Our SPTSA 2026 Conference will be hosted at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria from 20 to 22 January.

Theme: Practical Theology’s “Homecoming”

The field of Practical Theology is marked by its commitment to engage lived experience, foster justice, and cultivate meaningful theological reflection within contemporary contexts. As global realities continue to shift—ecologically, politically, socially, and spiritually—there is an urgent call to revisit, reimagine, and re-root our theological endeavours. In light of this, we invite scholars, practitioners, and researchers to reflect on Practical Theology’s “Homecoming”: a symbolic and literal return to the spaces, relationships, and values that foster belonging, encounter, and flourishing.

This year’s conference seeks to convene diverse voices across the various strands of Practical Theology to consider what it means to “come home”—as a theological act, a social imperative. We welcome papers that engage theological scholarship with empirical insight, interdisciplinary rigour, and constructive imagination. We encourage contributions that engage, but are not limited to, the following sub-themes:

1. Practical Theology and Human Flourishing
How does your specific practical theological discipline contribute to human flourishing within today’s complex global environment? Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• Engagement with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Implementation of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want
• Theological frameworks for promoting social cohesion, mental health, ecological justice, and peacebuilding

2. Making Others Feel at Home in the World
How is your discipline actively shaping inclusive spaces of welcome, dignity, and belonging for those on the margins? Contributions may explore:
• Theological engagement with LGBTQI+ identities and faith communities
• Disability theology and ecclesial inclusion
• Pastoral responses to family diversity (e.g., single-parent households, blended families)
• Migration, asylum, and spiritual care

3. Encountering the Other: Hospitality and Dialogue
How does your practical theological tradition or method facilitate authentic encounter across boundaries? We are especially interested in:
• Ecumenical and interfaith initiatives fostering shared dialogue and cooperation
• Practices of radical hospitality within local and global ecclesial contexts
• Participatory models of ministry and community development

You may submit your abstract using the above navigation by selecting the “Call for Papers” tab on the right of this page’s tab.

Chairperson’s Welcoming Address

Colleagues, scholars, practitioners, postgraduate students, and friends of the Society,

As Chair of the Society of Practical Theology in South Africa, and on behalf of the Executive, I warmly welcome you to our 2026 conference. We are grateful for your presence and for the scholarly work you bring to this gathering. Your participation reflects a shared commitment to a discipline that remains attentive to lived faith, critical inquiry, and public responsibility within our context. I also wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria, the Dean, the Head of Department, and the organising committee for hosting this conference and for the care and dedication that have gone into its preparation.

The theme “Practical Theology’s Homecoming” calls us to a moment of careful and critical self-reflection. Homecoming, in this sense, is not a return to familiarity or comfort, but an invitation to examine the trajectories of the discipline -: how its questions have been framed, how its methods have developed, and how it remains accountable to the contexts in which it is practised. To speak of homecoming is therefore to acknowledge that Practical Theology is always formed within concrete social realities and that its task is to engage these realities with intellectual responsibility and contextual attentiveness.

Thinking of homecoming metaphorically may help to deepen this reflection. Home is not simply a place one returns to; it is a space that is continually made and sustained. It is shaped by relationships, boundaries, practices of care, and conditions of safety. While home can signify belonging and shelter, it can also be fragile, contested, or unevenly experienced. In this sense, homecoming is not merely about arrival, but about discerning what kind of home is being inhabited, and for whom.

This question becomes especially significant when we consider the experiences of women and children within ecclesial spaces. If the church is to be named as home, Practical Theology must ask whether it has been, and continues to be, a place of safety, dignity, and flourishing for those who are most vulnerable. Questions of voice, power, protection, and agency are not peripheral concerns; they are central to how faith is embodied and practised. A theology that speaks of home without attending to these realities risks confusing familiarity with faithfulness.

From a practical-theological perspective, this invites sustained attention to how ecclesial systems, leadership cultures, pastoral practices, and ritual forms shape experiences of belonging and exclusion. Homecoming, understood in this way, is a critical process, one that involves examining how faith communities construct spaces of care and responsibility, how silence is maintained or disrupted, and how accountability is practised. It also asks how Practical Theology might assist the church in moving beyond symbolic notions of home toward practices that are attentive, protective, and life-giving.

At the same time, homecoming must not be reduced to critique alone. Metaphorically, home is also a site of learning, repair, and re-commitment. It is where practices are reshaped, relationships re-negotiated, and futures imagined. Practical Theology’s homecoming, therefore, may be understood as a disciplined return to the everyday practices of faith – listening, accompaniment, ritual, and care, through which communities are continually formed and re-formed.

As the SPTSA, our responsibility is to foster scholarship that holds these tensions together: belonging and critique, care and accountability, tradition and transformation. This conference provides a space for rigorous engagement, careful listening, and shared discernment about how Practical Theology might more faithfully inhabit its home, academically, ecclesially, and publicly.

Once again, as Chair and on behalf of the Executive, I welcome you to the 2026 conference of the Society of Practical Theology in South Africa. May our conversations be intellectually rigorous, ethically attentive, and oriented toward forms of practice that enable faith to be experienced as a home marked by care, responsibility, and hope.

Thank you, and I wish you a fruitful conference.

Chairperson’s Closing Remarks

As we bring this 2026 conference of the Society of Practical Theology in South Africa to a close, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to all members of the Society for your thoughtful participation and scholarly engagement. Over the past days, we have been privileged to listen to highly prepared and stimulating presentations from our keynote speakers and presenters, whose work has challenged our assumptions, introduced new conceptual insights, and enriched our understanding of the theme “Practical Theology’s Homecoming.” The conversations we have shared have not only deepened our academic reflection, but have also opened new pathways for how Practical Theology might continue to engage lived realities with intellectual rigour, ethical attentiveness, and pastoral responsibility.

As we reflect on these discussions, we are also left with important questions that must guide our work going forward. How might Practical Theology continue to renew itself as a discipline that is attentive to the complexities of human life in our societies? How do we ensure that our scholarship remains connected to the everyday struggles, hopes, and aspirations of the communities we seek to serve? And how might we strengthen the public relevance of Practical Theology so that it contributes meaningfully to addressing the human, social, and spiritual challenges present in all corners of our society?

Our sincere gratitude goes to our hosts, the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria, for the warm hospitality extended to us throughout the conference, including the wonderful dinner generously sponsored by the Faculty. We also extend a special word of appreciation to Professor Letsosa for his remarkable leadership and unwavering presence throughout the conference, and to the Executive for the collective work that ensured its success. As you return to your respective provinces and institutions, I wish you God’s richest blessings and journey mercies. May the insights and questions from this conference continue to shape our scholarship and practice in the year ahead.

Thank you and travel safely.