Why practical theology must go public

This is the author's post-print pdf version of an article published in Practical Theology. The article can be found at http://essential.metapress.com/content/122841/This journal article makes the case for a strong affinity between pastoral studies and practical theology as conceived in the UK and the emerging field of public theology

Manifestations of the post-secular emerging within discourses of posthumanism

This paper discusses the concepts of posthuman and post-secular in critical theory

Health, wealth or wisdom? Religion and the paradox of prosperity

This is the author's pdf version of an article published in International Journal of Public Theology 2009. The published version of the article is available at https://www.brill.nl/international-journal-public-theologyThis article discusses the role of religious values and participation in the 'happiness hypothesis'

Finding ourselves: Theology, place, and human flourishing

This is the author's PDF version of the book chapter.This book chapter is about being "lost" and "found" and of the significance of space and place for "finding ourselves" as fully human. Tim Gorringe's work on culture and the built environment will inform some of the author's reflection on this

Feminist theory

This is the author's corrected Word version of a book chapter which appeared in The Wiley-Blackwell companion to practical theology.This book chaper discusses the ways in which the perennial feminist themes of protest, affirmation, and new creation have taken root in pastoral and practical theological scholarship

The final frontier? Religion and posthumanism in film and TV

This is the author's pre-print of a chapter proposed for publication in Palgrave handbook of posthumanism in film and television, 2015.This chapter aims to indicate how, in keeping with wider cultural trends, contemporary science fiction film and TV may be exhibiting a shift from a secular to a ‘post-secular’ sensibility. If the modernist paradigm within science fiction is beginning to dissolve, and with it a somewhat one-dimensional narrative of scientific triumph over religious superstition, then recent work on the emergence of post-secular paradigms opens up a range of new potential relationships between science, religion and science fiction. It is reasonable to expect that the resurgence of religion both as a geopolitical force and a source of human understanding would be reflected in contemporary examples of the genre, and that religious and spiritual themes would feature in contemporary science fiction narratives, including representations of the posthuman

Doing God? Public theology under Blair

This is the author's Word version of the chapter. The published version is available at http://www.continuumbooks.com/Books/detail.aspx?BookID=133120This book chapter discusses the relationship between faith and politics in Tony Blair's New Labour

Is practical theology a form of ‘action research’?

This is the published PDF version of an article published in International Journal of Practical Theology© 2013. The definitive version is available at www.degruyter.com/view/j/ijpt-2013-17-issue-1This journal articles examines in depth the claim that practical theology ought to be regarded as a form of action research. Action research is founded on the indivisibility of value and action: a conviction that knowledge, and research, cannot be dispassionate and that values are themselves iterated in the process of their implementation in practice. It insists on the inductive and contextual nature of knowledge and assumes that knowledge comes from human experience (albeit interpreted and codified through rational enquiry and analysis), rather than proceeding deductively from revealed truth

Rethinking the common good: Theology and the future of welfare

Publisher version used with permission from Colloqium.Within the UK, there is widespread talk across the political spectrum of the need for radical reform of welfare provision. After two generations of state provision, the role of the voluntary sector and faith-based organizations in particular is once again a topic for debate. The purpose of this paper is to review the debate about faith-communities as welfare providers; but then, to move to consider what theological models might inform this renewed role for the churches in society, and whether the churches’ theological understanding of their contribution to a welfare state or a welfare society might need to be renewed

Frailty and flourishing: Good news for humanity: Response to Alister McGrath

This is the author's pdf version of an article published in Practical Theology. The article can be found at http://essential.metapress.com/content/122841/This journal article is a response to Alister McGrath’s keynote lecture to the annual conference of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology in London on 12 July 2011. It focuses on the themes of the relationship between theology and practice; the practice of ‘attentiveness’ and the nature of virtue or the virtues; and the connections between religion, well-being and flourishing