Doctrine after Christendom: The Public Impact of Research in Christian Doctrine

There has been a lot of debate recently about the idea of measuring the 'impact' of academic research on the world beyond the university. Some of the debate has been about the very principle of measuring impact as a means of assessing the worthiness of scholarship; some, however, has been about the details of the measurement. Can we measure impact in a way that does justice to the researchers' own sense of the kind of good they might do, of the contexts in which they do it, and of the timescales over which it happens? And can we measure impact in a way that does justice to the answers to these questions that might be given by the various non-academic audiences or stakeholders amongst whom the impact is supposed to be happening?

These questions take on a particular resonance when we look at research in the area of Christian Doctrine. In part, that is because of existing claims about connections to communities outside the university made by researchers in this area. After all, many researchers in Christian doctrine say that their work involves some kind of engagement with the life of Christian communities outside the university, and some kind of eventual benefit for or contribution to those communities.

In part, the question of impact has particular resonance in this area because, in a situation 'after Christendom', the relevance of Christian doctrinal research to a wider public, beyond the various Christian communities, is deeply contested. Many researchers in Christian doctrine will speak about the responsibilities of their discipline not just to the university and to the churches, but also to the wider world.

So what are the kinds of 'impact' that research in Christian doctrine does have and can have? How is that impact seen by the researchers, by the churches, and by those involved in the contexts in which responsibility 'to the wider world' might be pursued?

In order to answer these questions, we will gather a core team of researchers in Christian doctrine from different universities (and different Christian denominations), and hold a series of symposia. After an initial meeting to discuss the basic issues, we will hold one symposium with researchers and practitioners able to speak about impact and the churches, one with researchers and practitioners able to speak about impact and politics or public policy, and one with researchers and practitioners able to speak about impact and culture (both popular culture and high culture). A final meeting of the core team will help us refine the reports that the process is designed to yield.

We believe that the process will allow us to report back to the community of researchers in Christian Doctrine nationwide - to help them think critically and constructively about what impact means for our discipline, and about the ways in which it can be pursued. That feedback may enable some of those researchers to refine their impact case studies for the 2013 Research Excellence Framework, but more importantly will help them think about their approach to impact longer term.

We also believe, however, that the process will allow us to report back to the AHRC as one example of a discipline taking the issue of impact with critical seriousness, and as a contribution and stimulus to wider debate between multiple disciplines about the most appropriate forms of accountability for our claims about the kinds of good that we do - and about the forms of measurement and accountability that are inappropriate.

Paradoxically, for a project that focuses on impact, this is a project whose impact will mostly be indirect. Our aim is to stimulate academic thinking about impact, and thus indirectly to stimulate work that will itself have a wider public impact.

In that indirect sense, the project is designed to pursue three different kinds of impact:
(1) impact on the various Christian churches (and our core academic group has representatives from the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian and Quaker communities);
(2) impact on public policy and on politics defined more widely, and
(3) impact on culture - or, rather, on forms of public discourse about popular and high culture.
We can't, however, say in advance what the forms of impact that we explore will be; that, after all, is the point of the project.

It is perhaps worth adding that the symposia will provide an opportunity for a small set of researchers in Christian doctrine to meet a small set of key non-academic stakeholders and hear what they need and what they can offer. The relationships formed in those symposia might themselves be significant for future impactful work, but it is more likely that we will be able to broker productive relationships between members of the extensive networks of researchers known to the academic participants, and members of the wider non-academic networks known to the other participants.