154 Chapter 4 action research and participatory research. It can be concluded that TAR, with some of its own specific features distinguishing it from the other methods, belongs to a bigger family of action research-based methodologies. ‘As with action research, the concerns of the faith community are the starting point’, argued De Roest (2020, p. 215). History of TAR TAR came into existence through a project conducted at Heythrop College, University of London, in collaboration with the Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology, Ripon College Cuddesdon. The project ran from 2006 until 2010 under the name ARCS: Action Research Church and Society. Afterwards, Cameron et al. (2010) provided a detailed description and justification of its approach. Cameron and Duce (2013) later presented a more practical guide to its use for scientific research. TAR is actually supported by the Theology and Action Research Network (TARN), which is based at the University of Roehampton, under the directorship of Clare Watkins. TAR is especially helpful for the topic under investigation in this study because DCU, as a university for applied sciences in the Netherlands that bases itself on the Reformed creeds, can be considered a faith-based organisation. TARN’s (2021) website stated that the methodology of theological action research was established to help faithbased organisations and church groups adopt an approach to research which could help bring about definite and practical changes withing that agency or community. In particular TAR aims to assist these organisations in defining and seeking new ways of taking up their mission amidst a rapidly changing and increasingly secular, post-modern and post-Christian society. Describing TAR, Cameron et al. (2010) stated that it ‘was motivated by a desire to find more faithful ways of relating theology and practice, ways that did justice to the whole discipline of theology and the complexity of practice’ (p. 8). In a cultural context that has become somewhat prejudiced and resistant towards religion and perhaps even turned anti-theological through the process of secularisation (Cameron et al., 2010, pp. 14–15), faith-based organisations such as schools and colleges, healthcare facilities, social action projects and voluntary organisations ‘find their identity subtly remoulded by the pervasive organizational culture’. While adapting to ‘today’s professional standards and bureaucratic practices’, they are prone to ‘drift into today’s secular word view’ (Cameron et al., 2010, p. 16). In this divergence between gospel and culture, there is a strong risk of polarisation: ‘The religious feel vulnerable before secularism; secularists are
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