The Presence of Christ in Qualitative Research

This chapter aims to engage in a systematic‐theological and hermeneutical exploration of how the use of qualitative research in theology can produce “forms of knowledge”. It also explores four possible models to interpret the presence of Christ related to the research activity that emerges from adopting qualitative methods in theological research. These models are: the presence of Christ in the researcher, the presence of Christ in the practice of research, the presence of Christ in the experience, and the presence of Christ in the question of theology as hermeneutical struggle. The aim of qualitative research that wants to engage in theological reflection, on some level at least, should then be to produce meaningful, comprehensive, credible, and perhaps even convincing claims about the relationship between the world we humans inhabit and God's presence.