Most books, I would wager, begin with a serious underestimation of the work involved. This Reader was no exception. Picking classic essays for a collection seemed on first blush like an especially straightforward book project compared to most others. I honestly did not anticipate the hazards, including the risk of “epistemic violence” explored by Courtney T. Goto in an important essay in this collection. Indian feminist Gayatri Spivak uses the phrase epistemic violence to capture the marginalization and even obliteration of the realities of the already minoritized. Most of us commit the act of oversight in our scholarship regardless of how conscientious we are. But omission is especially egregious when it comes to a reader, even though, somewhat ironically, a reader is by definition a selection of scholarship and, consequently, inevitably exclusive.

Right upfront, therefore, I need to recognize the challenge of selection, what liberationists have dubbed the granting of “epistemological privilege” to certain voices. You will not find in this volume all that is needed to grasp contemporary practical theology. Which is, when you think about it, a good problem to have, since it suggests that the discipline of practical theology is thriving. Instead, what you will find, I hope, is a rich and fruitful basis on which to begin or to continue your hunt for what you need to know about theology as it happens up close and on the ground.

I am also sure that I made the project more difficult than necessary (a unique personality flaw). I experimented, for example, with doing individual introductions for each chapter and then, once underway, felt obliged to keep going with this plan, even as I discovered that situating the major contributions of twenty‐eight authors (two of which were later eliminated to save space) felt a bit like preparing for doctoral exams. I also sought a kind of cohesiveness for the volume that is perhaps senseless and impossible in a sprawling, even purposively imprecise field like practical theology. Perhaps most time‐consuming: I cut words to shorten essays, dangerously toying with other people’s prized prose (an act I will avoid from here on out) in a painstaking effort to gain space for additional chapters and make chapters more readable.

In the General Introduction that follows, I describe in greater detail more substantive challenges that run beyond these personal proclivities. For now, let me say briefly how the initial enticement to compile this Reader arose on my way to acknowledging those to whom I am in debt.

Four years ago, shortly after the publication of The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology in 2012, Rebecca Harkin, an editor at Wiley Blackwell, approached me with the idea of doing a volume that would replace The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology published in 2000. It would not be as much work as the Companion, she encouraged. Since a reader would only contain previously published works, “you won’t have to chase down late‐running contributors.” That was, indeed, an upside of this project, even if not quite the benefit that she imagined, and I remain grateful for her invitation. She has since accepted a new role within the publishing company, but her vision for what is needed in theology has been astute, and I am glad to have been a beneficiary of her knowledge and foresight. Catriona King assumed editorial responsibilities in summer 2017 and has done a superb job seeing the project through to completion. I also thank the editorial staff at Wiley Blackwell more generally, especially freelance permissions editor Beth Dufour and project editor Manish Luthra, for managing with grace and efficiency the many complicated particulars that surround a volume such as this (e.g., seeking copyright permission, overseeing abridgments).

For guidance as the Reader evolved, I have many people to thank. Three anonymous reviewers, solicited by the press, provided important feedback and correctives, including Jaco Dreyer who was also gracious enough to disclose his identity when I approached him for advice. I am especially grateful for my most immediate colleague at Vanderbilt, Phillis Isabella Sheppard. She is unflagging in her collegial friendship and offered incisive counsel at several crucial moments as I moved out from under a more conventional (and white) approach to the field. I also treasure the contributions of another valuable Vanderbilt colleague, the late Dale Andrews. From our first conversations on the Executive Committee of the Association of Practical Theology in 2002 to our co‐teaching a seminar in practical theology in 2012 and 2016 and our final conversation in spring 2017, he taught me a great deal. He exemplified an incredible commitment to the discipline, a prophetic comfort with racial politics, and a refreshing collegial humor. I can almost hear his booming laughter in response to my quibbles and quandaries about this book (“my, my, my,” as he would say). As I hope is evident in the General Introduction, I learned a lot as I went along, mostly about my oversights. Phillis and Dale helped me avoid potholes at strategic points and offered solace when I hit them.

As this suggests, Vanderbilt is a wonderful environment in which to learn, and it served as a fertile place for this work in other ways. The contributions of doctoral student and research assistant Arelis Benítez were crucial. She provided hours of support that included perceptive insights into the larger theoretical framework, potential authors, and all manner of detail such as titles and subtitles as well as an extensive facility with technology and an ability to see tasks before I suggested them. I also thank Vanderbilt University, Dean Emilie Townes, and my faculty colleagues in the Divinity School for a spring 2018 research leave and a University Research Scholar Grant that funded travel, consultation, research materials, and related assistance. It would have taken me at least another year to complete this project without this support.

Beyond school and publisher, the colleagues with whom I wrote Christian Practical Wisdom, Dorothy Bass, Kathleen Cahalan, James Nieman, and Christian Scharen, remain an invaluable sounding board and circle of friendship. They spoke up at several turning points, helping me discern whether to take up this work at all and then weighing in on drafts of the content and argument. Like Phillis, Dorothy and Chris suggested that the only way to move through the overwhelming decisions about what to include was a clear rationale. Kathleen’s observation that internet availability makes a reader unnecessary led me to consider ways to make this volume worth its cost, such as introductory material, essays abridged for easier reading, and an overarching thread that holds the volume together and advances the discipline. I also thank Tone Strangeland Kaufman and the Norwegian School of Theology for the invitation to share my research‐in‐progress with a day‐long doctoral seminar in Oslo in April 2017. She, along with Pete Ward and others in attendance, provided a helpful perspective from outside the United States. Several other people may not know about their influence but merit appreciation for their friendship and wisdom: Courtney Goto, Sam Lee, Carmen Nanko‐Fernández, Eric Stoddart, Valburga Schmiedt Streck, Júlio Cézar Adam, Heather Walton, Claire Wolfteich, Joyce Ann Mercer, Katherine Turpin, Tom Beaudoin, Yolanda Dreyer, Lee Butler, Ryan LaMothe, Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Laine Walters Young, and Kishundra King. All the authors in the volume have had their impact, but their contributions will become obvious as you continue to read.

After thirty‐eight years of marriage, I risk repeating earlier acknowledgments of my husband Mark Miller‐McLemore. The major difference in my gratitude today is that, as our kids have grown and left our immediate household, he had to listen to a lot more equivocating than he probably wanted to hear, even if I still did not ask him to read anything. So, Mark, if you do read this eventually, you will know what readers far and wide have learned – that my love and appreciation for you abound.