A Strategic Practical Theology for Developing the Christian Imagination
By (Author) Dr. Katrina J. Olson
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
22nd January 2026
United States
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Worship, rites, ceremonies and rituals
Theology
Hardback
282
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
This book explores worships social developmental impact in shaping the lifeworld of its participants. Using a model called coorienation, the author demonstrates how to evaluate the interaction of roles and symbols within an embodied imagination context. This type of analysis not only exposes limiting or harmful patterns to remove or rework, but it reveals ways to create wide and edifying invitations through preaching and liturgical elements. Going beyond a simple constructive inquiry, this model makes room for the transformational experiences of worshippers and the phenomenological realities of the Holy Other as an active participant. By critically examining worship through this lens, leaders can gain knowledge to craft settings that aim for these profound encounters that deepen relationships with God, with others, and with ourselves. In this way we can embrace the multiplicity of roles and relationships littered throughout our world, uniting in a polyphonic existence that reverberates in concert with Gods own tremendous multifaceted Being.
Katrina J. Olson is visiting assistant professor of homiletics and pastoral theology at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkely, CA.