This valuable volume provides an introduction, 15 contextual essays, and a conclusion by experts in practical theology. The book succeeds in 'opening the field,' recognizing the discipline's provisionality and permeability as open-ended and conversational in nature. To aid comparisons, each chapter is structured with the same eight key features. These begin with historical context and proceed through themes such as norms and source of authority, views of the theory-practice relationship, interdisciplinary conversation partners, and areas of current and future research. . . .The editors identify 11 focal concerns that are characteristic of practical theology and that forge an overall unity for the field. Yet the ways practical theologians put these together result in numerous trajectories or approaches. As Stephen Bevans says, 'In practical theology one begins from an experience or a practice.' This perspective leads to the distinctive identities of the chapters, which cover practical theology as it pertains to African Americans, Evangelicals, feminists/womanists, Roman Catholics, and US Latinos/Latinas. This overview approach should be very helpful for readers at all levels. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.

Choice Reviews

With the publication of Opening the Field of Practical Theology: An Introduction, Kathleen A. Cahalan and Gordon S. Mikoski have deepened and expanded the tent with a superb collection of essays. The book deepens out understanding by inviting fourteen different authors to examine common features of practical theology from diverse perspectives in an accessible and systematic way. . . .The structure is genius because it makes it possible to read the book in a number of different ways. . . .The endnotes add to the aim of this excellent new resource: they open the field of practical theology.

International Journal of Practical Theology

Opening the Field of Practical Theology offers practical theology students and teachers abundant access points into studying, teaching, and engaging diverse practices. This book will be required in doctoral studies in practical theology, will support life-long reflection on ministerial practices and vocational development, and will empower collaboration among diverse practical theologians. . . .Opening the Field of Practical Theology invites readers to enter practical theology’s convergences (named in the conclusion as valuing self-reflection, context, and interdisciplinarity) and divergences (named in the conclusion as differing interpretations of human experiences, historical contexts, and normative sources). The editors also encourage readers to play with the order of the chapters, underlying commitments, organization provided by the common template, and additional convergences and divergences. . . .[T]he volume affirms practical theology’s robust role in formative theological study, carrying on a long-standing conversation among scholars that is itself open to new voices and perspectives. Opening the Fieldof Practical Theology provides an invaluable contribution to a field of study that has opened multiple significant future trajectories.

Theology Today

Particularly noteworthy is the clear treatment given by each contributor to perhaps the most heavily-contested aspect of practical theology: the nature and status of sources of authority. Here the comparisons made possible between Catholic, Protestant, and evangelical positions, as well as the insights from a number of liberationist perspectives, will allow students to come to some necessary clarity about a key methodological question, clarity that is grounded in the voices of respected representatives of particular traditions.

Anglican and Episcopal History

Opening the Field of Practical Theology maps the complex terrain of this field as astutely as anything in print. Its respectful attention to diversity of ethnic and religious contexts and appropriate methods for them is to be applauded. Happily the shared template across the contributions makes it feel like an integrated volume and not simply a collection of essays. Best of all, the authors come across as living theologians whose own stories and contexts matter. This volume not only talks about practical theology, but smartly models it. Bravo!

Edward Foley, capuchin, Duns Scotus Professor Emeritus of Spirituality, Catholic Theological Union

This outstanding book demonstrates the breadth in the emerging field of Practical Theology in the U.S. Different Christian communities, related to different ethnic groups and different cultural contexts, demand for differentiated elaborations of a Practical Theology that should be both theologically normative and culturally informed. The authors paint a vivid picture of Practical Theology today.

Wilhelm Gräb, Humboldt-University Berlin