INTRODUCTION 5 After explaining the why of studying this concrete practice in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 explores how this can be done, introducing this study’s methodology. It elucidates two fundamental presuppositions underpinning this study, namely, the necessity to listen carefully to the concrete experiences of the faithful as a source for theological consideration, and to do so in a systematic way using methods from the humanities. As a consequence, this study focuses on the empirical data it produces: the process of generating and interpreting this data is at the very core of my study, in the tradition of Johannes van der Ven’s school of empirical theology.5 As such, the study finds itself at the crossroads of systematic theology (questions), practical theology (methodology), and the social sciences (methods). This interdisciplinary character opens a unique and innovative perspective on the matter at hand but also implies some limitations since not every aspect of the three disciplines can be addressed in-depth. Given these presuppositions and the interdisciplinary character with its benefits and limitations, the aim of this research is threefold: describing the concrete and particular practice of Eucharistic hospitality in its context; articulating the experiences acquired through this practice and reconstructing their implicit theological rationale; and formulating some of the implications this rationale might have for the theological discourse on the topic. The following lists the sub-questions contributing to this study’s main research question: Which theological implications can be formulated based on the concrete experiences with Eucharistic hospitality in the ecumenical monastic communities of Taizé and Bose in order to complement the charged debate on this sensitive issue? 5 Johannes van der Ven, Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach, trans. Barbara Schultz (Kampen: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1993); Annemarie Dillen, “Lived Religion and the Complex Relations between Practical Theology, Empirical Theology, and Religious Studies,” in Catholic Approaches in Practical Theology: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Claire E. Wolfteich and Annemarie Dillen, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 286 (Leuven: Peeters, 2016).
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