Kirjahaku

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.

Not Eden represents a challenging new appraisal of the methods, purpose and practice of spiritual life writing. Part 1 examines some of the traditions that have governed spiritual life writing in the past. A dominant assumption, displayed in many confessional texts, has been that spiritual autobiographies chart a journey away from the concerns of this world towards a deeper understanding of the divine. However, alternative forms of spiritual life writing have always existed alongside these authoritative traditions. In these, spirituality appears as deeply interwoven with the fabric of everyday life. It is embodied, contingent and involves deep connections with others. Part 2 consists of a work of spiritual life writing in which the claims made in part one are explored and tested. It constitutes a fully worked example of the way in which spiritual life writing can enable us to face the deepest challenges of this world.

In recent years, Practical Theology has taken a very significant methodological turn towards the qualitative approaches. At the same time, there has also been a parallel and related development which emphasises the importance of life writing as a theological resource and autoethnographical ways of constructing practical theology are receiving increased scholarly attention. Practical Theology Beyond the Empirical Turn offers a sustained, critical interrogation of the turn towards social research and methodologies in Practical Theology which has transformed the discipline over the past forty years. It places the discipline’s current research practices within the context of wider theoretical and methodological developments and the climate disaster. The work maintains that current circumstances require a radical reassessment of the goals and processes of practical theological research and that artistic and creative methods must be part of this transformation. Heather Walton embodies her understanding of the vocation of the discipline in reflective and creative modes of expression. This work is essential reading for all those researching, writing or teaching Practical Theology today.

Have you ever woken up one day and asked yourself, "how did I get here? This cannot be my life. This is not how I saw things panning out for me. I don't deserve this. My life doesn't seem to have any purpose." Then, have you tried to think through how to get off the rollercoaster or treadmill that seems to have become your life?Much like many others, Heather Walton faced a great number of hurdles throughout her life, including poverty, abuse in many forms, lack of education, being a solo mom, and bankruptcy, plus quite a few others. However, Walton didn't just survive these struggles; she thrived through the adversity. Now, Walton strives to change her life story and inspire others going through the same struggles she once did to leave the monotonous treadmill of life and forge their own path.In Rags to Riches to the Real Me, Heather Walton will show you that you can start over at any age and heal your life. You can rewrite your story with a happy ending. By following the 21 simple step-by-step exercises and making a daily ritual to recreate a life worth living, you can become someone that you can be proud of. There is nothing more empowering than to look back on your struggles or trauma and know that it did not define you; that they simply gave you a few scars or characteristics that made you into the strong resilient person you can become.

Have you ever woken up one day and asked yourself, "how did I get here? This cannot be my life. This is not how I saw things panning out for me. I don't deserve this. My life doesn't seem to have any purpose." Then, have you tried to think through how to get off the rollercoaster or treadmill that seems to have become your life?Much like many others, Heather Walton faced a great number of hurdles throughout her life, including poverty, abuse in many forms, lack of education, being a solo mom, and bankruptcy, plus quite a few others. However, Walton didn't just survive these struggles; she thrived through the adversity. Now, Walton strives to change her life story and inspire others going through the same struggles she once did to leave the monotonous treadmill of life and forge their own path.In Rags to Riches to the Real Me, Heather Walton will show you that you can start over at any age and heal your life. You can rewrite your story with a happy ending. By following the 21 simple step-by-step exercises and making a daily ritual to recreate a life worth living, you can become someone that you can be proud of. There is nothing more empowering than to look back on your struggles or trauma and know that it did not define you; that they simply gave you a few scars or characteristics that made you into the strong resilient person you can become.

In this book Heather Walton explores the significance of women poststructuralist theorists for feminist reading practices in theology. She interrogates the crucial role that literature has played in the development of feminist theology and breaks new ground in linking the study of literary texts and theory to creative writing. This raises important epistemological questions concerning the use of the imagination in theological thinking and introduces 'reflexive theology' as a discipline and practice.

Newly available in paperback, this book offers an authoritative overview of the broad and complex terrain of feminist theorising concerning the relationship between literature and theology as it has developed over the past several decades. It provides the first comprehensive evaluation of the significance of women's literature in the development of feminist theology and offers a critique of the variety of reading practices currently employed by religious feminists. As well as illuminating current reading strategies, the work argues that it is now appropriate for feminists to develop new ways of reading the divine in women’s writing. Drawing upon the pioneering work of Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray the work sets out a new framework for feminist religious reading that is both creative and challenging and which will be of interest both to scholars and students in this area.Through its artful and compelling feminist reconsiderations, the book makes a refreshing and significant contribution.

This book is founded upon the understanding that things matter to people. Exploring the renewing of practical theology through critical attention to the values and practices of everyday life, this book looks at how recent cultural and epistemological shifts have generated new agendas for theological thinking. Engaging with recent debates in many disciplines that have explored the relationship between persons and objects, Walton advocates a theological methodology which is radically incarnational, though proposing that incarnational theology itself must be rethought in the light of shifts in our understandings of materiality, epistemology and embodiment: when we speak of God integrally present in the material world, God as Word or God in flesh we can no longer assume that these affirmations carry the same meaning they once did. Introducing the work of new materialists focussing in particular on Miller and Bennett and their critique of materiality and appreciation of the sacred potentiality of things, Walton then explores the possibility of an affirmative approach to the created order - including material objects - which is based upon the radically incarnational aspects of the Franciscan tradition. Drawing upon insights offered in the work of Walter Benjamin, Michel de Certeau, Gaston Bachelard and others to construct a theological anthropology that celebrates the significance of things in human life, Walton goes on to argue that there can be discerned within the work of 20th century women writers a mystical appreciation of materiality which is congruent with the incarnational theology being developed within this work. Examples are drawn from the writings of Virginia Woolf, Ettie Hillesum, Elizabeth Smart and Michelle Roberts in order to establish how everyday material objects may become hugely spiritually significant to people. Finally, the book explores how habitual material interactions with things can be understood as sites of potential personal or political renewal.