Occasionally, I’ve been posting about readings I’m using in practical theology courses this semester. Here’s another one: Emma Percy, Mothering as a Metaphor for Ministry (Burlington, Ashgate: 2014). It has not been common for me to work from parenting literature (in theology or other disciplines) metaphorically or analogically in practical theology courses, but this book hit me at the right time, especially as I am lately thinking about my first decade of parenting, being the father of a girl who is now in middle school. And I had also begun to wonder whether there was something in my teaching that was subtly reinforcing the absence of children and family experience, which was already too common in the institutions of theological education of which I’ve been a part.
I found Rev. Dr. Percy’s Mothering book helpful because of the range of literature to which she introduced me and my students, concerning social science and religion debates about mothering, and overlaying that discussion with debates about the meaning of ordained ministry in the Anglican tradition. The book shows the surprising parallels between debates about what makes an ordained minister and what makes a mother, on the one hand (“functional” or “ontological,” for example), and the everyday tasks with which many ministers and mothers are faced, on the other (soul nurture, and enjoyment of the wellbeing of the parishioner/child, for example).
Far from reducing parishioners to children or mistaking literature on mothering for hidden truths about ministry, Percy portrays a thoughtful back and forth that is continually related to her own experience. She concludes with what feels like a realistic proposal about being a “good enough” minister. (However, I have my reservations about the use of Winnicott across so many theological projects as a “middle way.” That’s for another discussion.)
In my context, there is the added benefit of students in a Catholic-heritage institution reading practical theology from an ordained woman–who talks about her work as an ordained woman. While this would be “normal” in some Protestant or Anglican places, it is still fairly unusual–as far as I can tell–in Catholic-heritage institutions of theological education.
We’d like to know what sources you’re using to teach/communicate practical theology, and would recommend to others in their teaching… Please send us your recommendations!
Tom Beaudoin, Fordham University
Associate Professor of Homiletics – Boston University School of Theology
September 19, 2024
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