Dustin and I thought it would be a good opportunity as I hand over the journal to him next year to take stock of what has happened since I took on the editorship and look at where we are and where we might be going. This means I have the chance to reprise the last seven years of my time as editor, and he gets the chance to set out his stall as it were and look ahead. And we both wish to try and answer together the question, what is theological about editing a journal in practical theology?
A reprise – 2016–2023
In its first 7 years or so as the journal Practical Theology between 15 and 20 articles were published each year in 3 issues (4 issues from 2014). In 2023 we will have published 57 articles in 6 issues. It was of course serendipitous that my Editorship coincided with a move to Taylor & Francis / Routledge as publisher, their global reach and marketing power have greatly enhanced the availability of the journal to a worldwide audience. Other less commercial models of publishing are available and yet now that access to the journal can be had for £10 from countries in ‘Emerging Regions’ (via membership of BIAPT – see https://www.biapt.org/join/emerging-regions/) even the relatively high pay wall for some articles can be overcome. A measure of the progress we have made and Routledge’s backing is that when they took over, the core metric that they measured was 5000 ‘full-text downloads’ for all articles worldwide in 2016, which grew by a factor of ten to more than 50,000 downloads in 2022. That might not be over 50k actual people reading material from the journal, but it does represent at least tens of thousands of them.
I am the last person, however, to gloat over growth and numbers, though neither am I against such things! More importantly for me, they are a testament to an effective and theological approach to journal publishing which is, to use Tim Gorringe’s words, about furthering humanity. Let me try and explain some more. It is possible to imagine publishing a journal article in a capitalist transactional frame (and I am not naïve in thinking we can entirely escape this) – perhaps, rather crudely put, it looks a bit like this;
I must publish because my job/tenure and therefore my livelihood depends on it. Getting published seems to be about proving in some way that I can exist in my academic world. In a kind of unholy transaction, I present my research or reflection to a journal and if it is the right journal this is recognised in my institution’s next research assessment exercise. It would be great if people read and even cited my work, but that is secondary to getting published and adding another line to my CV publications list.
I have spent long days and nights developing my research and thinking and I wish for this to be available to a wider public. I need a recognised and respected outlet for my work and there is a significant connection between publication and public recognition which requires peers to assess my work in an open and transparent way. I learn, grow and discover some new knowledge and even truth on this journey which I would like others to share in and learn from. This adds to the sum total of human knowledge and in some small, but significant ways ‘furthers humanity’.
Rooted
Our ‘tap root’ if you like is in the British & Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) and this has remained constant throughout. BIAPT is a living and active community of practice which gives life to the journal. It is this particularity that we have grown out of and it also drives our attempts at internationalisation. Practical (or sometimes contextual) theology starts from somewhere, not nowhere. While we were a largely white, Christian space when I started the editing task this has changed, particularly in the last three years since 2020. There is a long way to go and we have made significant steps. Other important roots are in the task of theology itself – since I have always been clear that we are first and foremost a theological journal. However much inter-disciplinary working and qualitative or quantitative research is evident, if the article does not come back to questions of God and God’s presence and activity in our world (from any religious standpoint) then the author must look elsewhere. Then the root of the bible; given what has been published on the question of practical theology’s roots in sacred scripture over this period, I hope we won’t see any more authors complaining about a perceived lack of engagement! Finally, we remained rooted in the space between theological reflection and practice and this too is a reason people turn up to read our material – it appeals to and stays with both those working in the ‘academy’ and those practitioners on the ground – and everyone who moves between those spaces.
Dynamic
What I notice when I look back on my editorship is that year on year things changed incrementally. Someone once said that we imagine we can do much more in a year than we actually can, but we imagine we can do much less in five years than is possible. There has been a dynamism to what happened over these seven years from initially identifying an Editorial Board who were prepared to put the hard work in to supporting authors with good peer reviews, to increasing the number of issues per year (always a risk!) – in 2018 we added the Adult Theological Education Special Issue and in 2020 we moved to six issues per year to accommodate the larger number of articles then being published. This year the page budget limit to what can be published has been removed altogether. In all this growth I do not believe the quality of what we publish has been reduced in any way – and we still reject a significant number of submissions for a variety of reasons. That is one other thing I learnt early on – to say yes to an author until one really has to say no, that’s it, we have reached the end of the road. All of this adds up to an increasing impact and reach for the field of practical theology since its methods and approach are now recognised and visible in research and writing across the theological academy and related religious institutions such as the Church. A good example of this is how Evangelical Christians have taken the subject much more seriously – for instance, I noticed recently that Helen Collins from our own Editorial Board now chairs a three-year ‘Practical Theological Consultation’ within the Tyndale Fellowship; https://www.tyndalefellowship.org/practical-theology.
Responsive
Related to dynamism is being responsive – being able to flex when a new reality emerges. This has to be one of the charisms of practical theology in my view – since as well as being theological it is predicated on experience and when that experience changes a response is required. Thus, more recently we have been able to engage, almost as it happened with the Covid-19 plague that struck the world in 2020 and continues to deeply affect our behaviour. With BIAPT and others, we have responded to the challenges of our own whiteness and the climate crisis – these special issues have been especially valued alongside all the ongoing research and reflection that we publish. We have recognised the difficulty of writing in English when it might be a second, third or fourth language of the author by developing the Buddy System. We have opened up the journal to poetry contributions and included an annual list of doctorates which demonstrates the strength of the field to anyone who would notice. And when approached about publishing longer articles from established scholars as ‘essays’ we were happy to oblige.
Perhaps in conclusion it is not too pious, from my Christian perspective to claim that God’s Spirit was blowing through our work with the journal over these years, indeed we are empowered by that same Spirit to connect our theology and practice.
Convening and curating Practical Theology
We have laboured to consider what we share as outgoing and incoming Editors that will provide continuity amid such an editorial transition. The work of practical theology is connected to the interrelated practices of convening and curating. As a field and discipline that is inherently contextually rooted (as Nigel noted above) and interdisciplinary, the work in its various forms requires convening individuals, ideas, and disciplines into a single space or conversation. Various metaphors are used for this aspect of practical theology. For example, practical theology is like a dance, it requires determining the ‘moves’ and combination of movement that attends to the embodied, sapiential, and contextual forms of knowing. This aspect of practical theology may also be compared to the work of a musical conductor, who works to combine various voices and themes into a symphonic whole. Others draw upon artisanal wisdom, comparing practical theology to the crafting work of stitching or pottery, drawing together disparate threads and making sense of the material work that surrounds us. Still others may conceive of practical theology as a form of midwifery, holding and creating space for the new things that God and a broader community may bring into being.
These various metaphors for practical theology share an interrelated practice: convening and curating. Practical theology is, after all, an ongoing practice of the work and wisdom that God and the people God calls into the community may offer into the world. While it draws insight from various fields and contexts, it is also about what individuals do–individually and collectively–in response to the reality and possibilities of God. Practical theology is bound up with our practice, and at its best practice illuminates our knowledge, imagination, and sense of possibility. It is important, we think, to describe these as interrelated practices. The practice of convening involves gathering up the disparate material, disciplines, participants, and forms of knowledge that order and constitute our interpretive task as practical theologians. The practice is simultaneously based in phronesis, reflecting a form of practical wisdom, and performative in poiesis, bodying forth an argument through who, what, where, and how our convening gathers. Practical theology also requires the practice of curation. Once gathered, the various sources and voices that order our work then have to be put into order and situated in relation to others. In some instances, there are fixed boundaries between what we gather, such as between discrete individuals and geographic locales. In other instances, the borders are more porous, as is the case between disciplines and ideas drawn from related texts. The practice of curating requires a purposeful arrangement of what we hold in our hands as practical theologians, guided by the hope a particular combination can illumine what’s possible and somehow redound to enliven ongoing thought and practice. Although they represent discrete practices, convening and curating are best conceived as interrelated practices, like the upstroke and downstroke of pedals on a bike, that can advance our shared work in our field.
That is how we think about our work as Editors for Practical Theology. While we each came to this work from different contexts (and continents) and traditions, we share an abiding sense that the work of an Editor involves convening and curating. This is the type of work that is best done in conversation and collaboration, as it requires an ever-expanding network of colleagues and conversation partners. And when done well, the work of the Editor creates space for a broader conversation that spills over beyond the pages of a single issue or volume. While we remain convinced that editorial work matters for the vibrancy of our discipline and the forms of practice it supports, the Editor’s primary work is to clarify and celebrate others’ creative work. We create the space where a particular kind of contextually-rooted imagination can take form and flourish. And just like all practices, in time, we pass them on to others.
And looking ahead from 2023 …
As I (Dustin) assume the role of Editor, I first want to convey my gratitude to Nigel Rooms for his generous work and sensational leadership of Practical Theology for many years. Nigel has served with extraordinary care, grace, and curiosity during his tenure. The journal has flourished under Nigel’s leadership, including expanding readership, an online profile, the internationalisation of the journal, excellent scholarship, and an ongoing commitment to publish first-time authors. Nigel has kindly agreed to stay connected to the journal as a member of the Editorial Board, so his wisdom will not be entirely lost. I am honoured to pick up and continue Nigel’s convening and curating work. As I do so, the spirit of the journal will not change; it will remain an interdisciplinary and international journal that is distinguished by a thoroughgoing theological understanding of the nature and task of practical theology. And it will remain a journal that centres and considers the particularity of place, including the particularities of the UK that gave rise to this journal.
At the same time, we will work to expand the international profile and perception of Practical Theology. I teach and conduct my research in the United States following nearly ten years of graduate training in practical theology at Duke University, and I look forward to expanding the network of Practical Theology through my service in this context. At the same time, we remain wholeheartedly committed to the ongoing work of practical theology that is emerging from and for the majority world. The journal will seek to expand our engagement with and learning from scholars in these contexts.
We will also work to give an account of some of the most pressing crises that confront individuals, communities, and society. While it is impossible to consider all pressing issues, investigations of AI, mental health, reimagining congregational assets, environmental crises, and the formation of new institutional forms are generational questions at the moment for Practical Theology. I hope our work together in the journal can nourish meaningful conversations about the work and wisdom of practical theology that can guide local practice and collective discernment.
And in this Issue …
Having brought together another ten articles here for my final issue I (Nigel) realise they, together rather encapsulate some of what I have been about as Editor. Four of the articles are from first-time authors (as far as I am aware) and this is something we have focused on throughout my tenure, doing the best we can to enable researchers and reflective practitioners into print. To this end, we also publish here the first article which was supported by our new “Buddy System”. Perhaps even more significantly I notice there are five articles from authors who are coming back to write for us for a second time. This is, I think what marketing people call ‘repeat business’ and which is evidence that the business is doing something right. Four of the articles are from black and brown scholars and practitioners, two of whom are Muslim. Three of the articles have research subjects sited beyond the UK, all of which is evidence for the continuing diversification and internationalisation of the journal. The faith commitments represented remain incredibly diverse from Islam to Christian Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Protestants, Anglican chaplaincy and Catholics. On subject matter, this also remains widely diverse – practical theology method and approach is discussed in at least three articles alongside a reflective autobiographical piece. And we break new ground with the first articles we have published on human trafficking and Artificial Intelligence. Welcome to practical theology in its breadth and depth at the end of 2023!
Saiyyidah Zaidi’s important article stands as an invitation to practical theologians everywhere – to reimagine our field differently away from its origins as a white Christian space. As I hand over the reins of the journal to a new editorial team the article points us towards a more diverse future. Zaidi’s work is drawn from her autoethnographic 2022 Glasgow professional doctorate (see the Dissertation Notices published in this issue) and recent engagement with BIAPT when she was invited to join the Executive Committee and with this journal (where she has been published earlier this year in the 2022 Conference Issue). Thus, her paper acts as a pivot for the future of PT in both intercultural, inter-religious and, indeed multi-religious practical theology. I’m not a great fan of the word pioneer, but Zaidi is someone who has, alone, as a Brown British Muslim woman forged a new identity for our field in Britain as she makes a strong case here for Islamic practical theology. Her work stands as a model for us all to learn from and hopefully, it will not take as long for others, who we unconsciously exclude to be included.
Our next article is also written by Muslim scholar, Farman Ali and is a second article by him published in the journal. This time Ali focuses on the contextualisation of Mary in the Catholic churches and devotion of Catholic Christians in his native Pakistan. He notes how Marian devotion early on developed a pilgrimage site or mela, a very popular form of devotion across the faiths on the sub-continent. There is fascinating detail outlined here for a reader such as myself who has long been interested in the relationship between faith and culture. Where the lines are drawn on what is allowed or not is always suggestive – and here Ali notes that visually Mary is still most often portrayed as she is in the West. The article concludes with how interaction with ‘Mary’s Song – The Magnificat’ has been a more contemporary focus drawn from liberation theology which understands Mary with something to offer to earthly human concerns.
Claire Princess Ayelotan has also written for us before (Vol. 15: 6, 2022) drawing from her doctoral research at Roehampton University on trans-national Yoruba Pentecostalism and child witchcraft accusations. In this following and related article, she presents a remarkable interaction that took place during her field research in Nigeria that foregrounds a witchcraft accusation against a child who interrupted planned interviews in a village. Using a narrative analysis method, we are presented with the granular detail of the reality of how a child can fall into such accusations. The narrative occasions several important reflections on how the beliefs of the villagers drive such behaviour; the nature of poverty, neglect and abuse of children; and how money operates in a church culture which privileges the Pastor alongside the prevailing climate of the ‘prosperity gospel’. This is practical theology in the ‘raw’, I suggest.
In the next article, we turn to what is known as classical Pentecostalism which the author, James Seager, a doctoral student at Regent’s Theological College, Malvern, UK seeks to put into dialogue with practical theology in order to find a distinctive practical theological method for Pentecostalism. The article demonstrates the growing interest from charismatic and Pentecostal practitioners and scholars in the scope and possibility of researching ‘experience’ alongside the ‘full gospel’ and the requirement for a suitable method for this approach. Seager utilises the Acts 2 narrative to develop the four steps of his proposal (if we include his ‘Pre-step’). He clearly draws on familiar models for practical theologians, but it is claimed, the method is now grounded in a Pentecostal frame which, hopefully, makes it acceptable for reflection and research within that world. We look forward to Seager developing the method with a worked example.
I am very pleased to present the next article because it is from our new Editor, Dustin Benac and continues methodological reflection on practical theology. This is the first article he has solo-written for the journal and gives readers a sense of what kind of practical theologian will be leading the journal into its next phase. Benac makes a substantial and important contribution by noting that practical theology’s preoccupation with problem-solving has limited its capacity, in fact, it may have even placed it in crisis with such reductionism. Benac suggests that it is the crisis itself that could become a much more fruitful methodological anchor for researching and doing practical theology. He defines crisis as ‘an experience of being brought up short that requires new interpretive horizons’ in order that a proper theological account can be given of the response. The limits of crisis are carefully defined and Benac continues by introducing some new considerations based on Luke-Acts and divine/human encounters in moments of crisis. This approach, clearly based on scripture delineates the kind of practices required for giving an account and offers practical theologians much to reflect on and incorporate into our research and pedagogy.
We now offer two articles which have serendipitously come together on the subject of human trafficking. One gets to the heart of the matter at source amongst Christians in Indonesia and the other researches volunteers at a project in Southend, UK. Liliya Wetangterah is one of the first of our authors to receive support from our “Buddy System” for writing in English when it is not the author’s first language. I am really pleased to say that her work has now been published, not least because of the singular nature of the voices from Indonesia being heard from her research amongst those being trafficked and their wider families. The article raises important questions about the nature of lived religion and its entanglement with desires for a better life and the traps that such desires set, leading to multiple kinds of alienation. I have increasingly thought that the motivation to be Christian, or in fact, an adherent of any religion, is rather mixed (not least in my own experience). What is notable here is that these research respondents speak for themselves in a theological manner, making Christian religious meaning out of their lived experience – without, necessarily knowingly doing so. Perhaps, then they sow the seeds of a way to address critically the alienation and distress that comes from their being caught up in human trafficking.
Dan Pratt ministers in a UK-based Anti-slavery and human trafficking partnership which has a Christian faith-based foundation. As a participant researcher, he has investigated the place and agency of some of the volunteers within that ministry in a small-scale case study. This is important work, not least because faith-based approaches to such vulnerable trafficked people have not always been welcome. What then is the motivation and contribution of those who volunteer amongst these marginalised people? The volunteer research participants have strong transferable skills that can be brought to be bear on the particular circumstances of both the organisation and those it is seeking to support. Their Christian faith is a powerful motivating factor in their work, moving them to act publicly as people of faith and spirituality. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for anti-slavery partnerships and for local churches wishing to be involved in similar work.
I have known Zoë Bennett for around twenty years since she published, as editor one of my first journal articles drawn from research in my doctoral research, in the Journal of Adult Theological Education (JATE). So, there is a rather beautiful circularity in presenting here an autobiographical article from her looking back over her journey into and then shaping and forming practical theology in the UK and beyond. I introduced these types of articles when I became editor of JATE and have continued them occasionally within Practical Theology. For me they serve multiple purposes; first for the author to do some serious reflective work on their contribution to the field over their lifetime; then to record some ‘history’ of what we do from a particular individual standpoint, not least because practical theology, as now conceived is a new and innovative field; and finally, so that new and emerging scholars and practitioners can read about the stories of those who have gone before them and hopefully be inspired to continue to grow and develop the field. Zoë does not disappoint on any of these grounds in this article, what struck me most is the sheer beautiful humanity that shines through her work, based as it is on friendship combined with critical questioning. I do hope the new editorial team will continue this tradition and invite fresh contributions in this genre.
Elizabeth Brown is a first-time author writing from her practice as a healthcare chaplain in NE England. She has published our first-ever article in Practical Theology on Artificial Intelligence (AI), which despite having been a presence in the world for decades, has burst into our consciousness in a completely new way in this year, 2023. Brown’s focus is the relationship between chaplaincy and AI which she significantly complexifies in this paper. She questions whether AI units might require chaplaincy and how AI might provide chaplaincy for hospital patients. She is sceptical on several counts, not least the limitations of AI to fully imitate an embodied human response. We need much more theological reflection on AI and robotics in the near future and I sincerely hope a Special Issue on the subject might emerge, were there sufficient interest in curating one.
I have an affinity with the final article in this issue as it demonstrates an approach to research similar to my own which I call ‘following my nose’. This is research which is cyclical with a beginning point, but to which no precise endpoint can be given. It is self-directed and not necessarily beholden to any research assessment exercise or funding body. Fay Rowland published her original research with us (Vol. 12:5, 2019) on how children used religious language in their prayers. Rowland now investigates further, turning the question somewhat around and asking ‘how useful is religious language for expressing children’s spiritual concepts?’ which clearly addresses some of the limitations she discerned in the earlier study. The article is highly original in the field of children's spirituality and is a notable development in the complex and sensitive question of how religious language is acquired and how it impacts religious experience. Firstly, the research reveals four kinds of religious language which she then tests in an ingenious story-telling method with children. There is a lot to learn here for anyone who researches or teaches about child spirituality, theology and religion, but also for practitioners. Most important for me were the research findings about how the assumptions of adults about how children use language are reversed by the children themselves – and therefore how we should treat children always with respect and humility as they relate to God through language in their own unique ways.
Finally, as we prepare to conclude the academic year and the final issue of this year, we are pleased to welcome a new Associate Editor, Dr Calida Chu from the University of Nottingham, to our editorial team. Dr Chu served as a Guest Editor for our recent Special Issue on Majority World Epistemologies in Practical Theology, and we look forward to Dr Chu’s ongoing service and leadership in the journal. Welcome!
The work of practical theology is only possible because of the community that surrounds this convening and curating work. Thank you for joining us in this work as readers, editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and contributors. As you enter this holiday season, may you find yourself gathering and being gathered with others in a manner that stirs hope.
Nigel Rooms
Church Mission Society, Oxford, UK and The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK
Dustin D. Benac
Baylor University, Waco, USA