CHAPTER 1
Introduction

Pete Ward and Knut Tveitereid

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Theology and Qualitative Research has its origins in the conversations that have taken place within the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Network. The network started in 2007 with a conference exploring how theologians might work more closely with what was at the time loosely called "ethnography." These debates have continued at the American Academy of Religion in the Ecclesial Practices group and through the journal Ecclesial Practices published by Brill.

Our interest in this area was, in part, spawned by George Lindbeck's proposal in The Nature of Doctrine (1984) that ethnography should have a significant role to play in theological method. Qualitative research had for some time been used within practical theology and fields such as liturgical studies and Christian education. Here the convention had been that social science formed a moment in the examination of practice. The researcher was expected to step into a new discipline to complete a certain kind of analysis through empirical methods, and then they were to move to the theological discipline to reflect on the social scientific data that had been gathered. What has generally been termed the "correlational approach" became institutionalized within theological education through the pastoral cycle. Something akin to correlation is inherent in Lindbeck's thinking, but for many of us the interesting questions and challenges emerged when we began to use qualitative methods as theologians without assuming that, in order to do this, we had to switch disciplinary identities. In other words, reaching beyond correlation and the assumption that specific methods, such as interviews or participant observation or focus groups, necessarily meant juggling different disciplinary hats, to a place where theological questions and concerns would remain the focus of research throughout.

In the last 20?years, there has been a steady rise in the number of doctoral students and academics who have taken up the challenge of working as theologians with qualitative methods of inquiry. This upsurge in interest has been driven by the sense that theology needs to be deeply rooted in contexts. Qualitative research has become a way to pay close attention to communities and individuals who have previously been excluded or silenced in theological work. Alongside this, there has been a deep desire to do research that makes a difference in the Church and wider society. Qualitative research offers the promise of a robust and disciplined means of paying attention that can shape theological engagement. The sense is that theological proposals for the life of the Church and for society, in order to be useful and credible, need to be formulated in and through a deep engagement with communities. In the process of generating new insights and perspectives, it has become clear that what is meant by theology and, indeed, what it means to be a theologian has undergone significant revision. This volume is born of an excitement around these developments.

In the chapters that follow, different researchers set out their journey in this fast-emerging field of study. It is worth saying at the outset that while many of us have been involved in the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Network, it would be wrong to assume that suggests a unified approach or viewpoint. We come with different theological commitments and disciplinary locations. We also represent a variety of approaches to and uses of qualitative methods. What the chapters in this book represent is a convergence around the epistemological and methodological issues that arise in the intersection between theology and qualitative research.

The conversation has led us to at least three realizations thus far: First, when theology and qualitative research are brought together, theology is shaped by it. Qualitative research offers theology access to voices from below in a systematic manner. New forms of theology are given a voice, albeit these voices are not new in the sense that they are produced by the research - they are there already - but brought to attention and given status through qualitative methods. These voices often bring critique, nuance, messiness, expansion, creativity, and revelation to the table of theology. An apparent aim for this book is to underline these kinds of contributions.

Second, when theology and qualitative methods are brought together, qualitative research is shaped by it. Theology, at its best, makes people see. Theology offers language, concepts, and models for the researcher to see what is in the empirical field. Theology, then, can give the researcher - and thereby the reader - a richer and truer image of what is already at play. Over time, some qualitative approaches methods have proven particularly helpful. Other approaches have been developed further to better fit with studying theology in practice, to which this book accounts.

Third, when theology and qualitative methods are brought together, new problems arise. The relationship between the two is not an obvious one, nor is it frictionless. Traditionally theology is, in Kantian terms, situated within the "world of ideas," whereas qualitative methods aim at describing the "world of experiences." In theory, the two are incommensurable. In practice, however, an increasing number of researchers insist on the relationship and find it fruitful. We have tried not to let the newly won enthusiasm overshadow the proper problems that are present. Several limitations, reservations, and dilemmas are identified and discussed throughout the book.

The book is divided into parts. Part I "Naming the Field" depicts how theology and qualitative research represents different things to different people, depending on the angle of approach and the perspectives they bring to the conversation. In this first part, we have invited central scholars to describe the field from their perspective, identify what is at stake, and name this emerging research interest. Driving questions are: What is the contribution of qualitative research to the field of theology? How is the field of theology and qualitative research perceived from various perspectives? How does theology and qualitative research change what it means to be a theologian?

Part II "Theology and Qualitative Research as Forms of Knowledge" aims to qualify theology and qualitative research epistemologically. Whenever a theologian adopts qualitative research methods, fundamental questions could and should be raised: How is qualitative research theological, and how do we know that? What is theology, and where is it found? What is its revelatory status and its normativity?

Part III "Theology and Qualitative Research: Continuities and Discontinuities" highlights how theology and qualitative research relies on several theological traditions in critical dialogue. This part positions theology and qualitative research by describing continuities and discontinuities in selected theological traditions. The central question in this is: What is the theological contribution of qualitative research beyond practical theology?

Part IV "The Empirical Turn in Practical Theology" describes how qualitative research has become the modus operandi of practical theological research, thereby changing the discipline from within. Even practical theology's clerical subdisciplines are broadened and reshaped by empirical insights. Core questions are: How is theology and qualitative research shaping practical theology? How can theology and qualitative research contribute to the understanding of Church ministry, including education for ministry?

Part V "The Practice Theology and Qualitative Research" critically explores what happens to the craft of qualitative research when used by theologians. The chapters are not an exhaustive review of all methods or phases of research but seek to highlight some of the more common approaches to qualitative research in theology and its implications: Is there something distinctly unique in how a theologian is doing qualitative research? What methods have, in particular, proven valuable within theology?

In the final part, "Responses and Dissent," we let voices from the outside be heard. Selected scholars - familiar to, but not necessarily acquainted with Ecclesiology and Ethnography -describe and assess theology and qualitative research from their perspective. Central questions are: What are the blind spots of theology and qualitative research? Which areas should future scholarship pay better attention to? How is the contribution of theology and qualitative research viewed outside the western world?

A standing joke compares a theologian to a blind person who enters a dark room searching for a black cat that is not there - and finds it. Admittedly, theologians have blind spots, but this book argues that theologians equipped with qualitative ways of seeing have better vision than those without. The question of whether or not the cat - in the sense of God - is there will always be a question of faith, not scientific observation. Nevertheless, this book argues, alongside the rest of the theological field, that theology, indeed, is present in most rooms, in and out of Church. The cat - understood as words, interpretations, practices, and experiences about God - is there to be observed. In fact, more often than not, there is more than one theology present. Theology and qualitative research...