Researching Practice in Ministry and Mission: A
companion
Helen Cameron and Catherine Duce
SCM Press £19.99
(978-0-334-04624-0)
Church Times Bookshop £18 (Use code CT477
)
MISSION and ministry are hot-spots in contemporary theological
research. The Church needs to know what is actually going on and
why, so that it can then reflect on what God is saying through
this. Religion has depths of subtlety and complexities of
understanding, awareness, and praxis. How can researchers discover
and interpret what is going on and why, and what ought to be?
This book is far richer than a simple how-to text. It will help
anyone undertaking postgraduate study, sabbatical projects,
articles, presentations, and other explorations of hands-on
theology.
Many studies of Christian mission and ministry require classic
disciplines of research in social sciences, but this is not enough
to produce theological value. More is required than just a
description of what seems to be going on by the people
concerned.
The writers distinguish four voices that must be heard, mixed,
balanced, and assessed - operant (what people actually do),
espoused (what they say they do), normative (what was done in the
tradition), and formal (theologians' attemptsto produce a whole
picture). This approach will shape every stage of a project from
design through research to delivery of the finished result.
Researchers are invited to begin by developing self-awareness
about the roots of their own interest in their subject, and their
motives as well as core research skills. This book does not even
get on to the "how-to" gathering and analysis of data until chapter
7.
This excellent practical and theoretical handbook clarifies the
whole world of research in applied theology. Using it should
produce better-designed projects, with a clearer sense of purpose
and use of the right tools, more relevant and carefully handled
information, and better meetings with supervisors where these are
involved.
Would that it had been available years ago!
Dr Alan Wilson is the Bishop of Buckingham.