The practical theology unit continues to wrestle with the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), and this session invites practical theologians to ponder upon the 16th goal of peace, justice, and strong institutions. More specifically, the presentations in this session explore congregational leadership for justice, social transformation through theological education in Sub-Saharan Africa, violence and decolonial pedagogy in Haiti, urban social inclusion and food assistance in Finland, and Santeria's healing of displacement traumas among Cuban immigrants. The session will include interactive, small-group conversations with presenters.
This paper builds upon a research project with New England congregations over the last five years, giving particular attention to congregations pursuing callings to justice. Even as their justice-seeking has borne fruit, many congregational leaders are weary. Drawing on interviews and a series of Sabbath retreats with congregational leaders, this paper explores how Sabbath-keeping supports congregational leaders as they embody and sustain vocations to justice. The paper begins by reflecting theologically on the relationship between Sabbath, calling, and creating just and peace-seeking communities. It then presents key ways that congregational leaders are practicing Sabbath as a means for reconnection, repair, and resistance, as well as identifies some of the challenges leaders face in engaging rest, including challenges related to systemic injustices. It concludes by discussing some implications for helping congregational leaders engage practices of Sabbath and rest as a way to support - and even enact - their callings and commitments to justice.
This paper explores theological education as a methodological approach and academic discipline within practical theology, emphasizing its role in understanding and catalyzing transformation within individuals’ lived experiences and faith. Drawing from practical theology focuses on reflexive praxis, the research focuses on the teaching-learning environment of a theological school in Madagascar, contextualized within socio-political complexities. Employing critical qualitative research methodologies, practical feminist theology, and liberative transformative paradigms, the study assesses religious education’s alignment with a vision of justice and the efficacy of its practices. The paper advocates integrating theological inquiry with social scientific research methods, promoting dialogue, critical listening, and collective action toward justice within the theological school community. By bridging theory and practice in religious education, this research aims to foster positive societal change, with implications extending beyond geographical boundaries to address systemic oppression and advance justice globally.
This paper makes use of Freirean theory and decolonial theory to investigate the role practical theology can and must play in shaping pedagogy, especially in places like Haiti, where violence is systemic and all-pervasive. Framing coloniality as a disease, it argues for a pedagogy of decolonial healing that builds from a Boulagan reimagining of the Gospel.
Drawing from critical ethnography in urban, faith-based food assistance in Finland, this paper investigates 1) how and what kind of social inclusion (and possibly, exclusion) emerges in food assistance through the politics, practices, and lived experiences, and 2) what kind of lived urban theology these dynamics denote? The data was collected in 2020–2021 in six faith-based food banks aiming for social inclusion and community development. The data is analyzed by employing the theoretical concepts of social in- and exclusion and utilizing the lenses of lived urban theology. The findings propose that the participants perceiving themselves as socially excluded identify themselves as the ‘Others’ also within food assistance. Different framings, social distances, and power hierarchies further contribute to the dynamics of social in- and exclusion, addressing that the food banks are yet hesitant to imagine themselves as a source of liberation, that would challenge structural, epistemic inequalities.
Research in psychology, pastoral care, and peace studies has increasingly recognized religious communities as vital sources of resilience and healing for immigrants. Religious communities can also empower immigrants in their process of reconstructing the losses experienced in the trauma of displacement. Focusing on the Afro-Cuban tradition of Santería, this paper delves into how Judith L. Herman’s healing stages model can be used to assess how the Cuban diaspora addresses the trauma of displacement. Santería’s role in fostering collective healing from the traumas of displacement and advancing social justice are also examined in this study, specifically how it addresses trauma by emphasizing relationships and social contracts and, therefore, healing trauma.