ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 develops methodology for practical theological study of poetry in Reflective Practice, proposing a poetics for empirical theology which integrates five dimensions: appreciation of poetry’s claims for itself as reflective form; innovative methodological theory configuring Practical Theology as a poetic enterprise; methodological insights from Poetic Inquiry combining empirical research with poetic practice; forging analogical connections between creative imagination and Practical Theology, exploring poet and researcher as bricoleur as a motif for practical theological inquiry; and reflecting on the author’s auto-ethnographic poems from practitioner research, showing the value of poetry as a language and form for reflexivity in ethnographic inquiry in professional practice. The chapter commends a poetical dynamic to resource Practical Theology as an hermeneutical practice of critical, creative, transformative engagement with lived reality which is of particular relevance for ethnographic research in professional practice, where the researching professional will be conscious of ‘insider-outsider’ status.
