Ferguson and Faith

Teaching this fall: Leah Gunning Francis’ new book _Ferguson and Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community_ (Chalice, 2015). This book is a practical theological study of the faith-motivated responses of clergy and the faith-related responses of activists in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown last year. The book generously excerpts theologically significant portions […]

Practical Theology and Popular Music

Practical theologians have been writing for many years on the significance of popular media culture for expressing and shaping religious imagination and practice. (For example, Christian Scharen’s _Broken Hallelujahs: Why Popular Culture Matters to Those Seeking God_ (Brazos, 2011)). I was put in mind of this work as I read in the New York Times […]

The Start of a New School Term….

Welcome back to everyone starting a new school term! A great many of our members are associated with educational institutions and we wish you a strong start! With the rhythm of a new school year underway, we hope to be updating this page and the blog even more regularly. All APT members and friends, we […]

New StudyingCongregations website

We are happy to share that we have received notice from Timothy Snyder, Ph.D. student at Boston University and Managing Director of StudyingCongregations.org, that their new website is now up. He notes that it is “created for theological educators (particularly practical theologians, contextual education faculty/directors, and sociologists of religion).” You can find it at http://studyingcongregations.org

Practical Theology and Academic Freedom: A Note on the New AAR Draft Statement

The American Academy of Religion recently released the latest draft, for comment (by 1 September 2015), of its updated Statement on Academic Freedom. I wonder what practical theologians contribute to this important conversation about academic freedom as regards the study of religion. Many parts of the draft Statement seem to speak directly to (the difficulties […]

Teaching Pope Francis' Visit to USA?

At Fordham, I am teaching a course this fall called “Evangelization: Faith and Culture.” As I have been finalizing the syllabus, I am making room to include Pope Francis’ visit to the USA in our theological study of evangelization. I am assuming the media will be aswarm with coverage during 22-27 September, and it will […]

Hair and Religion in Practice

I was recently talking to a hairdresser (okay, it was the professional who cuts my hair), who owns a salon in New York City, about theology and hair, and specifically about how the practice of cutting hair related to the kinds of worlds of significance from which his clients come. I had not really appreciated […]