Den praktiska teologin som professionsteori

The purpose of this article is to remind Practical Theology in Sweden of its historically given identity and to show that this identity derives from a well-defined encyclopedic context. The point of departure is that theology is a positive science, in the sense used by Friedrich Schleiermacher: a science directed towards a specific goal, which in theology's case is the well-informed government of the Church. Within theology thus understood, Practical Theology provides professional training by developing pastoral theory. It forms a bridge between on the one hand philosophical and historical theology, and on the other the praxis that theology ultimately serves. Based on this understanding, the article treats four areas of responsibility of Practical Theology: students, churches, research, and theological faculties. Its task in relation to students is to teach them to combine various kinds of theological knowledge in theoretical reflection on ecclesial practices. Its task in relation to churches is to provide them with well-educated leaders and useful research. Its task in research is to further the well-being of churches without compromizing scholarly standards or curtailing academic freedom. Its task in relation to theological faculties, finally, is to contribute to cooperation between subjects by upholding the integrative character of Practical Theology. Methodologically, the article makes use of German Evangelical theology in order to refer Swedish Practical Theology back to its origin and counteract influences that have confused its identity, namely a positivist conception of theology as the scientific study of Christianity, prevalent in Sweden since the early 1970s, and, more recently, the appropriation of the name "Practical Theology" by theologians engaged in critical studies, practice theory, and social activism.

Nature as Norm in Medieval Medical Discussions of Maternal Breastfeeding and Wet-Nursing

Medieval discussions about breastfeeding were saturated with moral and social meanings and arguments about how a good mother should behave and what makes for a happy, healthy baby. At the center was the question of who should breastfeed, the mother or a wet nurse. While the church sanctioned maternal breastfeeding as a moral norm, recourse to wet nurses was the norm for elites, and the custom spread in the later Middle Ages to the middling segments of society. Medieval physicians formulated their advice according to their understanding of the moral and normative authority of nature, but also in complex dialogue with contemporary pastoral theory and moral philosophy (which rejected wet-nursing), as well as contemporary social practices, values, and beliefs. Physicians recognized maternal breastfeeding as the best and most natural option because of the physiological continuity between gestation and lactation, yet their advice was adapted to the social realities of their patrons and patients by giving guidance about choosing a good wet nurse and controling her manner of life. Contrary to what is often claimed or supposed, the notion that the milk of amoral and bad-mannered wet nurses might lead to the degeneration of children did not originate from Galenic physiology but from nonmedical sources. Physicians themselves were reticent about attributing quasi-hereditary powers to mother’s milk, insisting instead on the dangers of neglect in the care of infants.

Church Life

These original essays from ten leading experts in early Dissenting history, literature, and religion address the rich, complex, and varied nature of ‘church life’ experienced by England’s Baptists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians during the seventeenth century. Spanning the period from the English Revolution to the Glorious Revolution, and beyond, they examine the social, political, and religious character of England’s ‘gathered’ churches and reformed parishes: how pastors and their congregations interacted, how Dissenters related to their meetings as religious communities, and what the experience of church life was like for ordinary members as well as their ministers, including notably John Owen and Richard Baxter alongside less well-known figures, such as Ebenezer Chandler. Moving beyond the religious experience of the solitary individual, often exemplified by conversion, this volume redefines the experience of Dissent, concentrating instead on the collective concerns of a communally-centred church life through a wide spectrum of issues: from questions of liberty and pastoral reform to matters of church discipline and respectability. With a substantial ‘Introduction’ that puts into context the key concepts of ‘church life’ and the ‘Dissenting experience’, these studies offer fresh ways of understanding Protestant Dissent in seventeenth-century England: through differences in ecclesiology and pastoral theory, and via the buildings in which Dissent was nurtured to the building-up of Dissent during periods of civil war, persecution, and revolution. To do so, they draw on a broad range of printed and archival materials: from the minutes of the Westminster Assembly to the manuscript church books of early Dissenting congregations.

Pastoral ministry in a missional age: Towards a practical theological understanding of missional pastoral care

This article concerns itself with the development of a missional ecclesiology and the practices that may accept the challenge of conducting pastoral ministry in the context of South African, middleclass congregations adapting to a rapidly changing, post-apartheid environment. Some practical theological perspectives on pastoral counselling are investigated, whilst Narrative Therapy is explored as an emerging theory of deconstruction to enable the facilitating of congregational change towards a missional understanding of church life in local communities. Subsequently, the theological paradigm of missional ecclesiology is investigated before drawing the broad lines of a theory for pastoral ministry within missional ecclesiology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, a missional base theory is proposed for pastoral counselling, consisting of interdisciplinary insights gained from the fields of Missiology, Practical Theology, Narrative Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. The implications of this proposal for the development of a missional pastoral theory focus on the following three aspects:� re-establishing pastoral identity: exploring Christ� pastoral development: intentional faith formation� pastoral ministry: enabling Christ-centred lives.In such a missional pastoral theory four practices should be operationalised: first of all, a cognitive approach to increasing knowledge of the biblical narrative is necessary. This provides the hermeneutical skills necessary to enable people to internalise the biblical ethics and character traits ascribed to the Christian life. Secondly, a pastoral theory needs to pay close attention to development of emotional intelligence. Thirdly, this should be done in the context of small groups, where the focus falls on the personality development of members. Finally, missional pastoral theory should also include the acquisition of life coaching skills, where leaders can be adequately mentored in their roles as coaches of nonequipped people. In taking the research to a further level of normative reflection, attention should be turned to developing specific areas of pastoral care:� formal clinical education and subsequent accreditation of pastors (in the South African context pastoral care is not legally recognised as a valid area of psychological therapy) � specifically pertaining to Narrative Therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy� basic counselling skills for non-theologically trained congregational leaders� qualitative and quantitative research methods� organisational theory for congregational ministry� crisis counselling skills for congregation members serving in a community context� marriage and family therapy� emotional intelligence as outcome of a spiritual growth cycle� leadership development and personality assessment� personal growth by confronting and crossing emotional and cultural boundaries.

The Failure of Functional Theologies of Ministry and the Promise of a Relational Alternative

The author critiques inductive approaches to pastoral theology that rely on the empirical methodology of the social and human sciences, and presents an alternative Christocentric praxis model of pastoral ministry. The result is an attempt to integrate pastoral theory and practice that shifts the perspective away from functionally-determined theologies of ministry to a relationally oriented and hermeneutically coherent model of orthopraxis in which theory and practice interact in a way that is intended to both deepen faith and transform lives. Some of the key themes that inform the discussion are the importance of theological method, the role of the community as the context for care, the relationship between practical ministry and systematic theology, and the notion of praxis in articulating the nature and scope of practical theology today.