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 PrintableVersion The case for Applied TheologyOliver Barclay has always been a wise and insightful contributor to important issues in evangelical thinking and so I read with interest his article ‘Where is Academic Theology heading?’ (EN, December 2006). He queries how helpful academic theology is for preparing men and women for any kind of ministry, even if it does provide the churches with excellent resources. However, the academic theology he talks about in his article is not the only type of theology studied in Bible colleges and universities. Increasingly, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in the discipline of Applied Theology. Dr. Barclay ends his article with a question: ‘What sort of theological study is most useful to the ordinary student, who has no aspirations to become an academic or to do serious research, but wants useful knowledge and skills?’ To me, the answer is Applied Theology. This article attempts to set out the case for it. What is Applied Theology?Applied Theology is theology that concerns itself with what the church does as it interacts with society around it. In a recent book, Practical Theology and Qualitative Research (SCM Press, 2006), John Swinton and Harriet Mowat define the purpose of the related discipline of Practical Theology as ‘ensuring and enabling faithful participation in God’s redemptive practices in, to and for the world’. That provides a useful starting point for four ideas that are fundamental for Applied Theology. Applied Theology believes that God is at work in the world today God is the living, Redeemer God who is at work in the present. He is not trapped in our theological scholarship and doctrinal systems. The applied theologian reads the Scriptures and asks ‘What is the Holy Spirit saying?’ The applied theologian also looks at what is going on around him or her and asks, ‘What is the Holy Spirit doing?’ Applied Theology is lived out in the two-way conversation between what God has said in his Word and what God is now doing. Applied Theology is a listening theology — listening to people in society, listening to the church, listening to God. Applied Theology exists to serve the church in the world Applied Theology’s primary calling is to be faithful to God. Then, as God has created the church and called the church to engage in his mission in the world, so Applied Theology is called to serve the church in the mission of God. At times this service will support the church; at other times it will challenge the church. Here are Swinton and Mowat again: ‘One of the primary tasks of the practical theologian is to ensure that the practices of the church remain faithful to the practices and mission of God as revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his continuing redemptive practices’. Helping the church stay faithful to God in what it does is central to Applied Theology. As the church is called to be salt and light in every area of human activity, so Applied Theology is concerned for theological thinking about every aspect of human activity. It has a multi-disciplinary perspective which enables it to enter into conversation with other disciplines such as science, medicine, psychology, sociology and education. Applied Theology sees the value of learning from other disciplines, but without compromising its essential theological identity as it does so. Applied Theology requires a whole-person trainingBy this I mean a training that has spiritual, practical, academic and relational dimensions to it, dimensions that are integrated in the training experience. When students come to a Bible college for the first time it is usually for what is called initial formation for Christian ministry. This is a particular stage in the life of Christian discipleship to which God calls some men and women. Spiritual formation of this kind is a whole-person experience and it doesn’t happen overnight — it takes time. Theological study is always challenging. This is why Bible colleges have constantly emphasised to students how important it is to keep head, heart and hands in tune. When Bible college training is working well the spiritual dimension of training is not just a chapel service here and a prayer group there; it is a sense of living in the presence of God and among God’s people that permeates every aspect of the training. The Applied dimension of training puts students into a wide variety of ministry situations where they need to put their growing grasp of Scripture into action and use the ministry skills that they are developing. For some students the best training option may be a placement-based course, where most of their week is spent in a church placement, coming into college for one or two days only. Applied Theology is also academically rigorousThat does not mean conforming to the rationalistic tradition of the academic world. But it does mean taking seriously the call to love God with all our minds, to be aware of the riches of scholarship and to use them properly. The Christian leader in training is called to be a thinking Christian and in future ministry he or she will have the responsibility of helping others to think ‘christianly’ too. Serious reading and thinking and academic rigour are hard work for all of us, but they are one way we give heed to the exhortation to ‘watch your life and doctrine closely’ which is at the heart of Christian ministry. The relational dimension of Bible college training recognises that God has made us for relationships, and that Christian ministry requires the ability to get on with other people. Within the give and take of everyday life, as well as theological (and other!) conversations over coffee, students develop the ability to think, work, laugh and pray together with people from whom they differ. They will certainly need this ability in their future ministry. Friendships formed at Bible college can be a rich source of support for the challenges of the years to come. Applied Theology is a journey of lifelong learning A would-be doctor who has successfully completed a three-year degree is not fully qualified, nor is an engineer, nor is a lawyer — they need further training before they are fully competent to practise. The same is true of a man or woman entering Christian service — when they leave Bible college with their diploma or degree they are not the finished product. How important then are the colleges’ partnerships with the churches. How grateful we in the colleges are for those churches which are willing to invest in assistant minister or associate posts where they will support someone in their first few years after finishing college. And, of course, that is not the end of it. Applied Theology calls for a commitment to ongoing vocational development. Church leaders are seeing the value of part-time postgraduate programmes which can refresh their own ministry and give new impetus to their own thinking. Case for Applied TheologySome people believe that Bible colleges are in danger of missing the point today. Inevitably, there will always be anecdotal evidence from some for whom Bible college turned out to be not quite what they were hoping for. Those of us who work in Bible colleges certainly don’t claim that our training is perfect; we are committed to constantly improving what we do. In reply to Dr. Barclay, I want to say that academic theology is not the only way of doing theology. Applied Theology offers a vital alternative. Applied Theology says that the combination of spiritual challenge, academic rigour and excellence in practical skill development is what God calls Bible colleges to provide for the churches. That is the case for Applied Theology. In the 21st century it will be more needed than ever. John Horder, © Evangelicals Now - August 2009 |
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