[Pre-sale Special] Reflective Journeys of Four Hong Kong Practical Theologians: Transformative Practice through Contextual Research

Book Introduction

As the first group of graduates with Professional Doctorates in Practical Theology, and hence pioneers in Hong Kong, the four authors have the dream and passion for sharing research findings and experiences in doing practical theology.

Practical theology is a discipline where transformative actions are taken to actualize God’s redemptive will for the world. After rational reflection on church/faith tradition and after considering the political, economic, cultural, and religious reality, the authors’ church or own spiritual practice has been transformed by applying their research findings.

This book is written with the aspiration that practical theology can be promoted to churches or practices throughout Hong Kong and Asia. Moreover, more people will understand what practical theology is and apply it to bring transformation to their churches or practices.

About the Authors

Anna Lau, a registered nurse in the 1980s and is now a chaplain and clinical pastoral supervisor in a seminary.

Elaine Yip, a deaconess in a Baptist church and dedicates to change women’s roles in the church.

Christine Lai, a spiritual advisor and integral care consultant, a guest professor on spirituality, and a research associate on spiritual transformation from midlife to aging.

Joe Luk, a retired church pastor, a psychotherapist, and a ‘pray-er’ in healing ministry.

Editorial Reviews

The reflective journeys of Anna, Elaine, Christine and Joe are striking, familiar, pioneering and transformative. What is striking is their commitment to doing practical theology, to continued self-reflection, to a deep engagement with their shared and particular contexts, and to opening up the possibility of transformation for themselves as well as for those they serve, work with, and care for. They have also shown a commitment to a lengthy and demanding theological and personal journey.

Revd Dr. Andrew Todd, Director of the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology, Cambridge Theological Federation in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University

The four authors will tell us their fascinating stories of doing practical theology. The stories revolve around their own dedicated practices—Anna’s spiritual caregiving, Elaine’s women’s roles in the church, Christine’s midlife transformative spiritual practice, and Joe’s holistic prayer healing. We will see how they approached those practices step by step and found the proper way to understand and interpret them. In the end, after many struggles, they brought about transformation for the practices, the people doing the practices, and their own selves.

Kwok-Keung Yeung, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Strategic Professional Partner with the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government

The communal form of the book embodies the ethos of the Professional Doctorate. Individual stories are embedded in communal stories. Those communal stories are rooted in the traditions and practices of the communities we come from, but crucially also become, through the practices of the research community, rooted in new friendships, new perspectives, and new challenges. By writing this book together, and structuring it to allow both for their individual stories and for a reflective integration of these, Anna, Christine, Elaine and Joe have modelled something essential at the heart of this way of research.

Dr. Zoe Bennett, Honorary Fellow Wesley House, Cambridge Theological Federation, Formerly Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, Director of the Professional Doctorate Programme in Practical Theology

Included in the list of the 14 characteristics of practical theology offered by James Woodward and Stephen Pattison (2000, 13–16) are transformational, going beyond the rational and logical to incorporate the full range of human experience and ways of communicating, confessional and honest, contextual and situationally related, liberationist, experiential, reflectively based, interrogative, interdisciplinary, analytical and constructive, dialectical and disciplined. I am sure readers will find these characteristics in this book. Most importantly, you will also find how the four authors themselves are transformed by practical theologizing.

Simon Shui-Man Kwan, PhD, Professor, Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, President, Asia Academy of Practical Theology (Hong Kong)