Die noodsaak van die verrekening van metateoretiese vertrekpunte in prakties-teologiese wetenskapsbeoefening

Abstract

The necessity of reckoning withmetatheoretical assumptions in scientific practical-theological research
This article is the first in the research project “Metatheoretical assumptions in Practical Theology”. The research problem has to do with the lack of explicitexpression of metatheoretical assumptions against the background of a plurality in scientific approaches to the discipline. Sometimes researchers do not explicity state their theological and other approaches. In this project a group of reformed practical theologians explicitly state their metatheoretical theological and other perspectives and explain their vantage points inresearching the praxis. The necessity to explain metatheoretical assumptions pertaining to the assumptions about reality, the hermeneutical process in understanding, explaining and changing actions in praxis, and the nature and task of scientificresearch, is discussed from a reformed perspective.