Prelude to Practical Theology

Abingdon Press

Chapter One

Introduction

An orchestra consists of musicians in relationship. This connectedness results in sonatas, concertos, symphonies, and requiems that are distinct from a solo performance. Theology is the music of religious inquiry. Theology is also the formal study of faith, doctrine, history, religious education, sacred texts, and spirituality. Theologians, like musicians, are given the opportunity to create beyond the formal disciplines in which they have been trained. In community, they create a religious rhythm that can be organically and structurally related to others in ministry, in theological investigation, in academic research.

This book will look at one discipline, or area, of theology: practical theology. Instead of regarding practical theology as a "soloist" or "guest musician," this book will consider how practical theology plays in concert with other disciplines or areas in theology. As the discussion "warms up," Stanza One presents practical theology-in-relationship to other theological disciplines using an image that I found in the early works of German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. It is an organic image that has much potential for theology. Unfortunately, Schleiermacher discarded the image after it was severely criticized. He failed to underscore the circular and revitalizing movement among the areas of theological inquiry that he aptly depicted in his "scandalous" model. The model that occasioned such a strong reaction was that of a tree:

The vertical thrust of the tree, of course, placed practical theology at the top as the crown, or highest part, of the structure. The "scandal" of this image grew out of the hierarchical interpretation of the tree analogy in which the sap or "living substance of reflection" flowed only upward, from the roots to the crown. Contemporary theologians have noted other examples of Schleiermacher's "hierarchical thinking." I do not know whether Schleiermacher intended such an inference of superiority with his positioning of practical theology at the top of the tree. I do know that the "hierarchical representation" of the crown as the highest point of theological reflection neglected both the equality and mutuality of all three parts of the tree as well as the circular pattern of movement among the various parts, including the earth. The branches, the foliage, the fruits, the leaves, and the flowers all continue to fall and to flow to the ground to replenish the soil from which the roots and trunk grow. Leonardo Boff, in Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, has stated the cycle of enrichment in a similar but unique way: "The forest remains lush because the chain of nutrients is closed. Materials are decomposing on the soil, its covering, which is composed of leaves, fruits, small roots, and animal excrement. These things are enriched by the water dripping from the leaves and running off the trunks. It is not the soil that nourishes the leaves, but rather the trees that nourish the soil."

Thus, "the crown" can be interpreted nonhierarchically as the upper extremity that is connected organically to the whole. In the following pages, I will reclaim and recycle this organic image of the tree because of the unexplored possibilities it has yet to offer.

Background

In 1946, while theologian Karl Barth was spending the summer semester at the University of Bonn, he found in the rubble and ruins of war a bust of theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. In some ways, it may seem that I am doing the same in this book—lifting an old image of Schleiermacher's writings out of the remains of theological forays. These contemporary forays or discussions often delve into the much-discussed "clerical paradigm" attributed to Schleiermacher. The "clerical paradigm" grew out of a German context in the nineteenth century that envisioned the pastor or cleric as the "product" of the five-year, rigorous course of theological study. This, a controversial assessment, will be explored later in this chapter.

Authors such as Keith Clements suggest that feminist theology, with its emphasis on interconnectedness, could well offer additional insights on the images offered by Friedrich Schleiermacher. This suggestion follows mention of the startling admission that Schleiermacher made to Charlotte von Kathen: "If ever I find myself sportively indulging in an impossible wish, it is, that I were a woman." According to one editor of his works, "this confession has provoked wry smiles or raised eyebrows from later commentators who are inclined to commend Schleiermacher to a psychiatrist without further ado." Nevertheless, as a feminist theologian interested in healthy interdependency, I have chosen to delve into this discarded image, that is, Schleiermacher's tree of theology, an image critiqued by others and that he later discarded in the second edition of the Brief Outline of the Study of Theology (Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums).

In this chapter, I am assuming, first, that there is something that beckons persons into connectedness. Every embryo begins in relationship in utero. After birth, infants thrive on the beam or gleam in the eyes of the beholders and caretakers. As normal development moves into self-differentiation, there is a concurrent need for healthy relationship to others. Second, I am working on the additional assumption that, underlying our endeavors of self-differentiation in denominations, disciplines, and guilds, we are created to be organically related to others in ministry and theology. By organically, I mean more than having systemic coordination as a conductor would coordinate or assemble an orchestra. Organic is, according to Webster's, "possessed of complex structure comparable to that of living beings." This concept is not so far removed from the Hebrew Bible's portrayal of creation through narratives that portray people as descendants of Adam and Eve. We are the family of humankind or the family of faith. Third, I am assuming that practical theology is an interdisciplinary enterprise and as such, is also interrelated with other theological disciplines.

With these assumptions, I have been drawn to reconsider Schleiermacher's image of the organic unity of the theological disciplines in his Brief Outline of 1811, the image of the "tree" of theology. Finding an original copy of the Brief Outline of 1811 (Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums zum Behuf einleitender Vorlesungen, [Berlin, 1811]) in Tuebingen, Germany, I reexamined this image. Such a sense of organic unity is not to be taken for granted in theological education. Without such an articulation of the interplay and interdependence among the disciplines, what theological institutions like seminaries and divinity schools offer will be at best a creative collection and combination of courses.

Schleiermacher reorganized the theological disciplines into three areas of inquiry: philosophical theology, historical theology, and practical theology. Philosophical theology dealt with the essence, the concepts, the first principles, the "Idea" of Christianity. Thus, Schleiermacher in 1811 wrote: "Philosophical theology is the root of all theology." Thus, the description of the "root" of theology is...