Andrew Root

Regulating the Empirical in Practical Theology: On Critical Realism, Divine Action, and the Place of the Ministerial

Through the exploration of youth ministry scholarship this article explores the empirical movement in practical theology. The article argues that while the empirical turn has helped practical theology better attend to the lived and concrete experience of human beings, it has also made the theological more difficult. Therefore, the first part of the article reminds the reader of how the empirical method brings distinct, and at times foreign, epistemologies into contact with the theological task. Reviewing this point, this article draws it deeper by turning to Charles Taylor, showing how the empirical methods obscure transcendence in favor of immanence. The article then constructs an approach to the empirical that might open the field to transcendence and avoid reduction. It argues for ministry itself being the motivation and shape of empirical work in practical theology, showing how ministry mediates divine action, while upholding the importance and particularities of human action.

God's Hiddenness, Absence, and Doubt: The Theology of the Cross as Theological Direction for Youth Ministry

This article asserts that the core of ministry is the ability to contemplate and articulate the “where” of God (to be able to express where we concretely encounter God). It argues that too often we have simply asserted that God is everywhere leading us to over-state the revealed, nearness, and rationality of God’s nature, keeping us from having anything specific or rich to say about God’s very activity. We have often fallen into this trap of abstractions because we have not seen the adolescent’s very ontological state as existing between possibility and nothingness, instead viewing adolescence fundamentally and finally as a developmental period of growth, advancement, and preparation. Therefore, this paper will turn to the theologia crucis as a way of conceptualizing “where” God can be found, and how this very conceptualization attends to the adolescent’s ontological state between possibility and nothingness. The paper will conclude by providing some thoughts on how this impacts the practice of the youth worker.

Youth Ministry as Discerning Christopraxis: A Hermeneutical Model

This article provides a picture of how discernment happens within ministry, and how the process of discernment can be done theologically. The great challenge for those teaching youth and family ministry is to help students begin to think beyond simple implementation of successful program strategies and move into reflection on context and theology. This then calls for a commitment to a God living and active in the world through Jesus Christ. Jurgen Moltmann has called this Christopraxis. Drawing on a series of epoch making theologians and philosophers, this paper constructs a paradigm for discerning Christopraxis which allows the youth minister to move past seeing him or herself as a church programmer and instead to recognize his or her place as participating in the dynamic actions of God in the world, and in the lives of adolescents.

Relationality as the Objective of Incarnational Ministry: A Reexamination of the Theological Foundations of Adolescent Ministry

This article reexamines the theological foundation for relational/incarnational ministries to adole cents. It proposes that the methodologies of American organizations like Young Life have not recognized the depth and theological importance of relationality and sociality. The article examines the concepts of relationality and sociality and points youth ministry and the whole church to their theological poignancy. The article ultimately proposes that relationships between adolescents and adult advocates should not serve as a means to a greater end, but in and of themselve are theologically the greater goal.