Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross

by Andrew Root

Finding practical theology not always able to present frameworks for understanding concrete and lived experience with divine action, Andrew Root seeks to reset the edifice of practical theology on a new foundation. While not minimizing its commitment to the lived and concrete, Root argues that practical theology has neglected deeper theological underpinnings. Christopraxis seeks to create a practical theology that is properly and fully theological, post-postmodern, post-Aristotelian, and that attends to doctrines such as divine action and justification.

Genres: Theology

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2014

About the author

Andrew Root joined Luther Seminary in 2005 as assistant professor of youth and family ministry. Previously he was an adjunct professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington D.C., and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.

Root received his bachelor of arts degree from Bethel College, St. Paul, Minn., in 1997. He earned his master of divinity (2000) and his master of theology (2001) degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. He completed his doctoral degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2005.

Root's ministry experience includes being a gang prevention counselor in Los Angeles, youth outreach directed in a congregation, staff member of Young Life, and a confirmation teacher. He has also been a research fellow for Princeton Theological Seminary's Faith Practices Project.

Root has published articles in the Journal of Youth and Theology, The International Journal of Practical Theology, and Word and World.

He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry and the International Bonhoeffer Society.

Reviews

[Ryan Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is certainly Root’s most academic work that I’ve read. He makes some very complex arguments that, although powerful, definitely take some time to work through. This book is certainly targeted towards those in the field of practical theology, and I think ultimately pushes the field in much needed direction.

[David Campton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have just done something that I rarely do, which is stopped a book before reading it to the end. Last time I did that it was an autobiographical book by comic actress Miranda Hart on her relationship with her dog. This book had almost as many laughs, but the main reason I got fed up with it was trying to distil the valuable from the inconsequential academic gobbledegook. It has the feel of an academic thesis that somehow escaped into the world of popular theological publishing with an interesting cover and title. It undoubtedly has something to say to academic practical theologians, but I just didn't have the time or energy to wade through it and get on with my day job of putting theology into practice. Yet that is what attracted me to it at first, as I am forever saying that all theology should ultimately be practical theology, and this book seemed to be the work of someone with lots of practical experience attempting to be theologically rigorous about Christian ministry. There are aspects that I agreed with, including his attempt to wrestle practical theology free of Aristotelean philosophy... but that is true of much Christian theology and, it could be argued western civilisation, and his argument that practical theology is a theology of the Spirit... But even in this comment comes some of my frustration at his overarching theme, which is to develop a "new direction for practical theology" (the goal of most post-graduate theses being to break new ground on a subject and show how previous approaches were deficient) which he terms "Christopraxis - A Practical Theology of the Cross" - yet at times he seems to be arguing for a Pneumopraxis and at others a Crucipraxis... but rarely something that could be distinctively called a thorough-going Christopraxis. His attempts to tie in a theology of justification, seems to be grounded on seeing everything through a soteriological lens, and one that is distinctively Lutheran/Reformed, rejecting any form of human agency, but it seems to assume that everything stops with justification... no doctrine of sanctification (or maybe I gave up too soon) and no sense of Paul's idea in Ephesians that we are saved to do good works (effectively concentrating on Ephesians 2 v8 & 9 and ignoring v10). In one of his more quotable lines, which I might agree with to an extent, he says "Practical theology has tended to have a kind of doctrinal deficit disorder." We would probably be at odds, however, on the doctrine that should inform our practice...

[Wesley Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Root doesn't just offer a new way forward for practical theology, he offers it as a distinct way of thinking theologically, full stop. Attending to the concrete and lived experience of divine and human encounter--in the face of the impossibility which surrounds human action--Root exegetes the text of human experience through the lens of God's being as becoming, through the lens of ministry itself. As such, Root gives us a theological method (indeed a theology of the cross) that is practical, interdisciplinary, but utterly and fundamentally theological--grounded in normativity. Through the (perhaps counterintuitive) lens of justification, Root shifts the ground on which practical theology stands, orienting human action toward reception of the ministering presence of the living Jesus within the impossibility and death of the human condition. Root puts the 'theology' back in practical theology and turns 'practice' back toward participation in the person of God through the ministry of God.

This may be the most important work in the field of practical theology in the last decade. It is no doubt the most important theological contribution from Andrew Root so far.

[J.I. · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a theologian researching the theology of the cross (theologia crucis) in Bonhoeffer, it was time for me to read Andy Root’s “Christopraxis, A Practical Theology of the Cross.” I’m not a practical theologian. Not by profession, that is. I do think of myself of a systematic theologian who is deeply interested in the practical, and transformational power of theology. But practical and systematic theology are two different disciplines that, though intersecting, have their own, method and rationality. In this review, then, I will not discuss the contribution of Root to the field of practical theology, simply because I’m not qualified to do so. I will, however, look at the integration of the theologia crucis into his discipline.

Read more here: https://endofgod.wordpress.com/2016/0...