browning's fundamental practical theology

By Kevin G. Smith

A Fundamental Practical Theology

Don Browning

Don Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology

Introduction

Don Browning’s book, A Fundamental Practical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), is a seminal work on practical theology in the American context. Every student of practical theology must have some understanding of Browning’s approach.

Browning outlines his approach to practical theology in the Introduction and in Chapters 2-3. We are going to survey those portions of his book to get a working knowledge of his views on theology and his approach to practical theology.


Outline

1. Introduction to Fundamental Practical Theology

2. The Philosophical Foundations of Fundamental Practical Theology

3. The Four Tasks of Fundamental Practical Theology

4. Evaluation and Recommendations


INTRODUCTION TO FUNDAMENTAL PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

From Practice to Theory and Back Again


Purpose and Audience

Browning is writing for anyone who has asked, “In what way do religious communities make sense?” It is for people seeking to understand how religious communities exhibit practical reason. This tells us two things about his book:

1. Browning is interested in religious communities more than in individualistic theology. He believes that communities do theology and exhibit wisdom, and he wants to know how that works.

2. Browning’s target audience is people who are trying to understand religious communities and the type of wisdom that they embody.


Presuppositions

Browning (1991:2) believes that religious communities (by which he means churches or congregations) are communities of memory and communities of practical reason.

1. As communities of memory they have history, tradition, and normative texts that inform their beliefs, values, and practices.

2. As communities of practical reason, they engage their ever-changing context in an attempt to remain faithful to the Lord and relevant to the world.


Philosophies

Browning draws together several key philosophies, basing his approach on them.

1. Aristotle’s practical wisdom (phronēsis)

2. Gadamer’s hermeneutical theory

3. Habermas’s critical theory

4. Congregational studies

5. Practical theology, the beleaguered sub-discipline


Browning on the Rebirth of Practical Theology

“The field of practical theology has been

throughout its history the most beleaguered

and despised of the theological disciplines.

The discipline of theology itself has had few

friends, even in the church. To admit in

academic circles that one is a theologian has

been, in recent years, to court

embarrassment. To admit that one is a

practical theologian invites even deeper

skepticism. To admit in a major university

that one is a practical theologian has been

to invite humiliation. With the rebirth of the

practical philosophies, practical theology

itself has been reborn.”

(Browning 1991:3)


Browning on the Rebirth of Practical Theology

“With the reemergence of the practical

philosophies, there has arisen a new

fascination with terms such as

practical reason, practical wisdom,

phronesis, practice, praxis, justice,

consensus, dialogue. conversation,

and communication. This fascination

suggests that Western societies are

desperate to find ways to make

shared and workable decisions about

the common good and the common

life.”

(Browning 1991:3-4)


Approaches to Theology

1. Many theologians define theology “as systematic

reflection on the historical self-understanding of a

particular religious tradition” (Browning 1991:5).

2. “Barth saw theology as the systematic

interpretation of God's self-disclosure to the

Christian church” (Browning 1991:5).



Browning criticises Barth’s approach for being too one-directional, theory to practice. It leaves no room for human understanding, action, or practice in determining God’s will and purposes (i.e. it is not hermeneutical in Gadamer’s sense). It also means that theology is only practical by applying theory to practice, so practical theology can only be applied theology in this model. (Barth would be representative of evangelical theologians.)



Contrary to Barth’s approach, Browning believes theology must be practical from beginning to end.

“We come to the theological task with questions shaped by the secular and religious practices in which we are implicated--sometimes uncomfortably. These practices are meaningful or theory-laden. By using the phrase theory-laden, I mean to rule out in advance the widely held assumption that theory is distinct from practice. All our practices, even our religious practices, have theories behind and within them” (Browning 1991:6).


Summary of Browning’s Approach

This is how Browning sees the process of theological reflection unfolding.

1. When we encounter a crisis, we begin to ask questions about our theory-laden questions.

2. We take time to describe our practices, so that we can understand the questions raised by the crisis.

3. We take our questions to our normative Christian texts, and start a critical conversation between our practices and our traditions. The two re-interpret each other.

4. We develop, defend, and deploy new interpretations of our normative texts, thus affecting our tradition and our practices.



The fundamental difference between Barth and Browning:

1. Barth’s approach studies theory (God’s revelation in scripture and in Christ), and then applies its findings to practice. It has a theory-to-practice movement.

2. Browning’s approach moves from practice to theory and then back to practice. He says, “it goes from present theory-laden practice to a retrieval of more normative theory-laden practice to the creation of more critically held theory-laden practices” (Browning 1991:7).



Browning is not proposing a model of practical theology, but a vision for doing theology as a whole. He believes all theology is fundamentally practical, and must follow a practice-theory-practice design. He proposes that all theology requires four sub-specialities or sub-movements.

1. Descriptive theology

2. Historical theology

3. Systematic theology

4. Strategic practical theology


Types of Reason

Browning makes use of some Greek words that we need to know:

1. Pronēsis: Practical reason to think through real-life problems to answer the critical questions: (a) What shall we do? (b) How shall we live?

2. Theoria: Purely theoretical reason seeking to answer the dispassionate questions: (a) What is the case? (b) What is the nature of things?)

3. Technē: Purely technical reason seeking to answer the how-to question: What are the most effective means to a given end?


Diagram of Browning’s Model

Browning holds that practical reason has an overall dynamic, an outer envelope, and an inner core.

1. Overall dynamic: the reconstruction of experience (because inherited interpretations are breaking down).

2. Outer envelope: the fund of inherited narratives and traditions (practical reason is tradition-saturated).

3. Inner core: the present experience and praxis of a faith community.


Inner Core: present experience

Outer envelope: inherited narratives

Action

Reflection

Action

Reflection

Purpose: Reconstruction of Experience


THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF FUNDAMENTAL PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

Exploring Practical Wisdom and Understanding


Practical Philosophy

Browning’s vision of practical theology is grounded in the rebirth of practical philosophy (phronēsis).

1. Research universities focus on theoretical knowledge (theoria) that is applied to solve human problems by means of technical reason (technē).

2. Practical philosophy or reason embraces critical reflection regarding the goals of human action, engaging with the past (tradition) and present (practice) to answer the questions: What shall we do? How shall we live?


Radical Implications

• Browning argues that viewing theology through the lens of practical philosophy leads to the conclusion that all theology is practical theology.

• “The sub-specialities of descriptive theology, historical theology, systematic theology, and strategic practical theology become movements within a fundamental practical theology” (Browning 1991:36).

• All Christian leaders are constantly doing practical theology through dialogue or conversation.


Gadamer’s Thought

• Gadamer is a philosopher trying to establish a firm philosophical foundation for the human and social sciences, disciplines which study the meaning of human actions (e.g. history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and law).

• Gadamer believed that all human understanding is acquired through dialogue or conversation. He believed that it is both impossible and unhelpful to be neutral or objective. We achieve understanding by entering into a dialogue in which we both acknowledge and use our pre-understanding to achieve understanding.


Gadamer’s Thought

• Gadamer is proposing a hermeneutical approach to research. We reach an interpretation by engaging in a critical conver-sation. We reach an interpretation that is influenced by our pre-understanding, and which does not claim objective or final authority.

• In Gadamer’s approach, application is not something that enters the conversation at the end. The entire conversation is shaped by practical concerns that emerge from the current situation.


Browning on the hermeneutical nature of science

Browning says that Gadamer has underscored the hermeneutical and practical nature of all science. Gadamer has “helped us understand how all cultural [human and social] sciences and many if not all natural sciences can best be understood as dialectical movements from traditions of theory-laden practice to theory and back to new theory-laden practices.”

(Browning 1991:40)


Gadamer’s Thought

Effective History

The events of the past shape present historical conscious-ness. The past lives in the present, which is a product of the past. Our present inter-pretations are products of our past experiences.

Biblical Interpretation

We cannot approach the biblical texts neutrally. They are already part of our world-view. They influence the questions we bring to them, and the questions we bring influence the answers we see.


A Critical Correlational Approach

CorrelationalThe approach “correlates the confessional beginning point of theology with questions shaped both by faith and by other aspects of our cultural experience” (Browning 1991:46).

CriticalTheology is “a mutually critical dialogue between inter-pretations of the Christian message and interpretations of contemporary cultural experiences and practices” (Browning 1991:46).


A Critical Correlational Approach

• Paul Tillich proposed a simple correlational approach, a one-way conversation in which experience raises questions, and theology provides answers.

• David Tracy proposed a critical correlational approach, a two-way conversation in which our interpretations of the Christian message and our interpretations of the present situation interpret each other. They influence and shape each other!

• Don Browning embraces Tracy’s critical correlational model, which he also calls the revised correlational model.


David Tracy’s Definition of Practical Theology

“ Practical theology is the mutually critical correlation of the interpreted theory and praxis of the Christian faith with the interpreted theory and praxis of the contemporary situation.”

(Tracy 1983:76)


THE FOUR TASKS OF FUNDAMENTAL PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

The Four Sub-Movements


The Four Sub-Movements

1. Descriptive Theology

2. Historical Theology

3. Systematic Theology

4. Strategic Practical Theology



• The task of descriptive theology is to describe the theory-laden practices that give rise to the practical questions which generate theological reflection.

• Descriptive theology analyses the cultural and religious meanings that surround our religious practices.



• Descriptive theology uses a hermeneutical methodology. It is a dialogue between the researcher and the subjects; he brings his pre-understanding into the dialogue with their actions, meanings, and pre-understandings.



• “Historical theology asks, What do the normative texts that are already part of our effective history really imply for our praxis when they are confronted as honestly as possible?” (Browning 1991:49)

• In other words, in this step we bring the questions raised by our descriptive theology to the word of God. As open-mindedly as we can, we ask what the scriptures really teach concerning our questions.



• For Browning, the normative texts include the scriptures and other Christian classics. Each faith tradition determines what it considers to be its classical or normative texts.

• Therefore, Browning’s historical theology covers the traditional disciplines of biblical studies, church history, and the history of doctrine.



Browning’s understanding of systematic theology is different to an evangelical view of it.

• Systematic theology is an “effort to investigate general themes of the gospel that respond to the general questions that characterize the situations of the present” (Browning 1991:51).

• Through a correlation of descriptive and historical theology, systematic theology seeks a fresh interpretation of the Christian faith relevant to the present situation.



Systematic theology endeavours to answer two key questions (Browning 1991:51-52):

1. Theological: What new horizon of meaning is fused when questions from present practices are brought to the central Christian witness?

2. Apologetic: What reasons can be advanced to support the validity claims of this new fusion of meaning?



1. How do we understand this concrete situation in which we must act?

2. What should be our praxis in this concrete situation?

3. How do we critically defend the norms of our praxis in this concrete situation?

4. What means, strategies, and rhetorics should we use in this concrete situation?

Questions direct thinking, and they usually arise from real-life problems that require action. Strategic practical theology seeks to answer four questions, culminating in theory of action.



• The fourth question deals with communicative action in service of the gospel, the traditional focus of the final stage of practical theology.

• The traditional operational fields of practical theology are still present, including liturgies, homiletics, education, care, and social action ministries.


Summary

1. Descriptive theology provides a thick description of religious and cultural practices.

2. Historical theology directs the questions that emerge towards the normative texts.

3. Systematic theology correlates generic features of the Christian message with generic features of the present situation.

4. Strategic practical theology establishes the norms and strategies of concrete practices in light of analyses of concrete situations.


EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

So what do we make of Browning’s vision and model?


Practice-Theory-Practice

• Browning helped to established practice-theory-practical as the standard design for practical theology. He made a strong case for using a practice-theory-practice model.

• Evangelicals can certainly use the practice-theory-practice design. Much evangelical theology uses this approach to its advantage.


Practice-Theory-Practice

• In my opinion, Browning overstates his position in insisting that all theology must follow the practice-theory-practice design.

• Insisting on a practice-theory-practice approach may be compelling for liberal theology, where is there is no normative revelation from God and empirical research is the primary source of knowledge.

• However, for evangelicals a theory-practice approach remains a serious option, since it is well suited to expounding the implications of God’s self-disclosure for modern contexts.


Hermeneutical Approach

• Browning advocates a hermeneutical approach to theological reflection. This implies that we recognise our pre-understanding and accept that all our conclusions are tentative interpretations, and do not represent the final word on the matter.

• I wholeheartedly concur! All theology, and to some extent all science, is hermeneutical in this sense.


Critical Correlational Approach

• Browning advocates critical correlational methodo-logy. Our interpretation of scripture (and tradition) guides the reformation of our practice, but similarly our interpretation of practice guides the re-interpretation of scripture.

• I partially concur with this, although I think it runs the risk of giving praxis greater weight than we give scripture. Our exegesis of scripture must be primary, although we know our experiences influence it.


Descriptive Theology

• Browning argues that theology begins with a thick description of present theory-laden practices, which raises questions for theological reflection. His model allows the thick description to use empirical methods, but does not require it.

• I like Browning’s balanced, open approach towards the need for empirical research. A thick description of praxis can be an excellent starting point for doing theology, but often a ‘thin description’ is sufficient.


Historical Theology

• Browning believes we must take questions raised by our praxis and experience to our normative texts, and that this process should include biblical exegesis, church history, and the history of doctrine.

• Yes, I agree! All theology should include these elements in its process. My approach to exegesis would, of course, differ from his because of our different theological convictions.


Systematic Theology

• For Browning, systematic theology is exploring the correlation between themes from the Christian message and our interpretation of theory-laden practices and experiences. Its objective is to develop and defend fresh theological syntheses for the new context.

• As an evangelical, I find this vision of systematic theology inadequate. Systematic theology must synthesise all that God has revealed in the scriptures and state the relevance and implications of his revelation for our context.


Strategic Practical Theology

• The four questions that Browning proposes that the strategic sub-movement must answer are excellent, and provide a good guideline for the movement from theological formulation to a theory of action in a concrete situation.


Conclusion

Don Browning’s book remains a seminal work in the field of practical theology, and has much to teach all theologians. His contributions with respect to the two practical portions of practice-theory-practice model are excellent, as well as his case for a hermeneutical, critical, correlational, and dialogical approach to all theology, is helpful. His perspectives about how to do the central theory formation portion of theology is inadequate from an evangelical perspective, and needs to be adapted.


THE ENDThank you for studying this presentation.

browning's fundamental practical theology

Education