BOOK REVIEW

Practical Theology by Richard R. Osmer

Practical Theology by Richard R. Osmer

Introduction

The main aim of this book is to make the leaders aware of the concept of theology. They are the ones who are in a position to influence the activities of a large group of people. Osmer proposes the leaders to engage in a practical theological interpretation of the episodes and the situations. Theology is the study of the religion and its influence on the everyday activities; therefore, another aim of this book is to train the religious educators to teach the students about theology and how it practically impacts them. They should be able to provide a practical reflection in their work.

Summary

A number of important concepts have been discussed by the author in this book. Osmer has presented a model according to which the people should do their work. The following model was presented by the author:

The descriptive-empirical task asks, 'What is going on?'

The interpretive task asks, 'Why is it going on?'

The normative task asks, 'What ought to be going on?'

The pragmatic task asks, 'How might we respond?'

The book is aimed towards the congregational leaders. These four important topics have been discussed in the book in great detail and each topic is discussed separately in a chapter. The reason why this book is aimed at congregational leaders is because they are the ones who are providing the religious education to the people.

According to the author the first task is the descriptive-empirical task. The practical theology starts with the situations, episodes and the context that are required for the interpretation. The next is the descriptive task according to which the answer what is going on should be answered. The interpretative task is the reason for the phenomena in the descriptive task. It seeks to explore the reason behind ...