Professor Elaine Graham

Grosvenor Research Professor of Practical Theology

I joined the University as Grosvenor Research Professor of Practical Theology in November 2009. Prior to that, I was Samuel Ferguson Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology at the University of Manchester.

Telephone	01244 511465
Email	e.graham@chester.ac.uk

Qualifications

BSc, MA, PhD, FRSA

Overview

As a practical theologian, I see myself working at the interface of theology and practice. I am interested in the relationship between people's beliefs and values, and their actions. I started my research career looking at the impact of gender theory on the discipline of pastoral studies within the Western Christian tradition. An early project explored how perceptions of the pastoral needs of women during the twentieth century tended to stereotype them as wives and mothers. In the early 1990s I co-edited Life-Cycles: Women and Pastoral Care (SPCK, 1993) which for the first time in the UK brought together new writers offering feminist perspectives in pastoral theology.

Meanwhile, I was developing a more elaborate critique of how theories of gender within the human sciences might transform understandings of the nature of pastoral and theological practice. This culminated in two works: Making the Difference: Gender, Personhood and Theology (1995) and Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty (1996: reissued in 2002 by Wipf and Stock).

From there, via an interest in religion and the body, I started to think about the interface of theology and technology, examining how popular culture and scientific discourses provide us with understandings of what it means to be human in a digital, biotechnological and cybernetic age - see Representations of the Post/Human (2002) and a special edition of Theology and Sexuality, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2004. As credal and institutional religion recedes, we may see popular culture becoming ever more important as a mediation of spiritual and religious themes, something I have explored in a number of recent articles (see list of publications). . I am currently working on issues of public theology, and whether in what might be termed a ‘post-Christian, post-secular' society, religion has any legitimate role in public life.

Some of my best-known work addresses the (sometimes vexed) field of ‘theological reflection', which attempts to reconnect practical theology with the history of Christian doctrine. Theological Reflection: Methods (with Heather Walton and Frances Ward, 2005) argues that theological discourse and debate have always been motivated by practical, pastoral and ethical questions and contexts.

Throughout all this I have exercised a continuing interest in urban theology and the contribution of faith-based organizations to civil society. I was a member of the Commission on Urban Life and Faith, a multi-faith and ecumenical group convened by the Church of England, whose report was published as Faithful Cities: a Call for Celebration, Vision and Justice (2006). With Stephen Lowe, a fellow member of CULF, I collaborated on a book entitled What Makes a Good City? Public Theology and the Urban Church (2009), which continues the reflection on the contribution of the Church to contemporary society.

I am also Programme Leader for our professional doctorate (Doctor of Professional Studies) in Practical Theology, which offers students from a wide range of occupational and professional contexts the chance to develop their own practice-based theological research projects.

Published work

Words Made Flesh: Writings in Practical and Pastoral Theology. London: SCM Press, March 2009, xvii + 366pp, 978-0-334-04194-8.
Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens and Others in Popular Culture. Studies in Religion, Culture and Gender, Manchester University Press and Rutgers University Press, 2002, xi 259pp, 0-7190-5442-7.
Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty. London: Mowbray, 1996, 234pp. (Reprinted edition, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002, 1-57910-922-5).
Making the Difference: Gender, Personhood and Theology. London: Mowbray and Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995, 260pp, 0-264-67346-8.

In Preparation

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Public Theology in a Post-Secular Age. SCM Press, 2013.

Jointly-authored works

(with Stephen Lowe) What Makes a Good City? Public Theology and the Urban Church. London: DLT, 2009, xxiii + 175pp, 978-0-232-52748-3.
Theological Reflection: Volume I, Methods, with Heather Walton and Frances Ward. London: SCM Press, 2005, iv + 250pp, 0-334-02976-7.

Edited works

(with J.R. Atherton and I. Steedman) The Practices of Happiness: Political Economy, Religion and Wellbeing, Routledge, 2010.
(ed.) Grace Jantzen: Redeeming the Present. London: Ashgate, 2009.
(with P.M. Scott and C.R. Baker) Remoralizing Britain? Political, Ethical and Theological perspectives on New Labour. London and New York: Continuum, 2009, 255pp.
(with H. Walton and F. Ward) Theological Reflection: Volume II, Sources. London: SCM Press (a reader of primary sources to complement Methods), September 2007, viii + 455pp.
(with Anna Rowlands) Pathways to the Public Square, Proceedings of 2003 International Academy of Practical Theology, Manchester. Münster: Lit Verlag, International Practical Theology Vol. 1, 2005.
(with Esther D. Reed) The Future of Christian Social Ethics: Essays on the work of Ronald H. Preston, 1913-2001, Special issue of Studies in Christian Ethics, 17:2, September 2004.
(with Chris Baker) Religious Capital in Regenerating Communities, Proceedings of launch conference of Manchester Centre for Public Theology, Manchester: William Temple Foundation/Northwest Development Agency, 2004.
(with M. Halsey) Life-Cycles: Women and Pastoral Care. London: SPCK, 1993.

Journal Articles

‘A Remembrance of Things (Best) Forgotten: the ‘allegorical past’ and the feminist imagination’, Feminist Theology, forthcoming.
‘Being, making, imagining: toward a practical theology of technology’, Culture and Religion, 10:2, 2009, 221-236.
‘A Window on the Soul: Four Politicians on Politics and Religion’ International Journal of Public Theology 3 (2), 2009, 141-160.
‘Health, Wealth or Wisdom? Religion and the Paradox of Prosperity’, International Journal of Public Theology 3 (1), 2009, 5-23.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

‘Feminist Theory’, for Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology ed. B.M. Miller-McLemore, Oxford and New York: Blackwell, 2011, 204-213.
‘Religious Literacy and Public Service Broadcasting: Constructing a Research Agenda’, in ed. G. Lynch and J. Mitchell, Religion, Popular Culture and Everyday Life, London: Routledge, 2011, 228-235.
‘Establishment, Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion’, in ed. M. Chapman, The Future of Establishment, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2011, 124-140.
(with Andrew Davey), ‘Inhabiting the Good City: the Politics of Hate and the Urbanisms of Hope’, in eds. C. Baker and J. Beaumont, Post-Secular Cities, Ashgate, 2011, 120-134.
‘Theology, Place and Human Flourishing’ in M. Higton (ed). Theology and Human Flourishing: Essays in Honour of Timothy Gorringe, Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011.
‘The Virtuous Circle: religion and the practices of happiness’ in The Practices of Happiness: Political Economy, Religion and Wellbeing, eds. Atherton, J.R., Graham, E.L. and Steedman, I. (London: Routledge), 2010, 224-234.
‘Redeeming the Present’ in Grace Jantzen: Redeeming the Present, ed. E.L. Graham (London: Ashgate), 2009, 1-11.