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This article discusses some of the factors leading to the launch of a new professional doctorate in practical theology at Anglia Ruskin and Manchester universities, under the sponsorship of the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology. Whilst the professional doctorate has been widely adopted in many parts of Higher Education in the UK, the new Doctor of Practical Theology (PrD) is the first of its kind in theological studies. Yet in many respects, the needs of prospective candidates and the nature of practical theology as a subject-discipline render the professional doctorate an ideal medium for the part-time, practice-based, "researching professional." We consider some of the underlying rationale concerning the professional doctorate's claim to be an original "contribution to knowledge" and the scope it offers to facilitate advanced theological reflection on practice. The article concludes by offering some critical reflections on the prospects of such a programme for the future.

This article seeks to give a brief account and evaluation of an innovative collaborative project in theological eduation in the UK — the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology (DPT), on which there are currently some fifty students in three universities (Anglia Ruskin with the Cambridge Theological Federation, Birmingham and Manchester. The University of Wales Lampeter has validated but currently not recruited). After a brief introduction describing the project, now in its third year, the article addresses three questions — why this work is ‘theological’, what we have learned in doing it about the appropriate supervision of candidates, and how such professional research can be subversive.

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