A Fundamental Practical Theology

by Browning, Don

• ISBN13: 9780800629731
• ISBN10: 0800629736
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-01-01
• Publisher: Fortress Pr

Summary

The most concerted account yet of how the churches' practice might organize theological inquiry as a whole. Browning has opened up important lines of inquiry that merit further investigation." --Craig L. Nessan Southeast Missouri State University "Don Browning manifests a masterful interaction with the current literature on the burgeoning field of practical theology. This book is indispensable reading for anyone engaged in the question of theology's relationship to thought and action today." --Mary Ellen Sheehan Toronto Journal of Theology

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction: From Practice to Theory and Back Again	1	(12)
Practical Wisdom and Communities
Can Theology Be Practical?
Central Questions
A Map of the Road
Part One: Fundamental Practical Theology	13	(62)
Describing Three Religious Communities	15	(19)
The Shangri-La between Two Ridges
The Conventional but Radical Church
Empowerment in a Black Pentecostal Church
Exploring Practical Wisdom and Understanding	34	(21)
The Rebirth of Practical Philosophy
Understanding and Practical Wisdom
Implications for Theological Studies
A Revised Correlational Approach
The First Three Movements
Practicing Strategic Practical Theology	55	(20)
Implications for Theological Education
The Analysis of Personal Experience
Proximate Proposals for Structuring
Critical Practical Theology
An Experiment in Theological Education
Part Two: Descriptive Theology	75	(62)
The Human Sciences and Hermeneutics	77	(17)
The Influence of Hermeneutics
Psychoanalysis as Practical Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics in the Social Sciences
Focus and Horizon in Social Research
Practical Moral Thinking	94	(16)
The Centrality of Theological Ethics
Kantianism versus Utilitarianism
The Narrativist Challenge
Tendencies, Needs, and the Premoral Good
The Five Dimensions of Moral Thinking
Describing the Wiltshire Church	110	(27)
The Church's Practices and Community
Tendencies and Needs
Environment and Social Context
Visional and Obligational Dimensions
Descriptive Theology's Visional Dimension
Part Three: Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics	137	(72)
Theology, Ethics, and the Five Dimensions	139	(32)
The Return to Reinhold Niebuhr
Niebuhr's Narrative of the Christian Faith
Niebuhr and the Wiltshire Church
The Obligational Dimension
Tendencies and Needs
The Environmental-Social Dimension
A Reconstruction of Niebuhr
Wiltshire Church's Hierarchy of Values
Are Wiltshire Church's Needs Human?
Wisdom and the Historical Turn	171	(38)
Practical Reason in a Theological Context
Practical Reason beyond Its Tradition
The Logic of Practical Reason
Niebuhr's Implicit Discourse Ethic
The Christian Narrative and Practical Reason
Religion and Discourse Ethics
Part Four: Strategic Practical Theology	209	(86)
Religious Education in the Church of the Covenant	211	(32)
The Play of Hermeneutics
Descriptive Theology
Historical and Systematic Theology
Strategic Practical Theology
The Debate about Transformation
Congregational Care in a Black Pentecostal Church	243	(35)
Hermeneutics and Play
Hermeneutical Approaches to Care
Descriptive Theology
Strategic Practical Theology
Transformation	278	(17)
The Need for a Theological Bridge
Dialogical Dynamics of Transformation
Communicative Action and Dialogue
Bibliography	295	(22)
Index of Names	317	(3)
Index of Subjects	320