Theology and the researching professional

Abstract

This article seeks to give a brief account and evaluation of an innovative collaborative project in theological eduation in the UK — the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology (DPT), on which there are currently some fifty students in three universities (Anglia Ruskin with the Cambridge Theological Federation, Birmingham and Manchester. The University of Wales Lampeter has validated but currently not recruited). After a brief introduction describing the project, now in its third year, the article addresses three questions — why this work is ‘theological’, what we have learned in doing it about the appropriate supervision of candidates, and how such professional research can be subversive.