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The Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior is the first major critical edition of the New Testament for a century, aiming to document the New Testament's textual history through its first millennium. To date, two of the six volumes have been published. As part of this project the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster has developed the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM), a computer-aided method designed to handle complete sets of textual evidence and to identify their initial text and textual history. The CBGM is widely held to be difficult to understand and its results are treated with scepticism. Phylogenetics is the study of relationships between groups of organisms and their evolutionary history. Phylogenetics and the CBGM (and wider textual criticism) have many commonalities. This thesis provides a thorough examination of the CBGM using phylogenetics. Part One documents the literature surrounding the CBGM and includes a worked example of the process. Part Two explores the ECM data for John's Gospel and identifies appropriate methods for applying phylogenetics to it. Part Three compares the results of phylogenetics and the CBGM. It concludes that the CBGM is producing valid results from the data, but could be improved in a number of ways.

A professional doctoral study by an Anglican priest using qualitative research, this is an autoethnographic description of multiple religious participation based on fieldwork in a Sikh gurdwara and a Christian church, partnered reflection, interviews, focus groups, and a self-survey. The thesis contributes to practical theology by using continuous narrative to unite description, reflection and theory. It shows the subtlety of religious belonging and identity for communities and the individual, examines how conflict of belief is addressed, and demonstrates difficulties with but overall growth in dual engagement. Focus groups show mixed views on multiple religious participation from clergy, but that Christian interreligious workers do find themselves participating in non-Christian worship despite being anxious about the response from other Christians. The thesis contributes to practice by encouraging them in reflective cross-boundary activity, calling on the church to support this and learn from their experiences. A growing awareness of divine friendliness during meditation led to exploration of friendship in both religions, and contributes to theology of religions by introducing 'amicism', an approach that is discerning, open, peaceable, joyful, vulnerable, and attentive. The unique fieldwork of the thesis also contributes to the growing discussion in religious studies on the complexity of religious belonging.

Contemporary American evangelical theology's quest to integrate Christian faith and capitalistic enterprise through the theme of transformation is being challenged by postsecularism. Consumer capitalism's rapid growth has, first, weakened the influence of evangelicalism in American public life as institutionalized forms of Protestant Christianity have declined. Second, it has intensified individualist-materialist conceptions of spirituality that ground human relationships in self-interested market exchange. This contrasts with a prominent ethical thread in the Christian Scriptures that grounds human relationality in the triangulating force of God's intrinsic love, which checks the human tendency to instrumentalize for individual and material gain. To articulate a vision of capitalistic enterprise as a vehicle for moral and spiritual transformation, the theme of transformation needs a postsecular revision. The research question is: How can contemporary American evangelical theology reconstruct the theme of transformation for a postsecular context that counters the individualistmaterialist excesses of consumerist spirituality? Working from the field of practical theology, I will argue that a postsecular renewal demands a reflexive spirituality that regularly interrogates its own practice. My two-part proposition is: Contemporary American evangelical theology can strengthen its reflexivity against the excesses of postsecular consumerist spirituality by critically: {la) Engaging stakeholder theory to establish the limits of capitalistic enterprise's contributions to human flourishing; and (1 b) Appropriating the Anabaptist tradition of gelassenheit to reconstruct the theme of transformation around a relational ethic of triangular love.

This thesis tackles a very real practical challenge that Pentecostals face almost daily the issue of biblically-informed ethical decision making. When controversial issues arise that have very little or no direct mention in the Bible, how do Pentecostals arrive at an ethically defensible position? The free-form embrace of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal tradition has perhaps contributed to a lack of a tangible approach which might be descriptive and prescriptive of the way ethical issues ought to be processed, the most common Pentecostal idea simply being that the Holy Spirit will provide the necessary guidance in whatever situation life presents, whenever life presents it. While there are undoubtedly many factors that will influence the final decision of Pentecostals with regard to a particular position on a given issue, the parameters of this study will be limited to the role of the Bible in that decision process. The reason for this can be attributed to the apparent Pentecostal distinctive of the Bible being the inspired Word of God. It is noted that pneumatology has been thrust into the forefront of Pentecostalism, as its predominant defining distinctive. However, I agree with Simon Chan that foundational to Pentecostal Theology must be the tempered return to the Biblical Launchpad. He writes, "Pentecostals are too carried away with their apocalyptic vision. If this vision is not balanced by a nuanced biblical eschatology which maintains the tension between the 'has come' and 'not yet', a crisis mentality could set in." The perception by many, about Pentecostals is that they are perhaps too otherworldly; to borrow a cliché 'so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good'. It becomes important for Pentecostalism that Pentecostals be careful to avoid overemphasizing their reliance on the Holy Spirit at the risk of minimizing Biblical priority, if indeed the Bible is the foundation of their ethical expression. Chan's statement is important to the area of my research in that it helps to keep the reigns of focus on the priority of the Bible. My research focus in this thesis becomes a natural 'next step' to determine how Pentecostals engage the Bible.

This study is the first to investigate the role and impact of the supernatural in the ministry of the early American Methodist preachers (c. 1770s-1830s). These preachers were known as circuit-riders and were appointed to evangelize the American frontier by presenting an experiential gospel: one that featured various supernatural phenomena that purportedly originated from God's Spirit. In employing this evangelistic strategy of the gospel message fueled by supernatural displays, Methodism rapidly expanded; despite beginning with only ten official circuit-riders in the early 1770s, by the early 1830s, circuit-riders had multiplied and caused Methodism to become the largest American denomination of its day. In investigating the significance of the supernatural in the circuit-rider ministry, this fresh study systematically constructs the theology of the supernatural according to the circuit-riders by discerning specific patterns in their use of the term. Further, the nature and reported impact of specific supernatural phenomena on both the individual circuit-rider and his audience is addressed. Finally, this investigation offers a new historical perspective through its demonstration of the correlation between the supernatural and the explosive membership growth of early American Methodism.

This thesis examines the effect of the figure of Khidr on medieval Sūfīs, who claimed that Khidr had provided them with a microcosm of the heart of the Sūfī path. It has sought to answer the following questions: who is this servant of God (Khidr), who specifically is it that is mentioned in the short story with a lack of information in the Chapter of the Cave in the Qur'ān (18:60-82), and how have medieval Sūfīs analysed his story with the Prophet Moses? This study also explores the reasons that Sūfīs have been criticized for their understanding of Khidr's story. In pursuing these questions, this study will attempt to shine a new light on these debates. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the most important relevant literature to the research questions. Chapter 2 gives an overview of Sūfī sources for understanding the figure of Khidr in order to gain insight into what makes Khidr important. Prophet Muḥammad's evaluation of both Khidr and Moses in the story is also discussed. In Chapter 3, the study debates the matter of how could Khidr teach Prophet Moses knowledge that the latter did not have. Does this refer to or necessitate Khidr having a higher rank than Moses? What is the knowledge that was bestowed on Khidr? And can it be revealed to other than Khidr? Chapter 4 concentrates on the relationship between the knowledge of Khidr and the Sūfī method of interpretation on one hand, and how Sūfī exegetes read the story of Khidr, on the other hand. Chapter 5 aims to explore the impact of Khidr on medieval Sūfī literature, in addition to the broader literary impact of Sūfī heritage during and after that period in an effort to answer the question of Khidr's place within this tradition. Chapter 6 presents the key findings and the contribution of the study.

This thesis describes and analyses the changes in the lives of some Old and New Order Amish women in Ohio and Pennsylvania from about 1970 to the present day. To do this, I used an ethnographic method, living with Amish families in both states for each of my three fieldtrips between September 2012 and October 2014. My work identifies and describes changes that have taken place in the lives of Amish women since 1970's. It identifies ways in which the well-documented move out of farming by the Amish in both states, occurring at the same time as the growth of the tourist industry in Lancaster and Holmes County settlements led to opportunities for Amish women to work outside the home, and may additionally, have created the need for them to do so. I show how these changes have been able to happen in a community that might initially appear to be unchanging. Using Bauman's Liquid Modernity, I give examples of how the same pressures that are affecting mainstream life are impacting the Amish community. My thesis fills a gap in the literature in that it concentrates on the lives of women and what has changed for them. It is the first PhD thesis to cover this material.

This study examines Tertullian's references to the New Testament outside the Gospels, in order to determine whether he was citing from a Greek or Latin copy of these writings. A new collection of these references was undertaken and is explained in the Appendix. The conclusion of the analysis is that Tertullian was quoting the New Testament writings using Greek exemplars but translating on the fly into Latin. Tertullian was one of the first Christians to have undertaken such translation work. It is proposed that Tertullian was participating in and influenced by a broad cultural-linguistic movement called the Second Sophistic. Latin writers like Cicero, Quintilian, Varro, and Apuleius were also participants, and their translation of Greek works into Latin likely formed Tertullian to become a literary translator. A contribution to textual criticism is offered in a textual analysis of selected references. The conclusion that Tertullian's references are translations rather than copies of an extant Latin text is evidenced by the large proportion of singular readings which match no other known Latin version. Several readings among these references suggest an affiliation with a particular Greek manuscript and thus present a very early form of the Greek text.

This thesis for the first time demonstrates that power relations, which are as disparate as juridical frameworks, political engagement, spiritual experience, theology and God, can be fully accounted for in a single theory approach that is descriptive analytical, post-structuralist and rhizome ontological. This is achieved through an exploration of Christian ministry practice and theological approaches, the politics of the Confessing Struggle, Barthian dogmatics and Pentecostal power accounts. It is argued that a conventional normative-theological reflection of the Christian ministry obstructs both practical-theological accountability and having an empowering pastoral approach. Thereby, the conceptual creation, counter-modern capacities and limitations--as well as the ministry-internal effects--of different forms of Christian agency formation are explored, using Foucauldian terms. These include: Barth's 'theological existence,' Pentecostal empowerment through Spirit baptism, and the distributed-charismatic and prayerful pursuit of divine power and presence. It should be possible to engage and reconcile all forms of Christian empowerment to one another on the basis of a rhizomic ministry practice; one which, when established upon a charismatic-revivalist ethos, is able to facilitate the occasional formation and coming to life of a distributed divine presence and power.

This research examines a group of UK Catholic charities working in the field of homelessness and social exclusion in order to understand how their Catholicity is constituted and how this impacts on their practice. I argue that their Catholicity is primarily found in how their practices enact, test and extend Catholic social vision rather than in institutional alignment. I demonstrate that the charities have an ecclesiological specificity which official Catholic texts fail to recognise. They operate across the porous boundaries of the visible Church, drawing into their work people who share elements of the social vision articulated in Catholic thought and tradition. Theologically, they enact the Catholic intuition about the meaning of social bonds and reciprocal human flourishing by working to counter social exclusion and vulnerability and point social realities towards the Kingdom. Their location on ecclesial boundaries, their inclusiveness, and their embeddedness in secular structures of social welfare and politics, are necessary conditions of social mission. I use the concept of the common good as a hermeneutic in order to read the charities as a case study testing how Catholic social teaching's methodological strategies propose shared moral horizons. Using Thomas Bushlack's concept of civic virtue in conversation with normative Catholic social teaching about the common good enables fresh insights into the practices which enact this principle. The charities discover the meaning of the common good by recognising and wrestling with the absence of the conditions that enable people to seek fulfilment. Their asymmetrical relational work, shaped by their narratives, renders an abstract and elusive concept as a real and practical task. Their communally held and inclusively enacted intuitions disclose pragmatic coherence with Conciliar ecclesiology and validate its orientations. The charities act as agents and inventors of mediated social mission, illuminating an expansive Catholicity.

This dissertation argues that a helpful framework within which to interpret the paraenesis of Deuteronomy 4:1-40 can be constructed through interaction with the cultural memory interests of German Egyptologist Jan Assmann and the canonical approach of U.S. biblical theologian Brevard Childs. By drawing on the resources offered by these two scholars, the received form of the biblical text comes into sharper focus in helpful ways. By bringing Assmann's cultural memory concerns to bear on the world within the text, Deuteronomy is brought into fruitful contact with questions from the field of sociology; and by asking these questions in interaction with the theologically rich formulation of canon offered by Childs's canonical approach, Deuteronomy is interpreted as an authoritative witness to God for contemporary communities of faith. As a result of this reading strategy, which highlights certain rhetorical features that shape the theological understanding of the text, the communal and trans-generational nature of covenant stands out. This emphasis, in turn, influences the way that Horeb is remembered by later generations and how that memory is transmitted from one generation to the next through ritual practice and the text of Scripture.

The Church of England has historically prevented women from holding various positions of power within its hierarchy, a phenomenon that has not been undermined with the advent of women bishops. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted on male clergy attitudes towards women since before women were permitted to be ordained as deacons in 1987. There has also been little research on the social factors that shape such attitudes to date. This is a significant gap in scholarship given that the Church of England is a male dominated institution and that male clergy have therefore been central to the process of denying women the same opportunities in the Established Church as men. Responding to these issues, this thesis explores historical, sociological, and psychological influences on male clergy attitudes towards gender. It is based on a thematic narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with forty-one priests from the evangelical and Anglo-Catholic traditions of the Church of England. In order to understand the various social factors that shape male clergy attitudes, participants’ narratives have been brought into dialogue with the historical developments that have led to women’s ordination as deacons and priests, and their consecration as bishops in the Established Church. This thesis also draws on the sociological theories of engaged orthodoxy, social capital, and spiritual capital, as well as psychological theories of prejudice, intergroup contact, and identity in order to further interpret clergy narratives. This thesis concludes that the attitudes towards gender that male clergy possess are shaped by their chosen religious traditions because through them they inherit specific ways of thinking about gender roles. It then builds on this to argue that those who inherit traditions that object to women’s ordination oppose it because the presence of women priests and bishops is perceived to be a threat to their contingent self-esteem.

Not until the fourth century did the fatherhood of God become an issue of sustained analysis in Christian theology. This thesis explores the distinctiveness of the Father within four representative Trinitarian theologies: Athanasius of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Basil of Caesarea. It will be shown that Athanasius presents problems in offering a coherent account. I will argue, however, for a subtle progression within his thought and across the chapters, which reaches maturity in Basil's integrative theology of fatherhood. The Father-Son relation served as the starting point for discussing the shape of the Godhead. Within that relation, the logic of the eternal birth affirms the Father as source while also creating theological 'space' for understanding the Father's 'loving gift' of himself. The consequences of the perfect gift within divine simplicity lead to emphases on the coinherence and inseparability of operations of the divine persons. Strong notes of unity are struck by such teaching, yet they lead back to the source of that unity and, thus, to the mystery of the Father. Within pro-Nicene thought, attention eventually turned to the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit does not possess a filial relation, he, too, was conceived of in terms of an origin in the Father. A mature doctrine of the Spirit brings about a robust understanding of the inseparability of the Trinitarian persons in God's redemptive purposes. One movement of grace extends from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, so that worshippers are enabled to return back to their source. The tension brought about in speaking of source and inseparability highlights the mystery of the Father whose 'loving gift' not only eternally constitutes the shape of Trinitarian relations - it also is the genesis of his own 'perfection' as through it the fullness of the Father is understood.

Historic reconstructions of Pentecostalism and Pentecostal influence in the United States are usually framed around three epochal shifts: fifty years of classical Pentecostalism in the first half of the twentieth century morphed during the Charismatic Renewal of the 1960s-1970s then splintered into various independent Charismatic churches and networks from the 1980s to the present. There are debated versions of this framework and nuanced additions related to global influence and expansion. This study suggests an amendment to the overall framework. Post-Charismatic renewal, rather than a movement in decline and splintering into independent churches, Pentecostalism also went underground in the form of minority theological subgroups. Reformed Charismatics demonstrate a particular version of Charismatic theology and praxis comprised of those who have stayed in their historic churches, yet stand markedly in contrast to their majority church norms. Ethnographic methods are used to access the beliefs and praxis of these 'ordinary' Reformed Charismatics framed as an internally diverse minority navigating the majority theological norms of their Reformed congregation. The project unfolds as a dialogue between academic theology, ordinary theology, autoethnography and interdisciplinary interaction with relevant sociologists and anthropologists. A unique ecumenical movement unto themselves, Reformed Charismatics are often operating subversively, all the while dynamically integrating two divergent traditions in church history. Theological critique and debates over interpretations of the bible only go so far in addressing the tensions Reformed Charismatics experience. The use of cultural analysis in this study offers insights about the experience, behaviours and spirituality of this internally diverse often overlooked ecclesial subculture all toward deeper understanding of Pentecostal influence more broadly in its myriad of 'glocal', contextual forms.

This thesis offers an intricate analysis of three Wana rituals developed over a period of five years' research reflection, focusing in depth on two of the rituals, the momago (healing ceremony) and kayori (funeral). It posits that Wana shamanism provides opportunities for creating 'a sense of community' (kasintuwu) at the same time that it can address individual ills, by bringing people together on ritual occasions. This idea is developed into a concept of 'density', with rituals cast as 'rites of densification' that temporarily recreate the primordial unity of the community. These concepts are then related to a conceptualisation of space-time in which the Wana remain at the origin and centre of the world, while those who have been dispersed (including to the West) have thrived at the physical periphery. Scalici also describes a concept of power in which local and visible people are powerless while those who have dispersed and are invisible, including spirits, are more powerful: this also maps on to a gender division in which women remain at home while men, and especially shamans, wander. Music is interpreted as being essential to the rituals because of its ability to connect people to the invisible realm and enable the wandering of shamans, as well as to control emotions.

This thesis explores developments in the English print world in a period of turbulent religious change under Edward VI. The English reformation moved hurriedly, and printers quickly drove forward print production to unprecedented levels. Religion and the printing industry were intimately linked, and reformers and printers alike enjoyed a rapid ascendency. This disproportionate growth in printed output and the factors prompting it had yet to be fully explored. The foremost objective of this thesis is to shed light on how the English print world came to expand so rapidly and significantly between 1547 and 1553. This thesis explores three crucial areas: the role of the government, the design and technical evolution of the print world, and the increasingly sophisticated commercial networks that allowed the industry swiftly to respond to opportunities that emerged. The first chapter shows how the evangelical establishment encouraged the trade by creating a climate of evangelical freedom, and by the sponsorship of individuals and publications. Thereafter, the second chapter demonstrates that skills and resources became more evenly spread throughout the industry, allowing more printers to join the elite of English printing. Finally, the commercial construction of the Edwardian book world is investigated, where the growing role of publishers and printers-for-hire epitomises increasing commercial collaboration. Through these themes, it becomes clear that whilst the change of religious affiliation of the state was critical, other factors contributed to the spike in printed output. The dramatic increase was prompted by also fuelled by active sponsorship of certain areas of the trade, an increase in skilled printers (and thus improved workmanship and productivity), and increasingly sophisticated commercial and social networks within the trade and without. The Edwardian years were a time of facilitation and encouragement for England's print world, and under these conditions, English printing flourished.

This study explores the challenges and opportunities facing Christian organisations engaged in the pursuit of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). The thesis suggests that FoRB is consistent with the mission of God and demanded by it. Chapter one sets out the method and narrative for the research. Chapters two to four provide a case study of the research subject, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an evangelical human rights charity engaged in FoRB. The challenges, opportunities, and ambiguities facing Christian organisations in this field are here explored. Chapter five considers Christian ideas behind Article 1 and Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Chapter six identifies historic examples of theological thought that flowed into Christian activism in the Declaration. The thesis aims to provide a reflection which supports Christian praxis in this field: crucially, chapters seven and eight attempt to lay this foundation. The material considers selected texts which explore human dignity, and the universal character of God's mission that responds to all human suffering. My final chapter offers some practical thoughts for Christians engaged in FoRB. This qualitative ethnographic study explored the organisation's understanding of the biblical drivers behind their praxis through a series of twenty-nine semi-structured interviews. Interviews were supplemented by primary material from the World Council of Churches (WCC), the United Nations and the Evangelical Alliance UK. My own study journal provided opportunities for reflexivity. Ultimately, this study aims to make a contribution to an area of ministry with scope for more specific theological reflection.

Despite demand outstripping provision, mental health services rarely collaborate with faith communities. Their practice contrasts with growing evidence that religious adherence improves resilience and promotes recovery. This thesis examined whether stakeholders wished closer cooperation. Thirty participants, most from North-West England, were interviewed in five equally sized groups. Service users, carers, and staff were sampled for diverse world views. Faith community leaders and faith-based organization leaders also took part. The research, using semi-structured grounded theory interviews, produced three main conclusions. (1) Almost all participants welcomed faith community involvement. (2) They suggested that mental health services and faith communities offered something distinct and rooted in their fact-value complementarity. (3) The interviewees considered safeguarding and mental health promotion fruitful topics for collaboration. The notion of fact-value complementarity offered an apt interpretation of the difference between participant and clinician-centred understandings of what promotes well-being. Participants reported that professional distance undermines mental health. Several credited their recovery to staff who had shared their own lived experience. Interviews favoured rebalancing statutory services towards the compassion participants so appreciated in faith community provision. The findings supported co-production literature arguing that staff, service users, and carers have vital contributions. When patient and carer agency is considered, an ethical argument for co-production emerges. My work is original in suggesting that the ethics of co-production creates a compelling case for redesigning services around users' and carers' life goals and combatting stigma. Drawing on MacIntyre's virtue ethics suggests that service user and carer representation could correct excessive emphasis on targets. This thesis shows that empirical theological research can contribute to secular professional practice and promote the church's mission in addressing mental health problems.

The present thesis puts the trinitarianism, christology, and anthropology of Hans Urs von Balthasar's kenotic theology, Rowan Williams's tragic theology, and Sarah Coakley's ascetic theology into critical and triangulated conversation: in order to argue that suffering and death is ontologized at the same level as love and life in God in the kenotic trinitarianism of Balthasar; that the tragic is given an ontological value in the tragic imagination of Williams; and that vulnerability is essentialized in the ascetic spirituality of Coakley. I will argue that, on the whole, their arguments tend to put a positive light on the darkness of suffering as that which proves to be christologically meaningful, and portray the divine-human relationship competitively in a shared proclivity for emphasizing Jesus's cry of dereliction on the cross ("My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"). A concern that moves the tripartite chapters forwards is to examine how these three respected thinkers are inclined more or less to conceive the divine-human encounter and the God-world relation competitively, and to show how that unfortunate conception serves to sacralize suffering, tragedy, and vulnerability in their accounts of divine-human relationship. In this context, I will consent to Coakley's critique that the classical understanding of non-competitive divine-human relation is undermined in Balthasar's kenotic theo-dramatics; and I will argue that although a non-competitive account is formally affirmed and espoused by Williams as well as Coakley, it is effectively operative neither in Williams's tragic imagination nor in Coakley's kneeling practice. What a non-competitive account of divine-human relations means is gradually fleshed out, with recurrent references to Kathryn Tanner, over the course of the thesis. It is given fuller expression in the final chapter's examination of the coincidence of divine-human goodness implied in the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, albeit without intending to delve into specialist knowledge.

This thesis contributes to the discussion of midrash in the New Testament (NT). It begins by investigating the history of the word darash, particularly its usage in a number of texts (the Tanak, Ben Sira, the Dead Sea Scrolls [DSS], and the Mishnah), the majority of which precede the composition of the NT. The results of the investigation indicate that the verbal form darash, from which midrash derives its name, was used with the sense of textual interpretation in the book of Ben Sira, and the DSS. An examination of the translation of darash in the Septuagint, shows linguistic connections to the genre of zētēsis, which has its roots in those who defended the poet Homer from criticism. Zētēsis has close links to midrash from a linguistic perspective and in the techniques used by the proponents of both. An examination of both the Hellenistic Jewish background of authors such as Demetrius, and Philo, in addition to the Hebrew texts such as Ben Sira and the DSS permits NT texts to be viewed from new perspectives. An examination of Acts, and the Council of Jerusalem in particular, shows that Luke uses the term zētēsis to describe the debate which takes place. Luke uses this term exclusively with relation to questions of Jewish law. This means that the decision as to whether Gentile Christians must adhere to the law of Moses is a legal debate, and the Apostolic Decree regulates Gentile Christians' relationship to that law.

This thesis seeks to establish parameters for reading Ezra-Nehemiah as Christian Scripture. It argues that Ezra-Nehemiah is best read theologically when it is approached with a variety of theological reading strategies, and that Ezra-Nehemiah is best understood theologically as a portrayal and model of faithfulness to God in the context of partial fulfilment of his restorative purposes. Reading Ezra-Nehemiah with a 'story' reading strategy interprets it in line with other narrative material in the Bible. It draws attention to Ezra-Nehemiah's ambivalent portrayal of the restoration from exile, it allows readers to identify with the community's difficulty, sin, and distress, and it functions as a motivation for faithfulness to God. Reading Ezra-Nehemiah eschatologically seeks to understand Ezra-Nehemiah in dialogue with biblical prophetic texts, with attention to promise and fulfilment. It accents Ezra-Nehemiah's portrayal of the restoration as a partial fulfilment of prophecy and suggests that future fulfilment is dependent on Israel maintaining her faithfulness. Figural reading interprets Ezra-Nehemiah by discerning analogies with other parts of Israel's story. Doing so portrays the restoration as a limited figural fulfilment of Israel's story from the exodus to Solomon's kingdom. The figures of participation with God, failure, and repentance urge readers to continue in faithfulness and continue to experience ongoing restoration. Reading Ezra-Nehemiah ethically asks how it can be understood as a model for faithful Christian living. The expressions of faithfulness in the books are summarised in Nehemiah 10, in which the community commits itself to torah obedience. Separation is a particularly controversial issue, but can be seen to have enduring significance in a Christian context. Finally, Ezra-Nehemiah can be extended into a christological context in two main ways: the need for restoration can be seen to anticipate Christ's restorative work; and the portrayal of faithfulness can be understood as an anticipation of the faithful life of Jesus Christ, which serves as a model for the Christian life.

Throughout the world people motivated by their Christian faith are relocating into low-income neighbourhoods, slums and shanty towns as a response to poverty. These practitioners (I call them relocators) believe that close proximity with people who experience poverty enables missional, ecclesial and spiritual transformation. In Just Friendship I propose that there are also political and societal implications of this practice and construct a theological framework that challenges relocators to incorporate this into their practice. Initially I survey the literature written by relocators in the United Kingdom. I argue that their use of incarnational living to describe their practice is unhelpful as it oversimplifies the context and produces a reductionist theology. From this, I explore how the sociological frameworks of social citizenship, vulnerability and resilience provide a way of understanding the complexity of low-income neighbourhoods that ensures the theological framework relocators operate within addresses neighbourhoods appropriately. The main theological claim of my thesis is that Samuel Wells' trope of 'being with' is orientating language for the relocators' practice. However, I argue that it overlooks and over-rejects the structural deficits within a neighbourhood and, as such, could be considered passive in the face of dehumanising structures. By drawing upon the public theology of Elaine Graham and Duncan Forrester I argue that 'being with' may be expanded to respond to this claim and in doing so, I propose 'being with(in)' as appropriate theological language to describe the practice. Through incorporating collective social rights into a theological account of justice, relocators might be attentive to the 'cries' of neighbours and seek opportunities for neighbours to engage in the public square. Through this practice, new forms of economic and political relationships are formed. My conclusion is that relocators become part of a new generation of practical public theologians who may help reduce the gap between the churches' public pronouncements and the experience of local people.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of a culture comprised of real-life "conspiracy theorists" living in contemporary Britain, based on fieldwork undertaken in 2014-2016. Within much popular and academic discourse, "conspiracy theorist" is a pejorative label that invokes a delusional person who subscribes to distortive, dangerous, and disempowering ideas; these assumptions are justified by viewing such ideas as unwarranted knowledge-claims. This thesis challenges these assumptions by turning instead to a cultural context in which such ideas are fully warranted, using a multi-sited method of participant observation and interviewing to provide a qualitative study of the so-called "Truth Movement". While this "movement" is shown to lack formal status or structure, I argue that the (un-)likeminded affiliates of this uneasy collective are united by a shared orientation of "truth-seeking". Across three separate sites, "truth-seekers" wrestle with common ideas, discovering empowering truths amidst a wider world they commonly perceive as conspired by a hidden, malign elite. Interviews reveal what this world looks like from the insider perspective, including the "waking up" narratives of conversion into this subjectively-plausible alternative outlook. In the chapter focussing on alternative health, I argue that "conspiracy theories", and potential solutions, are embodied in everyday experiences and practices. I investigate the significance of "false-flag" theories about the 9/11 attacks for modern truth-seekers. The internal conflicts of the truth movement are explored in the more contentious fields of the "flat earth" theories, and "freeman" theories about the legal system, where I argue that these topics reveal the essential attraction of contemporary "conspiracy theory": the recurring affirmation of the sacred character of humankind.

Although the recent shift to a more audience-centred approach in homiletical studies suggests an increased sensitivity towards the meaning-making process on the part of the listener, this research shows that the consequences for the preacher have not been approached with the same kind of empirical rigour. Rather than searching for ways to attribute meaning to the preacher's own self-understanding and spiritual practices, homiletical research, in general, has focused on generating recommendations for better preaching. However, the reality of the weekly sermonising process and the sheer number of sermons produced on a yearly basis highlights the need for a more critical and complex account of homiletical practices. Accordingly, this inquiry into homiletical practices aims to critically evaluate the preacher's discernment and listening process in preparing, receiving, and delivering the sermon within the context of Flemish Evangelical preaching. To explore these issues in depth, I interviewed eight preachers within the Flemish Evangelical context. Intentionally descriptive in nature, this research highlights a lack of methodological clarity within the field of homiletical spirituality. Through the lens of sources of authority, I argue that preachers may be unaware of the sources of authority that operationalise their discernment process. Some sources authorise their words, while others remain under the surface. I discuss candidates for sources of authority, including the notion of calling. This notion of calling, as it is triangulated through thick descriptions of the contours of the Evangelical movement and the interview data, offers a notable example of a more focused attending to a reflective homiletical endeavour. Given the many voices potentially competing in regulating and operationalising attentiveness, this research concludes that a renewed practical theological endeavour is needed within the field of homiletical spirituality, one that empirically engages the preacher's self-understanding.

This thesis argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was above all a biblical interpreter. It contributes to scholarship on Bonhoeffer by attending to his interpretive practice in the 1930s. Bonhoeffer's ecclesial hermeneutic consists of a self-reflective form of interpretation in which the ecclesial context is taken for granted, creating and shaping a closely related hermeneutical framework and interpretive practice. In its structure the thesis shows this coordinated relationship by oscillating between Bonhoeffer's explicit hermeneutical reflections (theory) and his actual interpretation of biblical texts (practice). Demonstrating how this relationship is carried out in detail, the thesis offers close readings of texts. After the Introduction situates the argument in relation to Bonhoeffer scholarship and outlines the project, chapter 1 shows that Bonhoeffer's biblical interpretation in the 1930s is indebted to the ecclesial hermeneutic he developed already in 1925 in a student essay. Ecclesial acts of theology and preaching proceed through "pneumatische Auslegung," interpretation on the basis of the Spirit. That hermeneutical framework is on display in his 1932 book, Schöpfung und Fall, (chapter 2) and in his sermons from London in 1933-1935 (chapter 3). These new contexts forced further development of it, so that in 1935, in new circumstances again, Bonhoeffer reflected on hermeneutical questions, producing a textured version of his earlier ecclesial hermeneutic (chapter 4). As the analysis of interpretive acts in chapters 2 and 3 displayed how the 1925 hermeneutic worked, so chapter 5 returns to interpretive activity in order to show what the newly inflected ecclesial hermeneutic of the Finkenwalde period looks like in practice by analyzing two sections of Nachfolge. The Conclusion suggests that Bonhoeffer's relation to Scripture is best understood by utilizing the doctrinal resources of Pneumatology, carefully relating divine and human action in interpretation, and that his ecclesial hermeneutic contributes to conversations about how to interpret Scripture today.

This thesis examines the role of the 'outsider' in relation to the community of faith in the Hebrew Bible. 'My God will be your God' explores recent work on election, providing a context in which to examine how 'outsiders' operate across a range of biblical narratives. Taking a canonical approach to the role of such 'outsiders', it undertakes an investigation of five figures in the biblical texts whose actions have a particularly significant impact on the chosen people - Zipporah, Jethro, Rahab, Ruth, and Jael - assessing the extent to which each may be seen as 'outsider' and as a divine agent of change and transformation. Paying close attention to the language used by and about them, their motives and actions, patterns emerge concerning the role of such figures in the divine economy. The treatment of two further figures, Vashti and Aseneth, is then explored, to determine the extent to which comparable 'outsiders' have been similarly received. Examining the reception of each figure in extra-biblical tradition and subsequent commentary, it discerns the interpretative moves which have been made to minimise the threat posed by such 'outsiders', and discusses the far-reaching and long-lasting impact which they have within the salvation history of Israel. The case studies are used to propose a theological understanding of the role of 'outsiders' as an integral part of God's self-communication to the 'elect', a feature of the divine economy which has practical implications for the self-understanding of communities of faith. Finally, some of the implications for dialogue, engagement, and the formulation of doctrine are addressed in the light of the study's findings, proposing a new, scripturally based understanding of the role of the outside voice for today's faith traditions.

Christian tradition, rooted in scripture, affirms both that God seeks His own glory, and that God is love. However, these goals appear to be in tension, with seeking one's own glory seeming self-centred, while love being oriented towards the other. This thesis explores how Jonathan Edwards resolved this tension in The End of Creation. In this work, Edwards draws on scriptural and philosophical arguments to resolve the question using a concept of theosis. This thesis argues that the general structure of Edwards' resolution is compelling, but there are weak details in the argument. Many of these weaknesses are rooted in one specific weakness: Edwards' account relies upon a concept of beauty which is too influenced by natural theology to be consistent with classical Protestantism. These problems can be addressed by using the ideas of the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, ironically making Edwards more consistently Protestant. Unlike Edwards, Balthasar develops an understanding of beauty which coheres well with key Protestant loci, notably in its emphasis upon seeing beauty in revelation, perceived through scriptural exegesis and the cross. While Balthasar's account does allow for a role for natural sources in his account of beauty, it does so in a way which centres on revelation, and thereby coheres well with Protestant thought. The thesis argues that Balthasar's account of divine beauty (particularly as found in his Christology and his interpretation of the Trinity) contains ideas of love and glory which help to reconstruct Edwards' ideas. Tension within Edwards' understanding of love may be improved by using Balthasar's aesthetic concept of love, centred on the cross of Christ. This concept of love itself contains a concept of union, which helps to improve Edwards' understanding of theosis. Due to this reconstruction, Edwards' theology becomes stronger, and more consistent with his own Protestant principles.

This work seeks to establish the presence of a "torah movement" in the Psalter through a reading of Psalms 1, 19 and 119. It situates itself in the tradition that sees a shaping of the Psalter for personal study and devotion, but it also respects the insights of earlier genre- and worship- focused exegesis. A survey of samples of recent research establishes the currents of study on the Psalter, from historical reconstructions of date and author to the genrebased insights of Gunkel and the worship settings of the Mowinckel School. It then traces more recent study (Childs, Wilson, McCann) which seeks to understand the shaping of the Psalter and the move from "performance" to private study and devotion. This work seeks to establish categorizations of the "torah movement" as exemplified in these psalms, particularly what each of these psalms might contribute to the understanding of this movement. Each psalm is examined in terms of its genre, literary analysis and its canonical relations. Psalm 1 is recognized as an entrée into the Psalter and the categorization of "didactic piety" of the torah movement is proposed. Ps 19 offers a categorization of "creational interpretation," whereby the torah is understood as the interpreter of the unheard voice of creation. Ps 119 offers a possibility for "unmediated torah reception," whereby torah is seen to offer guidance for the ethical and spiritual life of the individual in a personal and immediate manner. In a final moment, the manner in which this torah movement, as exemplified in these three psalms, serves as a hermeneutic for the reading of the Psalter is examined. Framed within the format of the reproductive, explicative and normative interpretations which this hermeneutic offers, a number of psalms are examined in order to ascertain how this hermeneutic might function and where it enriches their interpretation. Understanding how the Psalter can be read under the guidance of the angel torah allows for a sense of eschatological thrust, security and ultimately the memory of praise.

Hans Urs von Balthasar promotes a concrete metaphysics whereby humans disclose the reality of being as a whole within their lives. Being's superabundant mystery is encountered and manifested in the beauty, goodness and truth of human interactions. This receives its fullest articulation in interpersonal love wherein created being shines most brightly as a loving gift of participation in divine being. For Balthasar, the human capacity to grasp and share being as whole, and so the task of metaphysics, rests in childlike wonder at being's radiant beauty. Against perspectives that laud the autonomous adult self, I develop this aspect of Balthasar's vision to defend the abiding significance of the child-parent relationship and human sexual difference. In this, however, I also critique Balthasar's views on the latter. I claim his univocal identification of the female with receptivity and the male with activity contravenes his metaphysics. Working critically within Balthasar's thought, I extend what is implicit therein: the relationships between mother, father and child, and male and female humanity primordially and paradigmatically communicate created being's fruitful openness to, and difference from, divine being. I maintain these relationships carry a mantle at once fundamental, fragile and full of promise. They inscribe in human nature a predilection for gratuitous wonder at being's beauty. I argue the male-female difference and child-parent relationship serve as co-principles of being's beauty. As such, they underpin the metaphysical expression of human fruitfulness which cannot, however, be limited to procreation and family, but is communicated in the richness of human creativity. Nevertheless, whenever these constitutive relationships are threatened so too is beauty and, therefore, being's goodness and truth, and the human vocation to love to the fullest. Here metaphysics receives its concrete measure of truthfulness in its ability to celebrate, safeguard and pass on the wonder of a child.

This study traces the creation of screen-based Bibles and examines how they are changing the way readers engage with scripture. This thesis explores the characteristics of evangelicalism that led evangelical technologists to become the primary creators of consumer Bible software, and it argues that these evangelical developers are introducing new ways of interacting with scripture that are reshaping Christian practices. The findings of this study are based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in focus groups of engineers and managers working for three Bible software companies and "ordinary" Bible readers based in three evangelical churches in the southern United States. These results were analyzed using insights from a theory drawn from science and technology studies known as social construction of technology (SCOT) and an approach within digital religion called the religious social shaping of technology (RSST). The development of Bible software is traced along a historical schema of four waves: the pre-consumer academic era, the desktop era, the Internet era, and the mobile era. Interviews with employees of Logos Bible Software, Bible Gateway, and YouVersion explore their perspective as producers of Bible software, and their views are characterized by evangelical biblicism and an orientation toward technology that is theorized as Hopeful Entrepreneurial Pragmatism (HEP). This orientation allows them to move seamlessly between their missional identity and the commercial realities of their respective business models. The evangelical Bible readers in this study have adopted software into their Bible engagement practices, and they demonstrate a sophisticated heuristic for determining which medium to use for a given set of goals and social situations. However, their pragmatic bent often causes them to choose the Nearest Available Bible (NAB), which is often a phone or other screen-based medium. Smartphones are shown to increase the frequency of daily Bible reading, which is highly valued in evangelical culture, but also to decrease comprehension compared to print, suggesting that its effects are complex and multi-faceted. This study contributes to understanding the role of technology in redefining religious experiences, and it offers a new avenue for examining the ways evangelicals navigate societal change.

The present thesis is a comparative analysis of Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (LAB) and Paul's Letter to the Romans. The goal of this study is to juxtapose two ancient Jewish texts read within a proposed 'comparative compositional frame' (CCF). The CCF refers to a means of conceptualising the practice of comparative analysis in terms appropriate to the agency of both the interpreter and the texts. My goal is to determine where Pseudo-Philo and Paul agree and differ regarding God's word and the corresponding human response of faith, in order to sharpen our understanding of both LAB and Romans. This goal is pursued through: 1) a critique of recent metaphors for comparison in Pauline studies and a proposal for the CCF (introduction); 2) an exegetical analysis of key passages in both LAB and Romans pertaining to the topics of divine speech and human faith, a critical step in constructing a CCF (central chapters); and 3) a discussion of the similarities and differences between both texts within the formal comparison itself (conclusion). The four main chapters of this study are divided evenly between LAB and Romans, with two chapters examining, respectively, the motifs of God's word and human faith in LAB, followed by two chapters examining those same motifs in Romans 4 and 9-11. This thesis contributes to the study of both Paul and Pseudo-Philo by offering fresh exegetical and theological insight into both texts, and it also constitutes the first substantial side-by-side comparative study of these two ancient Jewish writings to the exclusion of other examples.

From the early nineteenth century to the present, writers and historical observers have perceived parallels between the reforms of Luther and those of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. Some even called Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb the "Luther of Mahometanism." However, in none of these observations did the writers elaborate thoroughly on how, why and what makes them think so. This thesis investigates the validity of such claims by exploring three main questions: What were the reforms of Luther and Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb in essence? How did they author their reforms? And how did they empower them? In attempting to answer these questions, this study examines the intellectual lives of the two reformers, their theologies of reform, their political and social engagements, and their self-perceptions and immediate legacies. In the comparative analysis conducted in light of cultural materialism, this dissertation has found that while Luther and Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb were profoundly different in culture, religion, language and education, they used in their approach to reform comparable authorial and empowerment techniques and strategies. Having identified a powerful concept in each of their sacred scriptures which was neglected in their times but recognised in the past, they reinvigorated and positioned that concept - justification by faith and absolute tawḥīd respectively - at the heart of their theology. From that point of reference, they critiqued the dominant religious discourses of their times and launched their counter discourses of reform. In their method of empowerment, both reformers advanced the social and economic demands of their people and, at the same time, promoted and reinforced the authority of their local rulers. Consequently, and due to other favourable factors, a momentum of social and political support emerged in both societies and transformed their theological teachings to wide-ranging programmes of change carried out by the interested parties.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a heuristic comparison between Origen's and Augustine's different understandings of the role of the Holy Spirit in their interpretation of the Gospel of John. In particular, I will analyse the functions of the Spirit both in his Trinitarian role and in his soteriological agency. In carrying on this analysis, I will provide an evaluation of the extent to which the two authors' pneumatologies are shaped by the Gospel of John. The work is divided in three parts (A, B, C), composed of six chapters. In chapter I (introduction), I will present the methodology, grounds and aims of the present comparison, together with an evaluation of scholarly debate and of primary sources. In part A, I will deal with the role of the Spirit as a Trinitarian agent. I will analyse the ways in which Origen (chapter II) and Augustine (chapter III) represent the Spirit as a Trinitarian hypostasis, his ontological derivation and his status in the Trinity. In part B, after a short analysis of the significance of dualism in the Gospel of John (represented by the concept of 'the world'), I will present the soteriological role of the Spirit in Origen's and Augustine's commentaries (respectively, chapter IV and V), with a particular focus on the relation between the Spirit and 'the world'. Finally, in part C (chapter VI), I will propose a comparison of Origen's and Augustine's pneumatologies in light of the dualistic framework which they both derived from the Johannine Gospel, with a particular focus on the interpretation of the Father-Son-Spirit relation and on the dualism between God and 'the world'. Hence, this thesis will offer not only a re-evaluation of the two authors' pneumatologies, but also a new assessment of the Johannine derivation of their Trinitarian thought, of their soteriology, and of the connection between the two.

This thesis examines the theological imaginary of church planting practitioners currently involved in new church work in the UK using qualitative research methods in an exercise in practical theology. It adapts the concept of theological imaginary from Charles Taylor's concept of social imaginary, seeking to capture for this research how church planters imagine church, their expectations, and deeper theological ideas and images that undergird these expectations. This thesis examines how the theological imaginary of church-planting practitioners compares to themes in the missional and emerging church literature of the last 20 years. It examines the significance of cultural changes in so-called postmodernity and post-Christendom as two contextual elements in the imaginary significantly impacting current church planting. A survey of key, representative literature in the missional and emerging church movements in the areas of postmodernity, post-Christendom, missional and emerging church draws out the major theological themes that might be nourishing church planting and the theological imaginary on the ground. The research uses thematic analysis to uncover themes of theological imagination amongst church planters interviewed in the UK in order to determine whether themes from the empirical research data are reflective of those circulating in the missional and emerging church conversation seen in the literature. The themes identified from the fieldwork are compared to the themes in the literature to ascertain what concepts are functioning on the ground in practice. This thesis concludes by outlining a picture of the theological imaginary amongst missioners, particularly noting neglected theological resources, and makes exploratory suggestions for theological training.

The expulsion of the 'foreign' women in Ezra 9-10 has significantly dominated scholarly discussions of this text, where the identity, bodies, sexuality, and religious practices of the women are analysed as issues that pertain to their roles as women, daughters, and wives. It is men, however, who are the primary actors in the text. It is men who initiate the marriage ties and are implicated in alliances by marriage; it is men's 'holy seed' that is at stake; it is men's possession of the land that is disputed. These debates, it is argued in this thesis, are better analysed as they pertain to men and the production of masculinities. Drawing on contributions from critical studies of masculinities this thesis interrogates men and masculinities in Ezra 9-10 as they are represented, constituted, performed, and embodied in the text. It attends to the 'feminized' masculinity of the peoples-of-the-lands, the unstable masculinity of the golah, Ezra's performance of penitential masculinity, and the rehabilitation of divine masculinity. It explores the way in which the rejection of the marriages and the call for the expulsion of the women and children are rendered sites on which golah masculinities are produced, and power relations within the golah are articulated. This analysis sheds light on the ways in which traits and performances that are culturally ascribed to women, femininity and inferior masculinities are appropriated in the production of masculinities and power relations between men in Ezra 9-10. This thesis posits that the debate over intermarriage is not concerned with who the women are or what they have done; it is concerned with dissenting golah men, and with bringing their masculinities, bodies, and practices under 'management' of those who wield the Torah in the narrative world of the text.

This thesis is an attempt to display and commend the divine ontology that arises from Barth's doctrine of election set forth in Church Dogmatics II/2. A major source of contention within Barth scholarship concerns how to best understand the significance of Barth's doctrine of election for his conception of God's identity. On the one side of this debate, you have scholars (championed by Bruce McCormack) who advance a maximalist understanding of the ontological significance of divine election and view Barth's doctrine as an eternal determination basic and proper to the very essence of God. On the other side, you have scholars (led by George Hunsinger and Paul Molnar) who advance a minimalist reading of Barth's doctrine and contend that the doctrine of election is exclusively related to activity God chooses to perform in the economy of salvation, with no bearing on an understanding of the original and proper being of God. Following the maximalist line of interpretation, I argue that divine election enables Barth to provide a description of God as essentially subsisting in the act of graciously turning toward fallen humanity in Jesus Christ. Barth thus operates with a divine ontology of grace because he insists that God's very identity is shaped by and ordered to the gracious determination to become humanity's God in the vicarious history of Jesus.

This dissertation presents criticisms Dietrich Bonhoeffer made of American Protestantism while at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1930-31 and 1939. It then takes up the duel task of asking what these criticisms tell us about Bonhoeffer's own theological commitments and whether, in fact, his judgments about America were accurate. In the course of analyzing the work of several theologians then working at Union and the broader American theological milieu, Bonhoeffer's reformational and Barthian commitments are brought into relief. It also becomes abundantly clear that his criticisms of America were accurate. This leads to a subsequent investigation of the historical reasons American Protestantism developed as it did, and Bonhoeffer's own genealogy of American Protestantism provides the backbone of this investigation. Bonhoeffer concludes, first, that American Protestantism had its origins in the theological and political rebellion of John Wycliffe and English Lollardy; second, that it was decisively influenced by the immigration of dissenters to America; and, third, that these influences created an American church that largely misunderstood what it meant to be critiqued by the Word of God. For these reasons, Bonhoeffer concluded both that American Protestantism is not Protestant in the same sense as the churches that emerged from the Continental Reformation and that this difference has led to the secularization of the American churches. The final chapters entertain objections to this narrative: first, whether the example of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, an African American church where Bonhoeffer claimed to have heard the gospel preached, should have led him to modify his position, and, second, whether Bonhoeffer abandoned the theological commitments that undergirded his critique during his time in Tegel Prison. Neither objection, it turns out, weakens Bonhoeffer's claims again American Protestantism, though both shed new light on them.

This thesis develops a constructive reading of Jacques Ellul's dialectical writings on technique, technology, and propaganda. Focusing on the critical concepts of myth, justification, and power in Ellul's sociological and theological work, I argue that Ellul's persistent resistance to optimistic appraisals of technology can be read illuminatingly as a sustained effort to demythologise and desacralise a pervasive, powerful, and threatening iteration of works based salvation in the modern world. I also uncover a novel and valuable avenue of inquiry for theology and ethics that is provisionally and constructively explored in this dissertation: the degree to which Ellul's work influenced a younger French scholar named Paul Virilio, who also wrote extensively and critically about technology after the Second World War; and reciprocally, the degree to which Virilio's work caught Ellul's attention and was engaged with by Ellul before he died in 1994. Ellul's life and work features prominently in this dissertation whereas Virilio's life and work is featured primarily as an evocative point of comparison, contrast, and complement at the conclusion of each chapter. I adhere to this structure, except in chapter six, where I offer a more balanced examination of the constructive ethics offered by Ellul and Virilio. With (1) the socio-historical setting of postwar France (2) sociology and phenomenology (3) myth and the sacred (4) the Fall account in Genesis 3 (5) social power and spiritual powers and (6) theological ethics as the principal fields of inquiry for this dissertation, I demonstrate that the writings of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio are stronger, and as a consequence of more value, for theology and ethics when they are read in conversation. Accordingly, this dissertation concludes with an examination Ellul's contribution to theology and ethics, highlighting Virilio as an important figure for further study both in relation to and beyond Ellul's legacy. I also conclude with a constructive response to both author's work which thickens the thinner areas in their theology and ethics and I comment on areas for further research.

How does the final form of the Book of the Twelve literarily present the priesthood to a reader who reads the corpus, synchronically, as well as intertextually in light of the books that make up the Hebrew Bible? While there have been numerous studies that have employed literary approaches to various texts within the Hebrew Bible, few have sought to analyze a particular character or character type across an extended corpus and virtually no such study exists with a particular focus on the Book of the Twelve. This study will achieve two objectives. First, it will trace priestly characters and the institution of the priesthood at large across the Book of the Twelve for the purpose of demonstrating how the cult is portrayed as a literary character. Second, with the larger scope of the priestly presentation in mind, this study will show that certain thematic elements (the priests' connection with the people to whom they minister, the priests' connection to the arena of their service-creation and the temple, and the priests' connection to their role as teachers) dominate their characterization in the Book of the Twelve. The introductory chapters will examine relevant literary-critical schools and their influence on contemporary literary approaches to biblical studies, as well as a review of methodological considerations relating to this study and the Book of the Twelve. Following the introduction will be a series of chapters that focus on the priesthood beginning in Hosea and ending with Malachi. This study will conclude with an overview of the priesthood's characterization in the Twelve in light of the prominent thematic elements along with implications for further study.

Postmodernism is often seen as an enemy of the Christian faith. The term conjures up images of alethic relativism and moral decay. Yet, James K. A. Smith argues that postmodernism helps recover a certain ethos of the Christian faith which was lost or distorted in modernity: namely, acknowledgement that the situated embodiment of good creation supports an embodied hermeneutics of knowledge, best conceived in terms of narrative, affective "know-how." However, I criticize Smith for his sub-cognitivism, misunderstandings of realism, correspondence view of truth, and foundationalism, and general lack of epistemic prescription. Through exposition, critique, and repair of Smith's postmodern epistemology, this project proposes a more robust postmodern Christian epistemology that answers criticism of postmodernism as hopelessly relativistic and arbitrary. Situatedness is basic to Smith's postmodern ethos, so chapter one exposits aspects of the three traditions which Smith inhabits-postmodernism, pentecostalism, and the Reformed tradition-in order to situate and understand his epistemology. With assistance from moral psychology and the philosophy of emotion, chapter two investigates and repairs Smith's most explicit presentation of his epistemology-what he calls a "pentecostal epistemology"-while concluding that it is not in fact uniquely pentecostal. Chapter three investigates the epistemological themes in Smith's wider corpus, presenting him as a postliberal philosopher. By showing his misunderstanding of George Lindbeck and reading Smith against Smith, I argue that Smith's account of knowledge is in fact epistemologically and ontologically realist and referentialist in significant ways. Chapter four enlists the assistance of Reformed epistemology. The chapter establishes the congeniality between aspects of Reformed epistemology and Smith's program when approached as viable dialogue partners, and utilizes the strengths of Reformed epistemology to provide constructive analysis and amendment of Smith's epistemology. The project concludes by proposing the possibility of and recommending the merits of a postmodern Christian epistemology that is both hermeneutic and holistic, while also epistemologically and ontologically realist and foundationalist.

The thesis argues that Bonhoeffer's homiletics, which has not been fully explored, understands preaching as a pneumatological speech event, whereby the Spirit actualises Christ from Scripture, establishing and sustaining the church, bringing a supremely relevant Word into the world and for the world. To substantiate this claim, Chapter One exposes the impasse in contemporary homiletics and the lack of serious attention given to Bonhoeffer's homiletics in Bonhoeffer scholarship and contemporary homiletics. From there, Chapter Two attends to the centrality of the Word of God and the preached Word for Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology, arguing that, for Bonhoeffer, the Word creates the church. Therefore, Bonhoeffer's other tropes and loci, which are more frequently attended to, are shown to derive from his more fundamental dogmatic concern: the Word of God. Chapter Three unpacks Bonhoeffer's focus by demonstrating that as a theologian of the Word, he is indebted to Luther and Barth. With Bonhoeffer's theological lineage located in a tradition that keeps Word and Spirit together, Chapter Four details Bonhoeffer's pneumatology, which is underappreciated in Bonhoeffer studies, and argues that, for Bonhoeffer, the Spirit actualises the Word in time and space. Chapter Five focuses on Bonhoeffer's pneumatology in relation to the way he sees the Spirit operating within the reception and proclamation of the Word. As Bonhoeffer's homiletics concerns the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Lord of all, Chapter Six shows that the proclaimed Word creates and sustains the church in and for the salvation of the world. Finally, Chapter Seven contends that Bonhoeffer's homiletics overcomes the homiletical deadlock between the overly subjective approach of the New Homiletic and the overly objective approach of Postliberal homiletics. Retrieving pneumatology for homiletics reveals how the Spirit takes the objective Word of God and confronts us in the contemporaneity of our subjective experience. Given Bonhoeffer's theological trajectory, the thesis ends by suggesting implications for post-Christendom homiletics.

This thesis provides a constructive account of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ecumenical theology. The thesis argues that Bonhoeffer's concept of discipleship is the operative theological content of his ecumenical works. The crux of Bonhoeffer's ecumenism of discipleship can be found in claims 1) that an ecumenical theology would arise from an understanding of the church as "the presence of Christ on earth" - as "Christus Praesens," and 2) that this church "has the task of speaking [Christ's] word to the entire world." These claims mirror Bonhoeffer's concept of discipleship, understood as simple obedience to the commands of Christ, which can be heard where Christ is present - in the church as Christus Praesens. Thus, Bonhoeffer's account of the church as Christus Praesens forms the foundation of his ecumenical theology, and his concept of discipleship provides its operative theological content. The thesis begins by explicating Bonhoeffer's account of the church as Christus Praesens, revealing an understanding of the church as the present revelatory person of Christ. This understanding of the church inheres church unity, and posits church visibility as an inevitable byproduct of discipleship. As such, the basic presuppositions of Bonhoeffer's ecumenical theology challenge and re-narrate prevailing ecumenical thought on the topics of the church, church unity, and church visibility. Once these three topics have been attended to and placed in dialogue with contemporary ecumenical thought, the dissertation's final chapter presents Bonhoeffer's ecumenism of discipleship. This ecumenical theology does not provide a system, but rather a singular focus upon obedience to Christ's commands. The result is an ecumenism ruled over by Christ, discipleship to whom orders the church internally towards itself and externally towards the world; a versatile and accountable ecumenism which truly engages the whole church, from a global scale down to the one to one relations of everyday discipleship.

This thesis provides a theology of marketing that addresses two main questions. First, even though church marketing seems to work, should the church use it? Second, considering the American church's indistinguishability from culture in relation to consumption in our marketing driven world, how should Christians relate to material goods? The questions are addressed by bringing an analysis of concrete marketing practices into conversation with Martin Luther's theology of the Word, and more specifically, his pro me theology. The comparison between the promeity of marketing and the Word of God serves to focus the attention and action of the church, and reveals that only the promise of the gospel can liberate human beings in a consumer society. The thesis proceeds by providing a brief history of the American Dream in order to describe the context in which marketing operates. Next a detailed review of current marketing techniques is introduced, followed by a systematic presentation of Martin Luther's pro me theology. Finally, bringing the two into conversation reveals that though marketing and the Word of God "for you" have formal pro me similarities, materially they are quite different: marketing is a word of the law that leads to slavery. God's unconditional promise in the gospel is the only word that liberates human beings from this law and creates an identity in Christ, pro aliis, that reorients life in the world, including the goods one buys and possesses.

The purpose of this study is to understand the experience of the Vietnamese women marriage migrants overcoming difficulties in the process of settlement in South Korea through international marriage, and to suggest the directions for achieving a stable settlement by maintaining their sense of well-being, based on the factors overcoming their difficulties. For this purpose, the research question in this study was set as: 'To what extent do the resources of Vietnamese women marriage migrants against the challenges in their settlement to South Korea influence their sense of well-being?' I applied the phenomenological method of Giorgi and Schütze's biographical narrative interview method to analyse the interview data in the qualitative research methodology. Participants of this study, the Vietnamese women marriage migrants, were found to have the curiosity and desire to live in a new country free from the reality of difficult family situations and a poor society, and they chose international marriage with great anticipation and longing for South Korea. However, they have gone through many difficulties during their settlement process. Two factors are crucial: Without enough information on their marriage migration, and their family's strong opposition, led to their worries about international marriage before migration. Even after migration, they spent the time of pregnancy, childbirth and child care without the help of their husbands under the influence of their mothers-in-law who showed an authoritarian style within their family. Outside their family, they were discriminated against and ignored by South Koreans with added inconveniences caused by the unfamiliar surroundings and their limited communication. The factors that overcome the difficulties and maintain their sense of well-being in the settlement process, are found in four aspects: internally, externally, transnationally, and demographically. The results of this study provide in-depth data not only to understand the experiences of the Vietnamese marriage migrants, but also to expand support programmes and centres for their stable settlement in South Korean society.

This thesis re-examines the interpretation of dramatic irony in John's gospel with the objective of discovering an ideal reader response to the phenomenon. Johannine scholars mostly identify the ironies in the gospel and interpret them using methods supplied by modern ironologists, without considering the literary environment of ancient writer and reader. No Johannine scholar has attempted to discover the reader's response to the dramatic irony in the gospel without using anachronistic methods of interpretation. Thus, the thesis proposes a new method of studying dramatic irony, namely by using the dramatic theory found in Aristotle's Poetics. The study heuristically employs three dramatic concepts from the Poetics, namely περιπέτεια, ἀναγνώρισις and ἁµαρτία, to make comparisons with the dramatic irony in the gospel. The thesis discovers that the dramatic ironies in John's gospel exhibit significant resemblances to the dramatic motifs in Greek tragedies. Consequently, the Aristotelian framework of analysing these dramatic motifs can help to provide a better estimation of an ideal reader's response towards the dramatic irony. This thesis concludes that the dramatic irony in John's gospel guides the reader to identify and empathise with the characters in the gospel, particularly those who manage to discover the true identity of Jesus.