Abstract
Heather Walton, Writing Methods in Theological Reflection, SCM Press: London, 2014; 200 pp.: 9 780334051855, £25.00 (pbk)
There is now widespread agreement: (1) that theological reflection is a good thing; (2) that there is no unanimity as to what constitutes theological reflection; and (3) that whatever it is, it is not the process of making simplistic connections between isolated scriptural texts /propositional theological statements and the realities of life and ministry. In this ground-breaking book, the author takes theological reflection and its expression in writing to a new level. Heather Walton is a theologian and a writer. Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies and Co-director of the Centre for Literature, Theology and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, she explores several different modes of writing appropriate to theological reflection, each of them and embodied in her own literary output.
Three different but related approaches to theological writing are explored in some detail. Autoethnography is a way of using personal experience to investigate a particular issue or concern that has wider cultural or religious significance . This is becoming an increasingly important form of writing at masters and doctoral level when a researcher seeks to address an issue of importance which has emerged for them out of personal experience. Journalling is a way of using experience that allows us to see changes taking place over time. This is a common method in professional education and is suited for recording the development of learning. Life writing is a way of reflecting upon how experience shapes identity. This is often employed in formative contexts where reflection is needed on the next stage of a vocational journey. A final section of the book is devoted to poetics, exploring the connections between various aspects of theology (namely, Practical Theology, Public Theology and Pastoral Care) and the ways in which these disciplines have been written about.
This book is, however, much more than an academic text book expounding concepts. The vehicle carrying the theory is Heather Walton’s own creative writing which is scholarly and engaging, profound in its simplicity, and of universal significance in its personal particularity. We learn about her ecumenical journey, with family roots in both Roman Catholicism and Methodism, of her call to ministry as a local preacher and of her more recent engagement with Scottish Presbyterianism. She shares with us her academic development and she writes movingly of her experiences of infertility and subsequent motherhood. The theology is never forced but arises from honest reflection about the faith which is integral to her being.
Anyone who has attempted to write theologically will find something of value in this book. Not that those who wish to write better will necessarily succeed by slavishly imitating Heather Walton. I suspect that is not what she would wish. But this is a liberating book and those engaging with it will find themselves set free to find their own voice, to write more creatively, to take risks, sometimes to fail, but ultimately to find a means of giving expression to their calling to be reflective practitioners.