Opening the Field of Practical Theology introduces students to practical theology through an examination of fifteen different approaches—ranging from feminist to liberationist, Roman Catholic to evangelical, Asian American to Latino/a. After an introduction to the field of practical theology and its broad range of practice today, the book features chapters written by leading experts in the discipline. Each chapter has an identical structure to facilitate comparison, covering historical context, key features and figures, norms and sources of authority, theory-practice, contexts, interdisciplinary considerations, areas of current and future research, and suggested readings. Opening the Field of Practical Theology is an ideal introduction to the field, highlighting the diverse ways practical theology is engaged today.

This book makes a case, from an ecumenical Christian perspective, for a theological anthropology and a missiology that are based on the essential significance of story, body, imagination, and relationality, in order to understand what it means to be human vis-a-vis God, the other, and creation. Such an interpretation, moreover, enables seeking and pursuing a common life for the whole creation in the force field of God's radical and transformative reign. To advance its argument, it engages contemporary culture, including cinema and, to a lesser extent, fiction and music.

Building on the work and legacy of Darrell L. Guder, Converting Witness: The Future of Christian Mission in the New Millennium, explores key questions and new possibilities in missiology in light of the world Christian context. The conversation around missional theology and the missional church has examined the gap between theology and mission with the intent of fostering renewal within North American Christianity. But this can only fully occur in relation to the reality of world Christianities and the framing significance of global cultural diversity. Many of the classic categories and methods—such as church planting, catholicity, and even the term “world Christianity” itself—are in need of fresh examination and thoughtful analysis. The contributors to this volume address a range of important missiological topics, including globalization, interfaith dialogue, integral mission, intercultural hermeneutics, and church practices.

A Century of Catholic Mission surveys the complex and rich history and theology of Roman Catholic mission in the one hundred years since the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference. Essays written by an international team of Catholic mission scholars focus on Catholic mission in every region of the world, summarize church teaching on mission before and after the watershed event of the Second Vatican Council, and reflect on a wide variety of theological issues.

This volume looks at mission formation for all Christians and missionary formation for mission workers, agencies, and churches in a changing situation for mission. The focus is on educating the whole people of God. The title of this volume, Reflecting on and Equipping for Christian Mission, grows out of the understanding that theological education in the broad sense participates in the task of equipping people for God's mission in today's world, even as all theological education is contextual, and no particular context should exercise dominant influence.

This book is a correspondence between two theologians and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. In it the authors reflect on the nature of God, the efficacy of prayer, the value of experience, the nature of theology itself, the importance of Christian hope, and many other topics. The style is familiar and light, rich, and full of wisdom.

World and church have changed so much since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). With each change, religious congregations have had to review and update both their charism and mission, with ever new emphases in spirituality and mission. The 122 letters of the post-Vatican II superiors general of the Spiritans give some idea of the paths traced by missiology during the period. They offer a chronicle of missiological thinking through the turbulent time of crisis in the 1960s and early 1970s, and the gradual reclaiming of the Spiritans' essential charism of the evangelization of the poor, but in a very changed world and a very changed church.

Afua Kuma's Jesus will surprise, even astound, you. This illiterate Ghanaian woman felt something was missing when she prayed. She dreamed of an angel who opened her mouth to praise the Lord from her heart, and she awoke to find herself praying in ways that no one had ever heard before. When she prayed over people in hospitals, the doctors, nurses, and visitors left their patients to be charmed by her praises. Afua leads us to see God's glory in the rivers, seas, forests, farms, villages, and even the chief's royal court. Her Jesus is the hearth preparing our food and the hunter who brings home hunks of hippo. His farm is between the sun and the moon. He is the chief's golden regalia, his musketeers, drummers, and horn-blowers. His arm is a cannon that blasts the soul-eating bomote and roasts the devil on a charcoal grill. He has anointed his priests to lift us out of the mud. Now thousands in cities, villages, and student campuses are enthralled by her praises. Why? It is as simple…