Writing Methods in Theological Reflection

Writing Methods in Theological Reflection offers a stimulating, provocative and accessible book that will be of use to students and practitioners who are seeking ways to use their own experience in the work of spiritual and theological reflection, This work is intended for use by the many students of theology/ministry/chaplaincy who are charged with the task of producing works of theological reflection upon placements, life experiences and faithful practice. It will also be of general interest to a wide range of readers trying to correlate their life experiences with their spiritual beliefs.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Autoethnography Part 2: Journalling Part 3: Life Writing Part 4: Poetics, Theology and Practice

About the Author :
Heather Walton is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow and Co-director of the Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts at the University of Glasgow.

Review :
Only Heather Walton, with her passion for literary creativity and her academic insight and imagination, could pull off a book that is at once eminently useful for all who write theology across a range of venues—student and scholar alike—and intellectually astute, probing epistemologies, pedagogies, and the plight and possibilities for doing theology today. Innovative. Provocative. Profound. A pleasure to read. A game-changer. ‘Heather Walton is one of the most original and creative practical theologians of our day, whose work defies easy categorisation. Drawing eclectically on an extraordinary range of life experience and theory, she writes with exquisite skill and craft, as well as acute intelligence, engaging the specificity of her own life (infertility, motherhood, political engagement, teaching and writing) with some of the major issues concerning theology today (the complexity of faith and ecclesial belonging, the capacity of theology to speak into the public arena, the vulnerability as well as the power of religious discourse in our time, and so on). This is a book that both inspires and teaches us how to do practical theology; it will be of immense value in theological education in a wide variety of contexts, particularly for its patient attention to the processes and forms of creative writing, with their potential for critical and reflexive practice. But I hope it has wider currency amongst all theologians who care about the quality of their work, for it models a way of doing theology that is vibrant, risky, truthful, fleshy, endlessly innovative and profoundly engaged.’ Writing Methods in Theological Reflection is highly recommended reading for ministry and theology students and teachers, for practitioners using writing to reflect on practice, and for writers looking for courage and guidance in broadening into more creative writin "Offers critical reflection on how to write well in different genres and examples of good practice...Writing Methods in Theological Reflection is highly recommended reading for ministry and teachers, for practitioners using writing to reflect on practice, and for writers looking for courage and broadening into more creative writing."