scholarly journals Preaching as art (imaging the unseen) and art as homiletics (verbalising the unseen): Towards the aesthetics of iconic thinking and poetic communication in homiletics

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Louw
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
God Images ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
Power Of God

The article investigates the hypothesis that preaching implies more than merely verbalising, proclaiming and rhetoric reasoning. Preaching is fundamentally the art of poetic seeing; an aesthetic event on an ontic and spiritual level; that is, it provides vocabulary and images in order to help people to discover meaning in life (preaching as the art of foolishness). In this regard, preaching should provide God-images that open up the dimension of aesthetics and provide vistas of the ‘unseen’. The iconic dimension of preaching is about symbols and metaphors that help people to ‘see’ in everyday life (a poetic gaze) the presence of God in such a way that tragic events, the awareness of death and the anguish about the fear for loss and rejection become events for signifying life and for healing (the quest for wholeness). It is argued that practical theology should be about a liturgy of life. In this regard, the ‘ugliness of God’ becomes an aesthetic category in a Christian spiritual approach to iconography. In order to do this a critical approach to praxis thinking should probe into the realm of paradigms, especially paradigms that describe the ‘power of God’. Due to the assumption that the depiction of God’s power was predominantly influenced by the Serapis, Zeus and Roman cult (Emperor mystique), a paradigm shift from omni-categories (pantokrator) to bowel categories (passio Dei) in the homiletic depiction of God is proposed.

Jeremy Taylor on the Practice of Theology

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Kruger
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Moral Improvement ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
Jeremy Taylor ◽  
Practical Nature

This article seeks to highlight the practical nature of the work of Jeremy Taylor, developing his understanding of the place of theoretical knowledge in its relation to moral living. I argue that Taylor is devoted to the realization of the theoretical in everyday life, and does not overemphasize the moral to the detriment of the theological. In exploring this argument, I analyze his description of the practice of the presence of God and the contemplation of the eternal, two examples from his work of the integration of the theoretical with the practical for the sake of moral improvement.

scholarly journals Film as medium for meaning making: A practical theological reflection

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Cloete
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Practical Theological

The reflection on film will be situated within the framework of popular culture and livedreligion as recognised themes within the discipline of practical theology. It is argued that theperspective of viewers is of importance within the process of meaning-making. By focusing onthe experience and meaning-making through the act of film-watching the emphasis is not somuch on the message that the producer wishes to convey but rather on the experience that iscreated within the viewer. Experience is not viewed as only emotional, but rather that, at least,both the cognitive and emotional are key in the act of watching a film. It is therefore arguedthat this experience that is seldom reflected on by viewers could serve as a fruitful platform formeaning-making by the viewer. In a context where there seems to be a decline in institutionalisedforms of religion, it is important to investigate emerging forms of religion. Furthermore, theturn to the self also makes people’s experiences and practices in everyday life valuableresources for theological reflection. This reflection could provide a theoretical framework forespecially empirical research on how film as specific form of media serves as a religiousresource and plays a role in the construction of meaning and religious identity.

On critical approaches, unintended consequences and the data of everyday life in ‘performing towns’

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Fleisher
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Way

I welcome Axel Christophersen's effort to offer a new approach to the study of Scandinavian medieval urban communities, and his outline of an ‘urban archaeology of social practice’. His presentation of a theoretical framework and language offers many insights as to how archaeologists can analyse the way people constructed their social lives through practice. It is exciting to see studies that grapple with the complexities of everyday life in urban settings. This article makes a significant contribution in its explicit approach to a theory of practice that archaeologists can use to explore and describe social change. Christophersen draws heavily on the work of Shove, Pantzar and Watson as detailed in their 2012 bookThe dynamics of social practice. Everyday life and how it changes; I was unfamiliar with this work until reading this essay and I am impressed with the way this framework offers a language and a concrete approach to understanding how practices emerge, evolve and disappear. My goal here is not to revisit the details of this argument, but rather to push on some select issues raised in the paper. I first discuss the way that Christophersen frames his arguments against a processual archaeological approach, suggesting that his effort to provide an alternative might be unintentionally minimizing a more critical approach to everyday life. Next, I discuss the role and place of unintended consequences in Christophersen's argument. And finally I examine the way that Christophersen's approach might be more fully operationalized with data, providing some examples from my own work in eastern Africa.

Prayer and Practical Theology

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-303
Author(s):  
Andre van Oudtshoorn
Keyword(s):  
Practical Theology ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Existential Dimension ◽  
The Church

Abstract The command to pray invites believers to critically engage with their broken reality with a view of transforming it in the light of the new reality in which they participate in Christ. Practical theology, operating in the context of the bi-polar and tense relationship between theory and praxis, should be expanded to accommodate prayer as the inner mode of its operations to embrace the existential dimension of the faith praxis, instead of simply limiting itself to a socio-scientific empirically based descriptive paradigm. This implies that practical theology has to be embedded within the church as the domain of faith. Prayer, understood within the context of practical theology, offers a critique of theological theories that do not adequately address the implications for God, the world and believers inherent in the new anthropological status that the invitation to pray confers on those who pray. Prayer also critiques the existing praxis in three ways: it is, firstly, a transformational act in itself; it, secondly, acknowledges its own inadequacy to accomplish the needed transformation and is thus able to critique its own methodologies and practices; and, thirdly, it continues to hope for the transformation of the existing praxis based on the promise of the presence of God in and through the Spirit of Christ in the church. In looking beyond the existing praxis to God, believers are called to continually work and pray for signs of the coming Kingdom to be realised within their world.

Editorial Foreword: Applying Existential Social Psychology to Mental Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-237
Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Vail ◽  
Daniel Sullivan ◽  
Mark J. Landau ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Psychology ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The World ◽  
Editorial Foreword ◽  
Existential Concerns

Human existence is characterized by some rather unique psychological challenges. Because people can reflect on their lives and place in the world, they are regularly confronted with a variety of existential concerns: death and mortality; the burdens of freedom; uncertainty regarding one's identity; isolation from others; and indeterminate meaning in life. Existential social psychology (Greenberg, Koole, & Pyszczynski, 2004; Vail & Routledge, 2020) investigates whether and how such existential concerns shape everyday life and, as highlighted in the present special issue, how such processes impact mental health and social functioning.

scholarly journals Corporate global nomadism: The role of the transnational professional as consumer of popular management discourses

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-327
Author(s):  
Gabriela Whitehead ◽  
Robert Halsall
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Organizational Setting ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Global Mobility ◽  
Local Diffusion ◽  
Type Of Management

An increasing body of research has paid particular attention to the role of different organizational actors in the consumption of popular management ideas, including their local diffusion, adaptation and enactment. However, with a few exceptions, these studies mostly focus on the organizational setting, thus neglecting the consumption of these kinds of discourses in other environments. Drawing on narrative analysis, this study follows this line of research by examining the ways in which a category of transnational professionals perceive and represent the discourse of corporate ‘global nomadism’ as part of their everyday life. This article contributes to management education by providing a critical approach to the ambiguous experiences involved in the ‘nomadic’ lifestyle that generally conflict with the idealized and glamourous views of corporate global mobility. In this way, a more rounded, critical and ultimately ethical type of management education for transnational mobility can be produced than currently is the case.

scholarly journals Practical theologians’ calling to serve in the field of gerontology

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Petria M. Theron
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Definition Of

The South African demographic statistics echo the global trend of an ageing population. This fact poses challenges to the country’s labour supply, to health care, retirement and intergenerational relations. The elderly are faced with specific challenges such as negative views regarding older people, discrimination and prejudice based on age, changing roles, the loss of a support system when children emigrate, financial problems, abuse and neglect, emotions of fear and depression, and the struggle to find meaning in life and suffering. The field of study that concerns ageing and older adulthood is called gerontology. Joan Erber defines it as ‘the study of the biological, behavioural, and social phenomena that occur from the point of maturity to old age.’ It is an interdisciplinary field where different disciplines seek to address the problems associated with ageing. Biologists focus on the biological processes of ageing, psychologists focus on aspects like mental abilities, personality and behaviour, whilst sociologists study the social roles, group behaviour and status of older people. The question may be asked what is being done regarding the spiritual and emotional needs of the elderly. This is the niche of practical theology, as indicated by one definition of practical theology that it is ‘a place where religious belief, tradition and practice meet contemporary experiences, questions and actions and conducts a dialogue that is mutually enriching, intellectually critical, and practically transforming’ according to Pattison and Woodward. The aims of this exploratory article are (1) to investigate to what extent research in practical theology has addressed the spiritual and emotional needs of the elderly and (2) to identify opportunities where practical theology may provide service in the field of gerontology.

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