to enable students to relate their theological understanding to practice  to help students to develop methods of critical theological reflection

• demonstrate that they can reflect critically upon the practice of mission and pastoral care in relation to religious and secular understandings of society
• describe and evaluate a range of learning preferences and spiritualities and the ways in which these shape reflective activity
• select and use a variety of means to critically and theologically reflect upon the outworking of the Christian faith, within and beyond the church
• read and interpret biblical texts in a way that shows that they can used historical, literary and interpretative tools creatively and critically
• explain critically how biblical texts might be used reflectively in life and work situations
• explain and critically evaluate some of the main ethical issues that pertain to work and life
• analyse and evaluate some main ethical considerations, approaches and problems as they bear upon the pastoral task

 Knowledge and Understanding:

 critically expound some main elements of the nature and place of the Bible, doctrine and Christian tradition and how they relate to the contemporary world and aspects of Christian witness

• explain the nature and relevance of practical theological insights and methods to Christian living
• reflect theologically on the relationships between theory, theology, practice and experience in arenas such as work, leisure and pastoral care
• critically describe the theological foundations and main roles and functions of the Christian faith in the contemporary world particularly in regard to issues such as mission, evangelism, social responsibility, leadership, moral guidance and ethical issues

A variety of different approaches relevant to practical theology will be used in this module.  The lowest common denominator of all these approaches is that of  critical understanding, interpretation and application in practice, whether this is applied to texts, principles, situations or phenomena

 Intellectual Skills:

 These include:

• Reflective approachesused to explore different ways of understanding pastoral situations, events and other phenomena within church and society
• Case study approacheswhich will enable students to identify questions and issues that arise out of particular approaches
• Heuristic and problem based approaches that will allow students to learn and evaluate through engaging with real-life situations, problems, choices and dilemmas
• Hermeneutic approaches that require students to interpret and bring into critical dialogue texts, events and situations
• Literary approaches that require students to evaluate different types of textual and intellectual material
• Integrative and synthesising approachesthat build on various disparate types of academic and other experiences and knowledge to allow students to think, judge and act differently in relation to pastoral situations

 Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• critical skills such as listening, communication, educational skills, and theological reflection upon events and
  experience
• empathetic identification of the cultural, social, and spiritual issues that impinge on people’s lives
• explanation of the multi-facetted complexity of religions and relations with wider social and cultural structures, norms, aesthetics and aspirations.
• critically appreciating one’s own pre-suppositions, spirituality, thoughts and emotions
• empathetically listening to the thoughts and ideas of others, and understanding their emotional concerns and needs
• representing the views of others with fairness and integrity and express one’s own identity without denigrating others.
• identifying and exploring critically the key factors affecting pastoral, employment, and community situations
• discuss the relative merits of ideas held by others and by oneself
• explaining critically the religious contributions to debate in the public arena.
• explaining critically how personal and communal identities are shaped by religion and how this has both positive and negative effects, and of how important such identities are.

 Transferable Skills:

• all traditional intellectual skills, such as critical analysis and evaluation of evidence, together with the ability to model and examine problems
• ability to communicate information, ideas, arguments, principles and theories by appropriate oral and visual means.
• competency with word processing and document production
• development and improvement of one’s learning and performance through such areas as understanding one’s own preferred learning style, and the ability to reflect and learn from experience
• working individually and as part of a team in critically listening to and judging one’s own views and the views of others.
• reproducing accurately and reflecting on the ideas and arguments of others.
• identifying and applying generic and subject specific transferable skills in the service of employment, further research and lifelong learning.

 Students will be assessed in two ways.

 To help learn during the module (formative assessment), students will be required to do a certain amount of coursework.  This may take the form of a presentation to a seminar, facilitating a discussion, or writing a short essay or notes (1500 words max.). They will be asked to do two such pieces of coursework. This work will receive marks and feedback which will be recorded and may be taken into account by the Board of Examiners in some circumstances (eg, if the students has been ill during the year).

To evaluate a student’s performance at the conclusion of the module (summative assessment), they will be required to write an essay of 5,000 words in length choosing from a list of set questions.  The tutors are prepared to read one draft of this essay for comment before final submission. This essay will require the student to draw together themes from the whole of the module.  The marks for this essay will constitute their final mark for the course and will be submitted to the Board of Examiners

Approaches to practical theology

• Ethics and pastoral care
• Models of theological reflection
• The Bible in pastoral practice
• The meanings of human life
• Issues of social justice
• Spirituality and pastoral reflection
• Lifestyle and life stages
• Relationship between faith and work

 Key course texts will be:

Paul Ballard & Stephen Holmes (eds.), The Bible in Pastoral Practice (DLT, 2005)

Elaine Graham, Heather Walton & Frances Ward, Theological Reflection: Methods (SCM, 2005)

Frances Ward, Lifelong Learning. Theological Education and Supervision (SCM, 2005)

John Weaver, Outside-In. Theological Reflection on Life (Macon, Smyth & Helwys, Oxford, Regent’s Park College, 2006)

James Woodward & Stephen Pattison (eds.) ,The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology (Blackwell, 2000)

David Atkinson and David Field (ed.), New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology, IVP, 1995.  (This is an evangelically-based, very comprehensive dictionary with good long articles that closely relate ethics and pastoral work.)

Alastair Campbell (ed.), A Dictionary of Pastoral Care, SPCK, 1987.  (Has very brief entries on many of the topics, but you will need to supplement reading from this source which is now becoming a bit dated.)

 Other texts

Paul Ballard & John Pritchard, Practical Theology in Action (SPCK, 1996)

Francis Bridger & David Atkinson, Counselling in Context (HarperCollins, 1994)

Anthony Clarke & Paul Fiddes (editors), Flickering Images. Theology and Film in Dialogue (Macon, Smyth & Helwys, Oxford, Regent’s Park College, 2005)

Peter Clarke and Andrew Linzey (eds.), Dictionary of Ethics, Theology and Society, Routledge, 1996

Yvonne Craig, Learning for Life: a handbook of adult religious education (London, Mowbray, 1994)

Fackenheim, E. L. (1990) The Jewish Bible after the Holocaust: a Rereading, Manchester, Manchester University Press.

James Fowler, Stages of Faith (New York, Harper and Row, 1981)

Ian Fraser, Reinventing Theology as the People’s Work (Glasgow, Wild Goose, 1988)

Robin Gill, A Textbook of Christian Ethics, T&T Clarke, 1995.  (A comprehensive but rather dull book about different Christian approaches to ethical issues – has something on most topics we will look at and shows the diversity of approaches well.)

and CambridgeCompanion to Christian Ethics (CUP, 2001)

Paul Goodliff, Care in a Confused Climate. Pastoral Care and Postmodern Culture (London, DLT, 1998)

Elaine Graham & Margaret Halsey, Life Cycles. Women and Pastoral Care (London, SPCK, 1993)

Laurie Green, Let’s Do Theology (London, Mowbray, 1990, 1999)

Thomas Groome, Christian Religious Education (San Francisco, Harper, 1980)

Rodney Hunter (ed.), Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counselling, Abingdon Press, 1990.  (This is an excellent dictionary, again with good long articles on almost every topic under the sun relating to pastoral work, including ethical issues.)

Hurding, R (1984), The Bible and Counselling, London, Hodder & Stoughton.

John Macquarrie and James Childress, A New Dictionary of Christian Ethics,  SCM Press, 1986. (This dictionary is getting a bit dated, but still has good, brief discussions of major topics and issues such as abortion, sanctity of life etc.)

Noll, M. A., Between Faith and Criticism: evangelicals, scholarship and the

Bible, (Leicester, Apollos, 1991).

Stephen Pattison, A Critique of Pastoral Care (SCM, 1999)

Donald A Schon, Educating the Reflective Practitioner (Jossey-Bass, 1987)

Trible, P. (1990), Feminist hermeneutics and biblical studies, in A Loades (ed), Feminist Theology:  a reader, London, SPCK.

Jane Vella, Learning to Listen Learning to Teach (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1994)

Andrew Walker, Telling the Story (London, SPCK, 1996)

Sarah White & Romy Tiongco, Doing Theology and Development – Meeting the Challenge of Poverty (Saint Andrew Press, 1997)

Alan Wilkinson, Christian Socialism: Scott Holland to Tony Blair (SCM, 1998)

David Willows & John Swinton (eds) Spiritual Dimensions of Pastoral Care (Jessica Kingsley, 2000)

H.S.Wilson, Judo Poerwowidagdo, Takatso Mofokeng, Robert Evans, Alice Evans, Pastoral Theology from a Global Perspective. A Case Method Approach (Orbis, 1996)