Abstract
This collection of 19 fragments from poet and practical theologian Nicola Slee spans a 12-year period in her writing and speaking life. The earliest is a talk given to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement’s annual meeting in 2008, and the latest is a contribution to a recent book edited by Jayme R. Reaves, David Tombs and Rocio Figueroa Alvear exploring Jesus’ identity as a victim of sexual abuse. Along the way we encounter theology through talks and essays, sermons and poetry – a rich mix that reflects Slee’s approach to practical theology, which is deeply grounded in theory, in personal experience, and in the communal praying and practising life of the Church.
Slee’s writing is never less than engaging and is frequently beautiful. As is to be expected in any varied collection, there are fragments that will be more or less successful at lodging under the skin of the individual reader. I found myself particularly drawn to her reflections on spiritual overwhelmings in Chapter 6, and to her reflection on the one particular overwhelming experience of an emotionally and spiritually gruelling visit of witness to Srebrenica in Chapter 11. In both these pieces, Slee’s identities as poet and theologian, faithful Christian and academic, deeply resonate with each other to produce something that speaks with clarity of emotion as well as clarity of thought.
There is some repetition across the book, with certain tropes and writers recurring in a number of chapters: Audre Lorde’s famous insight that you cannot dismantle the master’s house using the master’s tools is one of these. I didn’t find this a weakness but an interesting patterning that highlighted some of the roots of Slee’s thinking and its integral structure. This is an academic who has been engaging with – and indeed creating – feminist practical theology at an unrivalled depth, something that is evident despite the fragmented breadth of this collection.
This collection provides a lot of jumping-off points for readers who are new to feminist practical theology and makes it clear that this is a table that should be accessible to all. There is also much richness here for experienced practical theologians as they encounter a colleague’s wisdom in diverse and thoughtful ways. Slee states in her introduction that much British theology ‘eschews the large-scale, systematic or comprehensive approach … and favours the small-scale, the incidental, the narrative and metaphorical, the particular’ (p. 3). Fragments for Fractured Times is an excellent example of how this way of doing theology can add up to more than the sum of its parts.