uh what makes
our work different is not the first or
the second or the fourth all of them are
very important and we cannot actually do
without them but what makes us doing
like theological work is the normative
task a normative task is mainly asking
us to put what we saw and attended to
and then explained in conversation with
our norms and our Norms can be theology
can be ethics can be sacred text can be
whatever is normative whatever is
authoritative in my own life or my own
tradition
and the task is to put that in
conversation all the time and allow the
two what I explored and attended to in
conversation with the norm and make
these two affect each other in a in a
conversation that is
continuous um and again I know that
sometimes we have resistance to anything
called Norms but we can think about
social justice as we can think about
love as Norms we can think about any
high value that is bigger than myself
any higher value any higher ethic that
is bigger than my own limited lens that
is important in my tradition as a
normative that is making theological
sense of the thing that I am seeing
describing attending to and
understanding and I think at times when
you put those in conversation like your
experience and attending to the
experience and the Norms as we have
understood our Norms to be sometimes the
experience can challenge the Norms yes
right and Norms can challenge the
experience and we want fully to have
this kind of circular uh uh energy and
process right because um we might hold
on to certain beliefs and norms and we
we encounter a different experience that
says wait a minute this is at odds with
the Norms that I was holding that my
traditions say what is a norm and I need
to figure it out either I get rid of the
Norms or I cannot rely on the experience
or you figure out that that they all the
the way to kind of have this
conversation whereby they are shaped by
each other right sometimes the Norms
will start to crumble yeah and maybe
different kind of norms will arise as as
we experience very different experiences
right and so this conversation as you
say in theological reflection is the
heart of doing that reflection is that
wrestling with what we know to be true
when they get challenged by what we see
and what we experience yeah yeah and
living in that tension without getting
rid of any of the two poles I think this
is how Liberation theology was born how
queer theology how feminist theology
they started from an experience they not
that there's something wrong in the
experience there is oppression there is
way of patriarchy that not dealing with
women well there is oppression to the
lgbtq community they acknowledge the
experience and this experience
challenged the norm but it did not get
away of the norm there is still Norm
there's still theology in all of them
but the experience itself of wom of
people who are oppressed lgbtq people
challenged that Norm so the norm did not
go away but was modified in a way that
there is still Norm we still have
Theology and we have the experience and
they are shaping each other yeah maybe
the the the fact of the Norms didn't go
away but the norm as it was understood
was upended right yeah so so even though
we throw away what we consider to be the
norm we don't get rid of the norm itself
right so I think that because to say
that we don't have Norms is kind of not
being honest we all have values that we
hold we all have some that are
indispensable that are not
non-negotiable that we hold and those
are the Norms right and um sometimes
that comes up against the experience
what we see and that tension living in
that tension is a very creative process
of of and not always having the right
answer or the right way to land and it's
that discomfort of of that space of
tension space which yeah I think we
encourage and um we try to Foster
because something comes out of that that
space right and that goes to the fourth
Point fourth task so what's the fourth
task yeah one final point about the
normative um that I don't know if it
will be helpful for all our students but
I would say in
my Christian faith for me the norm is
not as you said the fact itself the norm
is what God is doing in this particular
situation and what God is doing will
always be a norm and uh is always
related
to something about Liberation something
about love so that's that's if I want
the fact that's the fact and the the the
details of what God is doing is what is
I am tackling and handling and grappling
with and uh living in that tension but I
still have the norm that God is doing
something to liberate this situation to
make it better to make it go forward and
um I need figure out what that
is yeah thank you yeah so the first task
is uh what OS called the pragmatic task
of practical theology uh how what is the
plan how can we move forward
um and the traditional practical
theology again when it was only a linear
going from Theory to practice uh that
pragmatic task was just application of
universal uh theories that um like
people in the west thought this is what
Systematic Theology is and your task in
any kind in any context in any situation
is to apply these Universal truths uh in
a way that is just acknowledging the
technique of the uh of of the
application um pragmatic task in
Practical theology as we understand it
today in a contextual way is a response
to the particular situation that we
dealt with from the very beginning so we
started with attending we tried to
understand what is going on we placed
that into conversation with the norm
with the tradition so we can move to a
new practice so we can move to to um a
new way of being a new way of dealing
with the uh um the situation we are
dealing with in our field site or in any
place we are trying to apply practic
theology yeah so in other words if you
were to say in these questions which I
think you started what is going on why
is it going on what should be going on
yes and what are we to do yes right
those are the the questions that we're
asking
uh each of us to wrestle with uh as we
embark on our field education and our
theological reflection um that we do
together yeah let me share my screen to
put all these together to bring the
whole conversation
uh so these are the four tasks that osir
talks about and you see uh below
something called function which is the
theological
uh uh justification or the theological
root of the Tas according to osar who is
speaking from a very Christian uh
background so the task descriptive or
what we called attentive the question
what is going on and the theology behind
it is Priestly listening he SE that uh
uh and of course he's not talking about
like the priest in in the in the
clerical way he he's saying that anyone
who is doing practical theology he has a
Priestly listening
task uh the interpretive task ask why is
this going on and it draws from sely
wisdom it needs to be it's it invites me
to go out of myself and to draw on
different kind of sources as we saw and
that what wisdom is uh the the third is
the normative what ought to be going on
and this is discernment
uh this is what it means uh what we mean
by discernment in this particular
context of course discernment is much
bigger than this but in this particular
context it's uh drawing on the Norms on
the tradition and finally uh the
Strategic how might we respond and this
is leadership um and we have a session I
think in field about leadership uh and
we can connected to these core tasks so
what is going on why is this going on
what ought to be going on and how might
we
respond thank you this is very helpful
as a puristic and a paradigm to uh point
to as we are doing our field work
together as we are in this course
together and doing theologic reflection
on the the internship and the tasks that
we are working on um throughout the
semester and throughout the year any
last thoughts as you think about this
and for the class I'm looking forward to
the conversation in the class and I am
sure there will be a lot of Rich
conversations about this I'm sure there
will be some challenges but before we
challenge let's really understand what
practical theology is and then we will
have a conversation and uh uh see how it
can be helpful or not helpful in our
work thank
you thank you de
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