Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Making and Christian witness in Australia today: journal article acceptance

Thrilled. Delighted. Stoked.

different types of wool on a shelf. Photo by Paul Hanaoka from Unsplash

I’ve just had news of journal article acceptance by Colloquium, an international peer-reviewed journal, for an article titled: “Making and Christian witness in Australia today.”

I’m thrilled with the blind peer reviewer comments, which were just so positive.

  • Reviewer 1 – “Excellent article. Well focused and innovative theme, clear methodology and aims, sound research design, and thoughtful practical theology and mission implications – all well written”
  • Reviewer 2 – “This is a creative and interesting article about Christian witness as ‘making’.”

I’m delighted to have a piece of qualitative research on the topic of knitting accepted in a scholarly academic journal.

I’m stoked because it’s the first concrete sign of academic writing progress on the Ordinary knitters research project. I’ve been quietly working away on the research for over 3 years. I have over 45,000 words written on a book. But a book takes so long to write and I wanted some way of testing the waters regarding academic suitability. So I peeled off a slab of the data, 14 of the more than 50 interviews. I then applied a different analytical lens, using the marks of mission to analyse the data rather than reflexive thematic analysis.

Thrilled. Delighted. Stoked. Here’s the abstract, keywords and acknowledgement.

Abstract: Christian witness is generally framed as occurring through words and deeds. This paper explores making as another approach to Christian mission. Christian theology understands God as Maker. Yet, making as a domain of Christian practice rarely features in theological accounts and mission thinking. Craft in general and knitting in particular is popular in contemporary society, yet there is little research into Christians who make in mission. Hence this paper conducted qualitative research, including “scavenge” ethnography and interviews with knitters, to investigate contemporary acts of making by Christians in Australia. Some makers knitted angels to yarn bomb at Christmas, while others knitted scarves in climate activism. The Marks of Mission were deployed as a holistic frame, with all five Marks evident in the knitting of angels and scarves. The interviews unravelled understandings of making as a joyful experience of active praying that provided distinct ways of relating. Making allows ordinary people, particularly women, to participate in mission as telling, teaching, tending, transforming and treasuring. In a contemporary culture saturated with words and cynical of deeds, the research has significance for how mission and theology are conceived in contemporary Australia and practised in local church contexts.

Keywords: activism – knitting – making – qualitative research – mission – witness

Acknowledgements: My thanks to the knitters willing to show and tell, to peer reviewers for their attention to the craft of writing and to AngelWings Ltd for the allocation of pro-bono time to undertake this research project.

Posted by steve at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

Thursday, December 05, 2024

social impact of religious practices: pilots and letter boxes

I’m researching the social impact of selected religious practices. The 12 month research project is funded by John Templeton, located in the University of Birmingham and administered through the University of Otago, where I am a Research Affiliate with the Centre for Theology and Public Issues.

I am using an action research approach, in which I invite people to share a selected religious practice for a period of time. I conduct a survey at the start and end, using several established psychological scales, to explore if participants experience any changes in aspects of social connection and human flourishing. I ask participants to keep a journal, writing weekly about their experience of the practice. I also host a focus group in which participants reflect together on their experience of the religious practice. These three modes of gathering information uncover how religious practices are experienced in relation to social aspects.

In November, I gained ethics approval.

In December, I began a pilot. Undertaking a pilot allows me to get things up and running. It also gives me feedback on different parts of the research, testing the questions I am asking and understanding how much time is involved.

This pilot involves working with a local congregation who have an established religious practice. During Advent, the congregation are invited into four weeks of slowing and silence in daily life. This is facilitated by lighting a candle for a defined period of time. The practice occurs during the worship service. People are also invited to take and light a candle daily in their homes, as a way of continuing the practice in daily life. During Advent, the length of silence slowly increases (in this case, one minute in week one, two minutes in week two, and so on). Could this practice, of slowing and being silent, impact social connection and human flourishing?

In this pilot, I am testing two of my three modes of data gathering. Participants interested in being part of the research have given their ethical consent. They have each been sent a survey. They have also been given a journal, in which they are invited to respond each week to four questions about their experience.

Which meant that this week my time as a researcher included dropping journals in letter boxes and wondering what people will write, as they reflect on their experience of this particular religious practice. Such is the joy of undertaking empirical research into the real life experiences of religious practices in daily life.

The social impact of selected religious practices research project is one of seven different research projects I am currently involved in. For example, I’m also involved in researching digital activism, experiences of reading out loud, knitting as craftivism and race, justice and mission in the history of Oceania. Plus I’m undertaking longitudinal evaluations of different interventions in two church organisations and have just wrapped up a project writing resources to encourage ecological readings of Advent and Christmas Bible readings.

Posted by steve at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Knitting as public theological witness: spoken presentation feedback

For the last three years, I have been interviewing people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces. To date I’ve conducted 50 interviews with knitters, coded all the transcripts and done reflexive thematic analysis of two (of the four ) knitting projects. This has resulted in around 45,000 words toward a possible book on craftivism as public Christian witness. (To keep up with the project, click follow on the Ordinary Knitters Facebook page I have set up.)

A few months ago, I proposed a paper for the Systematic Theology Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (STAANZ). I thought it would be very helpful for my research to try to summarise 45,000 words into a 2,300 word paper as a way of clarifying key ideas.

I delivered the paper today. I began with several stories of knitting to introduce how knitting connects and making empowers. I defined public theology using Elaine Graham and ambient witness using Matthew Engelke. I offered an overview of theologies of making in Christian history. I then explored one of the four knitting projects I have researched and described how the knitting of strawberries to express solidarity with victims and survivors of church abuse could be seen as an expression of public ambient theological witness. I brought the interviews into conversation with Sara Ahmed, and outlined how her work around citational practices helped me realise the importance of informal and side-by-side formation in knitting.

Participants asked a range of excellent questions. I try to take handwritten notes of the questions I get asked after a presentation. Taking notes gives me time to think about how to respond. It also means I can sit more thoroughly and more thoughtfully with the questions at later date.

Here is my recollection of the 5 questions I was asked, along with a summary of my brief responses.

1. Did the knitters you interviewed knit alone or together? Both. I interviewed people who knitted in groups and people who knitted alone. In both categories there were descriptions of a rich set of relationships, including informal, through which connections between people were being made.

2. How was Mary be utilised as a theological resource? One of my interview participants described connecting Mary with the strawberry plant, as a representation of the simultaneous generativity of runners and flowers and a symbol of “exuberant defiance.” The connections between the reproductivity of strawberries and Mary as bearer of God’s reproductive action in the world offers some fascinating way to think theologically about creation and redemption.

3. Do younger people knit? Are expressions of craft taking shape differently in different generations? There is research that indicates that younger people are still enjoying discovering knitting. Examples include Tom Daley, the British Olympic diver and Ella Emhoff hosts a knitting club. Equally, there are ways of making, for example digital activism, that are more widely present among younger generations.

4. Was there evidence in your interviews of knitting as a spiritual practice? Yes. I felt I had two groups of participants. One group tended to knit with the television on and were knitting with their attention focused elsewhere. A second group knitted and reflected during the interview that they were intentionally thinking about the person they were knitting for. The interview process helped them realise how this was a material form of prayer for others.

5. (Later in the day.) You talked about the importance in the interviews of grandmothers and mothers. Have you read Kat Armas’s Abuella Faith regarding the role of grandmothers in faith? No, but that is a very helpful suggestion.

My thanks to STAANZ for accepting my paper and for the thoughtful engagement by participants. Now back to writing.

Posted by steve at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium call for papers

A research project I am currently working on ….

Call for papers: Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium
4 April, 2025. Hybrid, alongside a face-to-face gathering at the University of Edinburgh

Digital technology is changing the world. In response to global challenges, diverse grassroots faith-based organisations, indigenous or otherwise, are using digital technologies to activate for justice. These activists draw on contextual wisdom and religious resources and express their activist commitments publicly in social media forums. Some of these organisations describe themselves as indigenous. Others find terms like grassroots more helpful. Academic analysis of these local digital activisms provides ways to learn with and from online theologies that are immediate, provisional and contextual.

We live in a society that places increased importance on visual communication. A feature of grassroots digital activism is the use of visual images to activate for change. These include posting digital images, still and moving, that communicate Indigenous ways of knowing, repurposing memes to elevate local approaches and the use of emojis to centre the visual in activist communication. The visual grammar of digital activism provides rich resources for studying grassroots theologies.

Decolonial methodologies offer ethically formed and academically fruitful ways to research with and among grassroots digital activists. Digital and visual ethnography provides ways to learn with and from local communities. Sharing initial research findings with activists generates further learning in hermeneutical spirals of insight. Case study approaches provide ways to amplify the local and bring diverse contexts into conversation with other local contexts.

The Grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism colloquium invites papers that explore questions around grassroots digital faith-based activism. Themes could include:
• Case studies of faith-based activist organisations from diverse grassroots contexts, Indigenous or otherwise
• Insights from cross-indigenous case study comparisons
• Examination of the theologies present in grassroots digital faith-based activism
• The formation, development, identities and motivations, either of individual activists or grassroots organisations
• The role of gender in grassroots and indigenous digital faith-based activism
• The interplay between local theologies and established theologies
• Theological and ethical issues in the interplay between online and offline identities in activism
• Ways that online images interrogate, destabilise and complexify established hierarchies, whether religious, cultural or political
• Theologies and philosophies present in the grassroots repurposing of memes
• The challenges of activism given the pressures of surveillance, ideologies and political states
• The interplay between online visual identities and Indigenous epistemologies
• The ways that online Indigenous activisms are conceptualising relationships between religious resources and local cultures, religion and science, technologies, or politics

Reflective and evaluative presentations by grassroots faith-based online activist groups are welcomed.

Organisors and supporting groups include:
• Steve Taylor, Director AngelWings Ltd, Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
• Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh, expressing the 2021-2024 Decoloniality research focus.
• Researching Indigenous Studies and Christianity network
• Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Edinburgh
• Centre for Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh

Timeline:
Submissions open: 1 December 2024
Submissions close: 15 January 2025
Acceptance notices by: 1 February 2025
Draft paper of 2000 words by: 21 March 2025

All proposals will be blind peer-reviewed. Face-to-face attendance is not required, as the colloquium organisers will offer different ways to engage across diverse time zones, including paper presentations and breakout discussions. The colloquium is organised with a view to an academic book publication and runs in parallel with a public engagement project that will use podcasting to amplify activist voices (if funding application is successful).

Questions and paper proposals to: Steve Taylor, kiwidrsteve@gmail.com, Director AngelWings Ltd, Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka.

Posted by steve at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

Friday, November 01, 2024

The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations

The Social Impacts of Listening Practices in Religious Organisations: A pilot study*

This project applies research related to the science of listening to analyse how religious practices might contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

In religious settings, the importance of listening is emphasised. A range of religious activities could be said to facilitate listening, including contemplation, confession, examen and lectio divina. However, there is little theoretical or empirical research into the social dynamics surrounding these religious practices. In psychology, there is a growing body of research into the science of listening and how attention, comprehension, and intention contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

Hence, research is needed to understand how selected religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing in religious organisations. This twelve month pilot study will
• undertake a literature review to assess religious practices against the psychological framework of listening structures and listening as attention, comprehension, and intention
• conduct a real-world intervention by offering selected religious practices in small group settings in local religious communities
• conduct mixed-methods research to assess the social impacts of these interventions. Two religious practices will be offered. Quantitative data will be gathered using pre- and post-intervention psychological measures to assess social impact over time. Qualitative data will be gathered from participant observation, participant research diaries and summative focus groups exploring how religious practices contribute to social connection and human flourishing.

Hence, the research project will offer theoretical, practical and foundational benefits. Theoretically, the project creates an interdisciplinary dialogue between listening research in psychology and religious practices. Practically, the project sheds light on how religious practices might foster stronger connections within religious communities. Foundationally, this pilot study will guide further research into the social impact of religious practices.

The research project offers an exciting mix of academic outputs in psychologically-informed theology and research shared with religious communities and religious leaders. Some of the outputs include
• an academic article
• a conference presentation
• an online presentation of findings to interested church leaders
• an online workshop inviting interested researchers and religious leaders to consider further research into the role of listening in community building

For enquiries or to register interest in the online presentation or online workshop, please email s.j.taylor at otago.ac.nz (Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka; Psychology Cross-Training Fellow, University of Birmingham; Director AngelWings Ltd).

*This project was made possible through the support of a grant from John Templeton Foundation, awarded via the grant entitled “New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theology: Training and Developing Science-Engaged Theologians,” University of Birmingham.

Posted by steve at 04:44 PM

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland

I’m delighted to have a chapter proposal accepted for a planned Migration and Religion in Australia and the Pacific volume with Springer Nature, edited by Rev. Dr. Titus S. Olorunnisola, Interim Director of Research at Whitley College, University of Divinity, Melbourne.

migrants

My chapter proposal is the first written output from my 2023 University of Glasgow Library Research Fellowship, where I was able to spend time immersed in a unique archive collection of mission archives at the the Archives and Special Collections of the University of Glasgow. My research fellowship was titled Race, justice and mission. During the archival search, I came across 19 letters written by an indigenous man, who was living in Scotland for two years in the 1860’s undertaking Bible translation work. The letters offer a glimpse of the theological resources that an indigenous migrant brings to their journey of migration.

Here’s the chapter proposal which I submitted a few months ago:

Reverse migration: insights from an 18th-century journey from the Pacific to Scotland

Historical imaginaries of migration to Australia and the Pacific focus on journeys north to south. Motivated by science, commerce and religion, Europeans embarked on so-called “South Sea Voyages.” However, in the corners of the archives are experiences from south to north, as indigenous peoples voyaged north (Brook, 2001; O’Malley, 2015). This paper analyses the experience of Williamu, an indigenous man from Aneitynum, an island in what is now Vanuatu, who lived in Scotland between 1861 and 1862 and worked alongside Rev John Inglis in Bible translation. During his time in Scotland, Williamu wrote nineteen letters, which provide a “vivid picture of the “First Impressions of Britain and its People”” by an indigenous man (Inglis, 1890, p. 317).

Theoretically, these letters open windows into a reverse migration. Missiology uses the term reverse mission (Adogame, 2013) to focus on the role of Christians from the global South in mission to Europe and North America. Williamu’s letters illuminate the role of indigenous peoples in Bible translation. They invite questions about the role of “reverse mission” and power dynamics present in the translation of Scripture. Further, the letters provide insight into the theological resources a migrant used to respond to grief and suffering. In particular, while in Scotland, Williamu hears news of the death of Dora, his wife, from “migratory” diseases. Hence, Williamu’s letters stand as the first written indigenous migrant theodicy of the Pacific. Research into reverse migration is needed to challenge historical imaginaries and foreground indigenous communities’ resources in journeys of migration.

Acknowledgements: The research was made possible by the University of Glasgow, the Archives and Special Collections, the resources of the Trinity College collections, and the award of a Visiting Library Research Fellowship in 2023.

Posted by steve at 09:20 AM

Thursday, October 10, 2024

listening as community building in public spaces

It was great to begin a research side project yesterday and sit at a public community event doing some ethnography.

The side project is researching the science of listening and social connection, seeking to understand what happens when adults gather for an hour to have great literature read aloud. It is a pro-bono AngelWings Ltd project that complements and localises my Birmingham University/John Templeton Cross-training research into the social impact of listening in community organisations.

This research side project will use a mix of methods, including observation and interviews with readers and listeners. So yesterday involved not only observing, but also introducing myself and the research with information and consent forms.

Hence, the photo is of a brand new research journal and pen for taking notes, along with consent forms and information.

For those who want to know more about the project and the connections I am making between researching listening and community building, see here.

Posted by steve at 08:42 AM

Thursday, October 03, 2024

the fun of research coding Ordinary knitters

Today was fun.

Today was a research coding day.

Today was out with the coloured highlighters and A3 sheets of paper, seeking threads and weave in focus group interviews in the Ordinaryknitters project.

After the toil of transcribing and cleaning transcripts, today was about the joy of making patterns, listening to people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces.

I know there are computer programmes to help with coding. There are the cheap options ranging from highlighter and comment functions on Word, through to paid software like NVivo.

But somehow getting off screen is vitalising. Perhaps it’s because I’m analysing the words and thoughts of knitters, for whom the tactile is so present in their theology and practice.

Perhaps its the physical detaching in which words on paper are seen in different ways that words on a screen. And so new ways of seeing and linking emerge.

Today was fun. A reminder that any research project has moments of creativity and colour.

Posted by steve at 07:29 PM

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Visualising online climate change activism: public eco-theologies in grassroots climate-justice organisations accepted

I’m delighted to have news overnight of a journal article about my research into grassroots digital activism accepted for publication with Theology (UK based journal). The article is scheduled for publication early in 2025.

This is the first piece of writing from my Edinburgh IASH Fellowship sojourn in June and July this year. The article outlines my novel contribution to the study of digital activism, visual images, and the construction of public eco-theologies. The research in the article draws on the social media of two UK climate justice groups as illustrative.

It’s nice to take topics like activism and social media into a journal committed to broadening knowledge of contemporary theological studies.

Posted by steve at 09:48 AM

Friday, September 20, 2024

Reading Allowed and aloud: Cultivating listening structures in a literary city

Paper acceptance!

I’m thrilled to have a paper accepted for Books and the city: the 2024 Otago Centre for the Book Annual Symposium (21-22 November, 2024). The symposium is local, so that’s always a bonus.

My paper applies “listening structures,” a theoretical framework I’ve been reading around as part of my University of Birmingham, Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Programme for Theologians, to a local activity – Reading Allowed – that I’ve enjoyed being part of for the last few years.

Paper title: “Reading Allowed” and aloud: Cultivating listening structures in a literary city

This paper analyses the benefits of reading books aloud in public city spaces. Qualitative research is used to investigate the social impact of “Reading Allowed” as a collective listening structure.

“Reading Allowed” is an event that runs monthly on the ground floor of the Dunedin Public Library. Since 2022, people have gathered in the late afternoon to hear stories for all ages. For 60 minutes, readers from the University of Otago and Friends of the Library introduce and share excerpts from classic and contemporary literature.

Listening structures is a phrase used by organisational psychologist Guy Itzchakov (2024) to advance the science of listening. Listening structures refer to the processes and practices that build the human capacity to pay attention, deepen comprehension, and amplify intention (Kluger and Guy Itzchakov, 2022). Hence, listening structures contribute to social relationships and collective flourishing between individuals and organisations.

This paper considers “Reading Allowed” as a listening structure. It draws from the researcher’s ethnographic participation as a listener at “Reading Allowed,” along with interviewing readers and listeners. Attention, comprehension, and intention are themes used to analyse the qualitative data.

New ways to conceptualise the places of books in a “literary city” are provided when “Reading Allowed” is theorised as a listening structure. The research is theoretically important in advancing scholarship regarding the public nature of listening structures. The research also has practical application for those who care about books in the lives of cities and their citizens.

Dr Steve Taylor,
Director AngelWings Ltd; Research Affiliate, University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
IASH Research Fellow, Edinburgh University

Posted by steve at 04:34 PM

Monday, September 16, 2024

Knitting as public theological witness

Researching Ordinary Knitters – people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces – has been a research side project for me since August 2021. This paper, if accepted, will be the first public articulation of data.

A paper proposal: Knitting as public theological witness

LOUDFence knitted strawberries, Newcastle 2024

This paper examines the ways in which acts of making are public theology. Matthew Engelke has researched how the Bible Society in the United Kingdom is active in public domains. He uses “ambient faith” as an analytical tool to theorise Christian activity that challenges the political and civic constraints imposed by the modern secular imaginary.

This paper applies “ambient faith” to recent practices of knitting in which Christians have been publicly active through yarnbombing and social activism. This paper draws on interviews with fifty knitters in four countries, along with participant observation of public interactions with several knitted projects, including visible displays of solidarity with those affected by abuse. While knitting is commonly seen as a domestic activity, done in private spaces, this paper describes how making offers new ways of relating and gives voice, particularly to lay women. Making as “ambient witness” offers new ways to think about the nature of public theology and Christian witness.

Posted by steve at 12:06 PM

Monday, August 12, 2024

Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology published in Theology Today

I’m delighted with news of a journal article published with Theology Today, a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal connected to Princeton Theological Seminary.

Steve Taylor, “Ordinary Time Festivals: An Application of Wisdom Ecclesiology,” Theology Today (here). (It’s behind a paywall and I can provide an accepted version if folk don’t have institutional access).

Its been quite the writing journey. It began with some thoughts on festival spirituality in my 2005 The Out of Bounds Church? book. During 2018, I began reading theologian Amy Platinga Pauw, particularly her Bible commentary on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and her book Church in Ordinary Time: A Wisdom Ecclesiology. I wondered if her work on the doctrine of creation and her proposal for a wisdom ecclesiology could make sense of how churches engage in community festivals.

To develop my proposal, I used empirical research of three festivals – a harvest festival in Scotland, a Blessing of the Fleece service at a craft festival in Australia and a neighbourhood festival in Aotearoa New Zealand. I outlined the different ways in which these festivals provided concrete examples of new ways by which the church might theologically participate in their communities today.

I submitted the article around the middle of 2021. It was accepted early in 2022 and was finally! published online this week. I really enjoyed creating a dialogue between theology and qualitative research and was delighted to have the peer reviewers called it “interesting,” “helpful,” and “novel.”

Here’s the conclusion:

Hence, ordinary festivals provide imaginative possibilities for faith communities today. Instead of the present festive barrenness of ordinary time, new opportunities emerge. In ways similar to how the church puts energy into the seasons of Advent and Lent and the festivals of Christmas and Easter, the church can put energy in ordinary time into wisdom festivals. The church turns outward, finding imaginative ways to join hands with God’s ongoing work in creation, making ordinary time good news for church and world. A church could join an existing community festival, like Spin and Fibre, using Pauw’s themes to offer a distinct liturgical presence. A church could, like CompassionFest, offer ‘initiatory’ capacity for a new community festival. This would begin by paying attention through placemaking. The church could enrich existing festivals, for example, exploring ways that a harvest festival might deepen faith formation. As Jesus grew in faith through Passover, so Pauw’s six themes become similarly generative, deepening discipleship during ordinary time. Wisdom ecclesiology becomes a distinct resource, offering a Biblically formed and flourishing praxis of delight, wonder, and perseverance.

Posted by steve at 06:12 PM

Friday, August 09, 2024

knitting is gendered

With Tom Daley knitting at the Paris Olympics, 3 years on from his knitting at the Tokyo Olympics, there is a fascinating article in The Conversation:

Knitting helps Tom Daley switch off. Its mental health benefits are not just for Olympians

The article notes the benefits of knitting for wellbeing and for community. The article also names the gendered nature of knitting. Knitting is an activity, usually done by older women, and normally at home. Each of these three reasons – wellbeing, community and gender – are reasons why I’m researching Ordinary knitters – people who have knitted for church projects. I am seeking to understand what happens when an activity, associated with women, is taken from the home to public places as an expression of Christian witness.

Ordinary knitters participants

To date I’ve interviewed over 50 people, including people who have knitted Christmas angels to yarnbomb in their neighbourhoods, climate scarves to give to politicians and LOUDfence strawberries to express solidarity with survivors of church abuse. Given that only two of my participants have been male, knitting is clearly gendered.

What is fascinating is how in different ways, a hobby that is domestic and private is being made public. There is Christmas love made visible in streets and parks, concerns for future generations expressed in politicians offices and the secrecy that surrounds abuse made visible in public places. Knitting becomes a way for women to express a public theology.

Posted by steve at 05:15 PM

Saturday, August 03, 2024

Cross-training and research capacity

image of crosstraining

I’ve been privileged to spend the last two weeks at the University of Birmingham, participating in the Psychology Cross-training Fellowship Programme for Theologians. The fields of psychology and theology have multiple points of shared interest. These include what it means to be human and relate to the world around us. Yet often the worlds of psychology and theology talk past one another. Hence the Cross-training Fellowship, funded by John Templeton Foundation.

The Fellowship runs for 16 months and is structured to include

  • an initial two week intensive
  • monthly online training
  • a contestable grant to undertake new research
  • a mid-point one week workshop
  • a final gathering to share research

The two week intensive has involved training in research methods, introduction to current developments in social psychology and workshopping a research project in psychologically engaged theology. It’s been full on, 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

Some highlights for me include:

  • some really helpful professional development, particularly around research empirical methods and open-science. I use plenty of empirical methods in my work with AngelWings Ltd, as we use different research methods to serve the church. So it was superb to have 3 days listening to current best practice
  • space and support in thinking about a research project, supported by a small grant. The support included space to present a possible project, followed by feedback both shared and immediate, and individual in the days following. Having a concrete research project possibility helped to focus attention and provide inspiration
  • plenty of formal and informal opportunities to build connections with others interested in interdisciplinary research. These include the other 18 fellows. It also includes networking with theologians and psychology academics. I suspect that connection-making will deepen and interweave even more over the next 16 months and beyond
  • the greenery of English summers and the long evenings, in particular the Winterbourne Gardens.

It’s been a rich, intense and engaging experience, for which I’m very grateful to the organisors and funders. I am looking forward over the next few weeks and months to experiencing how the doing of a small research project can further build capacity around interdisciplinary research. That begins with an grant application process. But first, the long trek back to Aotearoa beckons.

Posted by steve at 04:17 AM