Dominici Schola Servitii: Benedict and Practical TheologyMarc Lavallee, Ph.D. In this article, I seek to draw out connections between Benedictine spirituality and the discipline of practical theology. By doing so, I hope to shed light on, and raise up for critical thought and contemplation, a reimagining of monastic theology through the lens of the emerging field of practical theology within Catholic theology. Through such an approach, I wish to highlight as central to both practical theology and monastic theology the engagement of practical wisdom and spiritual formation within the life of a community and its practices. As presented here, both practical theology and monastic theology understand theology as formative of a way of being. Ultimately, this comparison of practical theology and monastic spirituality pursues the question, How can � Benedictine praxis shape theological theory and action? Furthermore, such a � comparison highlights a necessary element of theological education: formation in wisdom and education in the practice of discernment. I will present first a brief description of practical theology and how this discipline understands theology as a process of formation, and second how the Rule of Saint Benedict provides insight for this process of formation, thereby developing a reconception of contemporary monastic theology as a practical theology with particular significance for theological education.Practical Theology and Formation Practical theology is not commonly known as a distinct discipline within Catholic theology and the explicit contours of a Catholic contribution to practical theology are still emerging. Nevertheless, echoes of practical theology have long reverberated within Catholic tradition, and particularly within post-conciliar Catholic theology.1 In her introduction to Invitation to Practical Theology: Catholic Voices and Visions, editor and Catholic practical theologian Claire Wolfteich offers a description of practical theology as a discipline and Catholic perspective within it: Put simply, practical theology entails critical thinking about what we do and how we live out our faith. It entails the study of practices, contexts, cultures, and communities in dialogue with faith traditions and informed by the best human knowledge available. In Catholic perspective particularly, practical theology entails a reading of the � signs of the times in light of the Gospel a move that involves serious �� engagement with and discerning interpretation of contemporary experience and practice; deep remembering and critical analysis of the tradition; imaginative theological envisioning of future practice; and a hopeful and prophetic tending to the ongoing life of the faith community.2Wolfteich s brief description above � highlights two key aspects of practical theology within a Catholic perspective: a dialectical hermeneutic and a communal ecclesiological orientation. Both of � � these aspects of practical theology are rooted in the phrase Wolteich quotes from Gaudium et Spes, which identifies the church s responsibility in carrying � on the work of Christ as reading the signs of the times in light of the � Gospel. 3 Practical theology is a communal endeavor of the whole people of God � that engages a dialectical hermeneutic between an interpretation of contemporary experience and a critical analysis of tradition towards a prophetic and faithful vision for the formation of Christian life and faith. The purpose of practical theology is the formation of communities of faith. Central to this hermeneutic is the realization that social and pastoral experience and practice are sources of theology, not merely applications of it, and that theory and practice are inseparable in theology. In the early church, practical theology would most likely characterize theology as a whole, rather than as a distinct discipline within it. Most theology was found in the context of pastoral letters, homilies, or ecumenical councils; theology was therefore firmly rooted in the church, for Christian instruction, and for Christian practice. The rise of western universities in the thirteenth century began to change the place and function of theology as a whole, effectively splitting the study of theology into two different disciplines: speculative theology, studied at the � � university, and practical theology, studied in ecclesial contexts outside of � � the university. As the universities continued to develop new disciplines along with the specialization of knowledge, by the eighteenth century theology in the university was a collection of sciences, or different disciplines within the study of theology, namely biblical theology, historical theology, systematic (or dogmatic) theology, and practical (or pastoral) theology. This four-fold � pattern eventually emerged from the distinction in the academy between � theoretical and applied sciences.4 Practical theology consequently