APT NEWS & RESOURCES

A Global Catalogue for Practical Theology Teaching Resources?

As I was preparing to write another entry here about a book I have found helpful in class, teaching as I do in a school that draws students from around the world, it occurred to me that every day, thousands of practical theologians around the world are teaching and learning, having chosen to employ–or having been addressed by–specific resources for that teaching purpose.
Take any single day of the year and imagine what is being put forward for practical theological purposes, in educational settings, on multiple continents. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary to have a global catalogue of what’s actually being used (as well as–importantly–why and how)?
Perhaps there is something here for the APT to consider in terms of connecting with other professional practical theology associations and communities around the world. The recent limited “official” contacts between APT and a few such societies around the world (for example, the BIAPT, the APTO, and the IAPT [of which I’m a member, and which is intended to be an international academy]) have mostly been around sharing conference announcements.
Somewhere between where things currently stand, and where things could stand in terms of more integrated networks of global practical theology relationships, there is room to do better. I’m interested in what you, our APT members and friends, have to say about prospects and possibilities for greater global connections among the practical theology societies and communities. What would help you in your teaching, in your research, in your service?
To be sure, even were the APT to do better at facilitating globality in practical theology, we will still have important questions around “teaching global theologies,” such as those  explored in the fine recent book (Teaching Global Theologies: Power and Praxis (Baylor University Press, 2015)) edited by Kwok Pui-Lan, Cecilia Gonzalez-Andrieu, and Dwight N. Hopkins, but now more specifically: about practical theologians teaching global practical theologies informed by the work of the professional societies and their cognates around the world.
What do you think? Is this something of interest and importance to you, our APT members and friends?
Tom Beaudoin, Fordham University; President, Association of Practical Theology

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