Abstract

The governing questions of this project are: How would the insights of John Dewey regarding problematic situations and his understanding of art assist us in the field of practical theology? What are the benefits of seeing practical theology as art? For Dewey, art is a modality under which challenges are addressed and experience reaches fulfillment and consummation. Dewey offers "art" as a conceptual tool that has a double intentionality: art as a mode of communication and art as a metaphor for understanding the means by which ordinary experience reached fulfillment in the "creation of a new experience." ;I explore how Dewey uses inquiry to move from problematic, indeterminate situation to one which manifests the unity and harmony indicative of a consummatory experience. I examine Dewey's Art as Experience as a resource for practical theology. Here Dewey endeavors to explicate esthetic experience by returning to ordinary experience, particularly an experience, in an effort to link "fine art" to the things of everyday experience. ;Dewey's "art products," i.e., his poems wherein he intensifies, clarifies, and communicates his feelings about his relationship with Anzia Yezierska, are investigated. The "creation of a new experience" regarding Dewey by Yezierska, in her short stories and novels, is also addressed. ;The work of contemporary thinkers is explored as examples of the use of art's "double intentionality": Volney Gay demonstrates the art product's capacity to create "emotional affordance" for reparation and growth; Donald Schon uses art primarily as a generative metaphor in understanding "how professionals think in action"; and John Patton addresses how the expression of "meaning-full" experiences in writing brings about "a felt shift," mirroring Dewey's understanding of consummatory experiences. ;I offer some of the possible benefits of seeing practical theology as art. I also attempt to answer the questions: What would it mean to see pastoral care and counseling as art? and How does one teach practical theology as art?