The Association of Practical Theology (APT) is the primary professional organization in the United States for practical theologians and for all those interested in the ways that religious and theological studies attune to, and are attuned by, ecclesial and cultural practices. (Full disclosure: I'm on the Executive Committee.) Because many readers of this blog are in the Northeast U.S. and are interested in practice-based theologies, I want to let you know of the upcoming biennial conference of the APT, to be held at Boston University from 9 April through 11 April, 2010. There is a Call for Papers posted on the APT website (here) with a deadline of 23 October 2009, under the theme "The Academy and the Faith Community: Possibilities and Limitations of Partnership in Practical Theology." I look forward to seeing many of you there, and with no bias intended toward the majority of practical theologians who are Protestant (look, some of my best friends are Protestants), I am eager in particular to see a strong Catholic showing to represent the substantial and rising interest of Catholic theologians and pastoral ministers in the domains of practical theology. Theology, many are learning, may indeed be (more or less) systematic, but it also has its generation in, and its contribution toward, practices ecclesial and cultural. That and how this is the case is the focus of much conversation today in practice-based theologies, and the APT will again attempt to further the conversation this spring.

Tom Beaudoin

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States