Chapter 5 - Theology from the Bottom Up: Developing an Inclusive Methodology for Engaging with the Voiceless

Summary

In the last chapter I outlined an approach to constructing and developing dramatic material as a repository for a theology of the voiceless, which utilizes the methodology of participant observation and ethnography.

In this chapter, I want to outline some of the philosophical and methodological issues in drama theory, which lies at the heart of this approach to articulating and doing theology. I am sure that, for some, I have approached this process sequentially, in the wrong order. Surely, I should have outlined methodological and theoretical issues prior to the practical task of creating the material that houses aspects of a process of dramatizing theologies? Is it not usually the case that theory gives rise to practice?

While I am aware of the conventions that would seem to suggest that theory should take precedent over practice, my own work as a Black practical theologian means that praxis—action based on critical reflection—was always going to be my preferred means of operating. As I have stated in my last book, I am invariably motivated by a desire to find what works first, and then analyse how and why it works, as a secondary, subsidiary question.

In this chapter, I want to outline the process of using an action-reflection paradigm for undertaking research and reflecting upon pastoral/practical ministry that enables marginalized, voiceless people to become a part of the very process of how theology is constructed.