ABSTRACT
At the start of the life of Practical Theology, as it emerged organically from Contact: Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, the Editorial Board was committed to embracing, honouring and representing in the journal three overlapping forms of theology: pastoral theology, practical theology, and public theology. This was and is important, as there was a fear around that a move to the terminology of ‘practical theology’, allied to a determination that this new journal should be able to carry the weight of being the journal of choice for those in the academic field of practical theology, would alienate the journal from pastoral practitioners, and make it uninteresting and inaccessible to them. Over the last ten years the scene has hugely changed, with both the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology and the journal itself now replete with those who are both practitioners and academically reflective – reflective practitioners and researching professionals, sometimes, but not always, engaged in work for a DMin, DProf or other form of research and writing in practical theology.
