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Theology in its Natural Environment: Issues, Implications and Directions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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This article was originally presented (in a modified form) to the continuing seminar on Pastoral Theology of the Catholic Theology Society of America at its 1985 annual meeting. There, and here, it is intended to be the starting point for a discussion and reflection on the nature and significance of a theological process which is playing an increasingly important role in the life of the Catholic Church and other Christian bodies. We refer to it as ‘theology in its natural environment’. It is also variously called indigenous theology, contextual theology, local theology, practical pastoral theology, or theological reflection. The variety of names and of methods all point to an essential quality of theology in its natural environment, its specificity or particularity in terms of a concrete community whose essential unit is the small group.
Our experiential base for theology in its natural environment has centered in seven years of work with the Education for Ministry Program of the Bairnwick Center at the School of Theology of the University of the South, U.S.A. Currently enrolling nearly 6000 students in six countries, this is the largest program of theological education by extension in the English-speaking world. At its heart is a model and various methods for theological reflection that enable people to do theology in their daily lives with the ongoing critical support of a small group of six to ten peers.
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- Copyright © 1986 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Schreiter, Robert J. C. PP. S., Constructing Local Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985). 1–21Google Scholar; Don S. Browning, ed., Practical Theology; The Emerging Field in Theology, Church and World (NY: Harper and Row, 1983); Hug, James E. S.J., ed., Tracing the Spirit; Communities, Social Action and Theological Reflection (NY: Paulist Press, 1983)Google Scholar.
2 Bairnwick Center is the theological education by extension division of The School of Theology at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, U.S.A. On the assumption that effective proclamation and service can only be achieved through the instrumentality of the Christian laos, the Center's stated purpose is to provide the kind of theological education that enhances knowledge and understanding of the Christian tradition while simultaneously offering the skills needed to link Christian faith to life in everyday experience. All this is done in the student's local environment. The content of the Education for Ministry program comprises twenty volumes based on the traditional curriculum of a school of theology's M. Div. program: two years of Biblical study, a year of Church history and a year of thematic theology. Its second component is the local seminar group, which meets weekly, thirty‐six weeks per academic year for two to three hours a session. Here students worship together, discuss issues arising out of their assigned readings, and under the facilitation of their trained mentor analyze incidents of ministry previously experienced by group members. This mentor is neither teacher nor lecturer. Rather, she or he enables the learning process, guiding discussion and most importantly the unique theological reflection process developed by the Center. For an introduction to this model, and insights into this theological reflection process see: Killen, Patricia O'Connell and de Beer, John, “Everyday Theology: A Model for Religious and Theological Education”, Chicago Studies. 22 (1983); 191–206Google Scholar.
3 The best treatment of publics for theology is Tracy, David, The Analogical Imagination; Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (NY: Crossroad, 1981). 1–28Google Scholar.
4 John A. Coleman in “A Church with a Worldly Vocation”, pp. 38–56 of his An American Strategic Theology (NY: Paulist Press, 1982)Google Scholar states bluntly the cost to the Church of not having enabled the doing of theology by laity in the world and about their world. His claim that there currently exists: “no viable European or North American model for Church society relation, no sustained pastoral mobilization of lay energies toward world transformation, no compelling sense of the world of work as, genuinely. a religious vocation, no appropriate vision with powerful leverage to criticize the imperfections and rank injustices of the social order. The absence of these creates a situation of pastoral tragedy and represents a serious dereliction of duty on the part of the Church. For their absence means the effective abdication of the Church's vocation to transform the world.” (p. 46)
5 Schreiter, pp. 6–16 on translation, adaptation and contextual models for local theologies.
6 Thomas E. Clarke, S.J., “A New Way: Reflecting on Experience”, Tracing the Spirit, pp. 13–37; Robert L. Kinast, “Orthopraxis, Starting Point for Theology”Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America, 1983, pp. 29–44.
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8 Robert L. Kinast, “Theological Reflection in Ministry Preparation”, Tracing the Spirit, pp 83–102; Browning, Practical Theology.
9 Farley, Edward, Theologia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 29–48Google Scholar, passim; Schreiter, 75–94.
10 H. Richard Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture.
11 Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian; Killen, David P., “Indigenous Theological Education and Christian Formation”, Insight, 11, No. 7, (1984) 3–13Google Scholar.
12 McGinnis, Michael J., “The Appropriation of New Theology By The Laity:” (Ph. D. dissertation, Notre Dame University, 1981)Google Scholar; Kotze, Derek A., “An Evaluation of the Education For Ministry Program in the School of Theology, University of the South”. Bloomington, Indiana: September, 1984Google Scholar. (Typewritten.)
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