Concluding Words for Beginning: (Re)Creating the World through Scholarship

Abstract

There are three methodological insights I hope this book will contribute to the way in which scholarship is envisioned and created: First, qualitative methods such as those found in ethnography are helpful and needed tools for grounding and evaluating theological and ethical claims. How does a given theological construct relate to the lives and experiences of members of faith communities who are not professional theologians or ethicists? How do people embody, challenge, and practice—make actively real—the theological and/or normative claims put forward by scholarship or public policy? Stated more strongly, practical engagement is not only helpful, but it is also morally incumbent upon us as scholars. We need to test what we think not only against what others write but against what others live.