Practical Theology is a self-consciously hermeneutical enterprise. Now, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I think that all of life is, essentially, a hermeneutical endeavor. Each of us is an interpreter, of our surroundings, our traditions, our conversations, the media we engage, etc. In the words of one philosopher, “Interpretation goes all the way down and all the way back up.” PT engages hermeneutical theory constantly, especially in an effort to mediate between the empirical-descriptive... Read more

Yesterday, I was killing some time with a friend in NYC between our visits of two churches, Mosaic Manhattan in the morning and Redeemer Presbyterian in the evening. After a great omlette a The Cupping Room on 5th Avenue, we walked a few miles north (so I could smoke a cigar), and then we jumped on the subway. We got off around 98th and walked south along the eastern border of Central Park. (Yes, we saw Christo’s saffron “The Gates.”)... Read more

Practical theology (PT), as a discipline, takes a great deal of interest in empirical information. In fact, there is an entire school of thinking within PT — found mainly in the Netherlands and Germany — that’s called “Empirical Theology.” Practical theologians, because of the importance of the groundedness of the discipline, are often well-versed in a social science, the way James Fowler was in developmental psychology when he developed his Stages of Faith Development. (An aside: to all of you... Read more

The Central Jersey Emergent Cohort meets next Tuesday night. Read more

I do get asked on occasion, “What is practical theology?” Lots of people are pretty sure they know what systematic, dogmatic, and biblical theology are, but less are sure exactly what practical theology is. At Princeton Theological Seminary, Dr. Richard Osmer has developed a model of doing practical theology that is extremely helpful in this regard, so I’ll describe it over the course of a few posts. His is what a philosopher would call a “wide, reflective equilibrium model” —... Read more

Word on the street is that Brian has gone soft on hell in his latest book. Well, while I may agree with him on the otherworldly hell, I have just been told, “Welcome to hell,” by Andy Root, who’s a year ahead of me in the PhD program at PTS. You see, on Wednesday, the practical theology faculty approved my research topic proposal for my dissertation, which clears the way for me to take my comprehensive exams in May and... Read more

We just finished up a two-day consultation here at Princeton that brought together some of the best minds in the study of American religion, people like Cynthia Woolever, Diana Butler Bass, Dorothy Bass, and Don Browning, the dean of American practical theology. Really, it was great to talk with these people, some of whom very much had emergent on their radar, while others did not (“I’ve been meaning to read that Christian Century article,” a few told me). But the... Read more

Here’s some logic for you: Teach your kids not to hit… …by hitting them. Read more

Dear Friends, I beseech you to click here, and help a struggling Ph.D. student pay the bills. Seriously, diapers, baby food, swimming lessons — you can help! And for all of those pro-homeschoolers who think that I’m the spawn of Satan, this may show you that I’m actually someone who believes in wholesome, family values like prayer and the Bible (you may want to skip the chapters on the labyrinth and icons). C’mon, let’s get that Amazon ranking into the... Read more

One of the biggest problems facing contemporary sociologists, especially since the collapse of the secularization thesis, has been if and how religion can survive in a pluralistic/postmodern context. Several theses have been proposed, including 1) the sheltered enclave or “sacred canopy theory” (Peter Berger, James Davidson Hunter), 2) status discontent theory (Richard Hofstadter, Joseph Gusfield), 3) strictness theory (Dean Kelly, Laurence Iannaccone), and 4) competitive marketing theory (Roger Finke, Rodney Stark). In his excellent 1998 book, American Evangelicalism: Embattled and... Read more