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126 Recent Books
Wolfteich picks this up in her concluding section, but insists on a critique
of mysticism, especially from a feminist perspective. Even though Tracy was
himself unable fully to develop a practical theology in his own substantive
theological writings, he still affirms it as truly ‘the apex of all theology’.
Plunging further into the issues, Annemie Dillen, Robert Mager and
Thomas Groome examine the intricate questions of methodology and pedagogy
that are central to the practical theology enterprise, while Colleen Griffith
carries the discussion into its epistemological status—the kind of ‘knowing’
we achieve via practical theology (on which Groome is also very helpful).
These essays go much of the way in drilling down to the essential
elements of practical theology in itself; but then … the picture somehow
loses focus and blurs against the whole luxuriant array of the practical
fields of theological enquiry. The enterprise seems to be covering too
much. What then is ‘practical theology’? Simply metadisciplinary enquiry
into the over-arching goals and methodologies of the practical theologies?
Or itself a focused enquiry into ‘practice and practices’—those key
practices that embody Christian existence and are constitutive of the
Church? Would it then be more properly pastoral theology than practical?
Should it in fact be looking further and envisioning all the practices of the
humanum within its theological lens?
This book does not make any such claim. Rather, as indicated by
Kathleen Cahalan’s and Bryan Froehle’s long historical sweep in the
opening chapter—from the eleventh-century foundation of the universities
to the transformative event of Vatican II, which enshrined a historical
theological method—practical theology is today still a ‘developing
discipline’, still malleable. These essays suggest an emerging turn to the
aesthetic and the mystical as among its primary means of expression, and
to spirituality as its key field. Others may wish to lean in a more political
direction, more focused on critique of contemporary economic practices
and their global and environmental impact. At any rate, this publication
reveals practical theology as an enterprise replete with energy.
James Sweeney CP
Music as Cultural Mission: Explorations of Jesuit Practices in Italy and North
America, edited by Anna Harwell Celenza and Anthony B. DelDonna
(Philadelphia: Saint Joseph's UP, 2014). 978 0 9161 0180 0, pp.229, $65.00.
For the reader interested in Ignatian spirituality this volume, Music as
Cultural Mission: Exploration of Jesuit Practices in Italy and North America,