Practical Theology in Action: Christian Thinking in the Service of Church and Society

by Paul H. Ballard, John Pritchard

Now a classic textbook, Practical Theology in Action offers a basic introduction for all those involved in pastoral care and in applying Christian thinking to the service of the Church and society. Using everyday stories and case histories the authors explore pastoral situations and reflect on them theologically. This new edition has been extensively revised to take into account the changes of the past ten years.

The first part of the book (The Foundations) looks at the theory of practical theology, and models for its application. The second part covers tools for practical theology; learning from experience, interdisciplinary working, theological reflection, action and spirituality; and to this has been added new material about mission in context today.

Genres: Theology

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Paul Ballard is Emeritus Professor in the School of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University. John Pritchard is Bishop of Oxford. He was Bishop of Jarrow and, before that, Archdeacon of Canterbury. He has written many books for SPCK, including How to Pray, The Life and Work of a Priest, Living Jesus and God Lost and Found.

Reviews

[truesuns]

I enjoyed reading this for a change as it was written as an academic text. For me as someone who is not necessarily academically researching or in the discipline of Practical Theology, a fair amount of the book I read out of interest, curiosity but didn’t think much about application.

I liked the 1st and last two chapters personally. For me it gave the space to contemplate on the basis of practical theology, what it is, how to pursue a life of practically applying our faith and how it is ultimately imbued and not disconnected from a rich spiritual life- fellowship with Holy Spirit, communion of the saints, prayer, reading the Bible.

Read this as part of my own enrichment - so I will not give a rating.

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book so dry and challenging. I understand it’s a book aimed at ‘academics’ but most of the examples felt very ‘cringey’. If I’m trying to be positive there were some useful resources at the end, regarding evaluation and reflection.

If you’re answering an essay as part of a theology or Bible College course, there’s possibly things of use here but to me, it felt too dated.

There’s so much more that could have been done to present this book, with the reader in mind - it reads like someone’s thesis or Masters dissertation.

I don’t recommend and if you need to use it for an essay, borrow from a library.