수사학적 관점에서 본 실천신학과 교회갱신

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Recently, together with some other movements, the emergence of a new rhetoric reveals the necessity of critical reflection on practical theology as an academic discipline. As rhetoric of inquiry implies, awareness of hidden assumptions and values, both of which underlie languages, arguments, and communication in the Christian community, provides us with valuable clues or perspectives for scrutinizing every facet of practical theology, including norms, rules, and theories. Based on this understanding of new rhetoric, this paper attempted to examine what sort of implications these explorations of new rhetoric could provide concerning practical theology. More specifically, this paper explored three questions. 1) what is the distinctive role of practical theology among theological disciplines in terms of rhetoric of inquiry? 2) What is the plausible relationship between practical theology and rhetoric? and 3) how can we reflect on language and arguments of practical theology which have prescribed traditional Christian ministry and life? First, as its rhetoric of inquiry, practical theology should no longer be categorized as merely a technical or applied practical area within theological disciplines. Rather one should recognize that practical theology has to do with intrinsic questions of the meaning of the Christian faith, basic arguments on the significance of theological practice, and the role of the church in this pluralistic society. Practical theology can be characterized as interdependence (intersubjective) discourse between speaker and audience, practical knowing and practice, and critical reflection. Moreover, practical theology can be defined as the mode of discourse that seeks to empirically describe, intersubjectively interpret, critically assess and pragmatically shape the rules of art of Christian practice in a pluralistic religious communities and the world. Secondly, regarding the possible relationship between rhetoric and practical theology, the understanding of the new rhetoric leads us to redefine the practical theology. Instead of minister oriented (speaker oriented), persuasion or rationality which stems from only abstract logic, in formulating rules of art, intersubjective discourse between ministers and church members, between counsellors and counsellors, and between Christian educators and students could widen practical theology more effectively and persuasively. Thirdly, regarding reflection of practical theology, the new rhetoric of inquiry encourages us to examine languages and arguments which have been uncritically used within the Christian community. A fuller examination of historical transformation of rhetorical inquiry is of worth for the critical reflection of practical theology, because both rhetoric and practical theology have been interdependent and mutually reinforcing in terms of persuasive argument. Even though this critical correlation between rhetoric and practical theology might lead us to so-called deconstructive relativism, however, this examination of rhetoric in the discussion of practical theology gives us the possibility to overcome these conflicts between theory and practice, abstract logic and concrete activity, and traditional norms and lived experience of practical theology in this pluralistic society and church.