Contextual Theology
A very significant paradigmatic shift has been occurring across the world with regard to how theology is understood and this shift has been very evident in the UK between 1986 and 2007. 
The Church of England report Faithful Cities (2006) explained that during those twenty years theology had been influenced very significantly by urban practitioners of this discipline which had led us away from thinking of theology as a set of pre-constructed formulae which are then ‘applied’ to a situation and into a realisation that since God is already in the situations we experience, that if we study those situations we will learn more about God and that hands-on learning will be ‘doing theology’. This ‘Contextual Theology’ is often misunderstood and many institutions and theologians who claim to offer contextual theology are actually still working the old ‘applied theology’ mode without realising it. Laurie Green wrote Power to the Powerless in 1987 and it was chosen by the Church Times as one of its Books of the Year. Eric James wrote that it was the first true example of a base ecclesial church group doing contextual theology that he knew and visiting theologians from Latin America said the same about the parish work on which the book was based. Since that time Laurie Green has written Let’s Do Theology (1990) which remains a set text on Contextual Theology in many theology courses around the world. He has led many seminars on this subject and during his time as principle of the Aston Training Scheme helped hundreds of theological students to come to terms with what it is to start ones theologising from the experience which God gives us.
Let's Do Theology
Resources for Contextual Theology
To be published by Continuum
Let’s Do Theology has now been completely re-written and revised since it was first published some twenty years ago. It was then called ‘a seminal book’ and this new edition is set to become the key text for all who wish to do theology in an exciting and transformative way. Accessible and practical, whilst at the same time addressing the key questions about the nature and challenges of theology, this book will enable new readers to bring together their faith and their life’s issues, and also help students of theology face the challenge of how even academic theology can be life-transforming.
Oral Culture and the World of Words, A paper given at the Theological Education by Extension Forum Conference, January 1998
Oral Culture and the World of Words, Theology, September 1999 (shorter version of a paper at given at the Theological Education by Extension Forum Conference, January 1998)
Introducing 'Political Theology', January 2002
Enriching our Theology, Lincoln Diocesan Day, 2005
The Trinity and the Local Church, Willesden Episcopal Area Conference, Swanwick, October 1997
Show us the Father, Sermon at Brentwood School, January 1999
Common Religion Today, A lecture at Manchester Cathedral, February 1999
Let's do Theology: a pastoral cycle resource book, Cassell, 1990; reprinted by Continuum, ISBN 0-8264-6095-X
Laurie Green, for several years The Director of the Aston Scheme for pre-theological training, is ambitious for theology. He wants to bring it out of the closet, or the scholar's den, and into the world where people wrestle with the problems which radically affect their lives and the lives of those around them.
The teaching of Jesus sprang from real situations - a rich young man who wanted to know whom to help, a woman caught in adultery, rivalry and ambition among his followers; it also sprang from the religious tradition he knew well. Laurie Green shows how theology today can spring from the meeting of real situations with our understanding of tradition and reveals exactly how to do this, using the pastoral cycle: Experience - Exploration - Reflection - Response.
When people ask about how the so-called ordinary church person does theology, I think sometimes of one of Moliere's comedies where one of the central figures is suddenly told by another that he has been talking prose all his life, he is terribly excited, he never realized that he did anything so exalted as talking prose, and I think sometimes in the ministry you find yourself or I find myself telling people they are talking theology. My own parochial experience, such as it is, has been mostly in post-war council estate contexts.
I found a great enthusiasm for reflecting on the sorts of human priorities that being a Christian entailed, a real enthusiasm for making connections between the texts that were being read on Sundays and the sort of decisions faced in the week, and what was to me a very moving awareness which many people shared in a quite inarticulate way of the Holy Communion as central, and I think those people were doing theology.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales
Power to the Powerless - Theology Brought to Life, Marshall Pickering, 1987, ISBN 0-551-01570-1
David Sheppard introducesthis unique and stimulating book which challenges our understanding of what theology is, who it is for, and calls into question the whole pattern of theological training and Christian Ministry.
POWER TO THE POWERLESS traces what happens when theology is lifted out of the confines of academia and is placed in the hands of ordinary Christians in a working class parish in Birmingham.
Exploring the meaning of the parables for their own inner-city setting, they draw out a stunning analysis of the urban dilemma and discover a moving, powerful theology with which to confront and change the problems which blight peoples' lives and make the teachings of Jesus live in their locality.