Among the courses I teach at Fordham is a class on “Theology of Ministry.” I’ve been teaching versions of this class, under a variety of titles and formats, for fourteen years. The longer I teach it, and the more I pay attention to developments in theological and religious studies, and the more I take on board the needs, contexts, and practices of my students (who in this class are mostly ministry professionals), the more I have come to configure the course as an exercise in post-foundational or non-foundational theology of (ministerial) practice.
However, I find that most theologies of ministry that have been influential in the last few decades, and still today, are more or less “foundational” in their approach: along the lines of “ministry is ‘grounded’ in X (usually an historical-theological claim from the tradition) and therefore ministers must do Y.” Much of the pastoral formation my students have had — and much of my own training as well — communicated a theory of practice that holds that good practice needs this kind of foundation. (Examples include ‘grounding’ practice in “spiritual gifts,” Jesus’ ministry, Trinitarian theology.)
Over the years, I have developed alternative ways of teaching/doing theology of ministry that are more post/non-foundational, and those ways borrow from philosophy of religion and philosophical theology, and also from cultural studies and histories of religion. But I don’t see a crop of books (or articles, for that matter) that I could use in class that take a non/post-foundational approach to theology of ministry. I wonder what APT members and friends might recommend. One text I have found very helpful is Marion Grau, Rethinking Mission in the Postcolony: Salvation, Society, and Subversion (T&T Clark, 2011). However, I find it’s a stretch to use that as a basic course text. Any recommendations out there?
Tom Beaudoin, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York
Associate Professor of Homiletics – Boston University School of Theology
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