Jeremy Begbie speaks of music as ‘theologically loaded’: as conveying a sense of intrinsic theological significance. This thesis explores the possibility that music is theologically loaded in an epistemological sense: that music is dependent on knowledge of God. Modern epistemologies, in which knowledge is constructed by the individual human mind, pose a challenge to such a conclusion, since even if divine knowledge is possible it would appear irrelevant for our understanding of objects, such as music, that can be known directly through experience. Because Immanuel Kant presents a particularly stringent theory of human-mind-dependent knowledge, we can use his aesthetic theory as an analytical tool both to assess the epistemological content of our aesthetic judgements as they relate to musical beauty, and to consider whether theological knowledge can be relevant to these judgements. Applying Kant’s aesthetic theory to musical beauty, we find that from within, music seems sublime — defying our ability to understand its form or predict its structure — while from without it remains clearly intelligible. This unique construction makes our judgements of musical beauty particularly dependent on what Kant calls a ‘common sense’: a principle that, although outside our cognition, nevertheless plays a constitutive role in our aesthetic judgements by ensuring their universal validity. The dependence of our aesthetic judgements on this common sense allows for the possibility that musical beauty is dependent on knowledge of God — even when considered within a human-mind-dependent epistemology — and thus enables us to give an account of music’s theological significance that is consistent with modern theories of knowledge. Considered within a Christian perspective, this common sense forms the basis for a grammatical understanding of beauty, in which beauty represents the distance between our awareness of divine providence and our limited knowledge of God’s purposes.

The relationship between American evangelicalism and contemporary society is a complex one. By looking at evangelical attitudes toward work, this study aspires to at least begin untangling some of this convoluted relationship. Drawing upon history, theology, and sociology, especially ethnographic methods and interviews, this study argues that when American evangelicals think about engaging their workplaces evangelism takes center stage. While, at a glance, this gospel and the effort to share it may seem at odds with contemporary sensibilities, a closer examination reveals certain concessions to culture among the evangelicals studied. More specifically, evangelical thoughts concerning work reveal that two central features of the gospel being shared, namely, sin and redemption, appear to be morphing in ways more congruent with contemporary culture. The evangelical relationship with their surrounding world reveals a tension between cultural distance and distinction, on the one hand, and cultural nearness or congruence, on the other. This tension does not mean that evangelicalism is necessarily on track to fail, as secularization proponents might argue. On the contrary, American evangelicalism, it will be suggested, actually finds a degree of sustainability in the world thanks to this tension. Moreover, some of this accommodation to culture accentuates important features indigenous to the evangelical tradition. Evangelical attitudes toward work, then, point to a complex and surprising relationship between evangelicalism and contemporary society.

The thesis aims to reconstruct psychiatry using features from the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. These features are his pre-modern model of knowledge and his ‘tradition-constituted’ method of enquiry. It also uses Luce Irigaray`s philosophy to widen this approach to psychotherapy. MacIntyre`s model of knowledge is changed such that patients have legitimate knowledge, in part because they have been acted upon. Folly, in the sense of retaining good reasons for action while being irresponsible, is a key concept in this. Tradition-constituted enquiry is developed using the institutions of the museum and the assembly to think about Aristotelian knowledge in a way which would facilitate a move to a pre-modern paradigm in psychiatry. Aspects of MacIntyre`s philosophy which depend on his encounter with Marxism are also used in the model. The above model is then applied to psychiatry. The tradition of psychiatry is brought into dialogue with Christianity. By drawing on the work of the mental health service user movement, I propose collective advocacy as a way of providing a space where those acted on can contribute to practical wisdom in psychiatry. Analysing the role of technique and the positivist paradigm in psychotherapy shows it currently sits in the cultural space of community and prayer. I read Irigaray as a feminist theologian and critic of psychotherapy and her philosophy allows an expansion of the pre-modern approach to psychotherapy. I argue for a shift to a modified pre-modern paradigm in psychiatry, for MacIntyrean objectivity in psychiatry, a widening of the practice space, a re-invigorated public health function for psychiatry, patients to become authoritative authors of their life`s narrative and a reassessment of the cultural position of psychotherapy. This philosophical framework for psychiatry can then become the basis of more spiritual ways of caring for the mentally ill.

This project began with a concern that research into Emerging Church and Fresh Expressions groups had too great a focus upon ecclesiology and missiology. Not only did this approach miss a great deal of what the groups were attempting to do, but it also resulted either in sycophantic or scathing caricatures of the participant groups. This thesis argues, however, that through their practises these groups are exploring a much broader and deeper question that is also active within academic literature: the extent to which postmodern and theological discourses can be considered to be appropriate dialogue partners. This research analyses this question in both the practical and theoretical contexts, beginning with an engagement with prominent approaches within philosophical and theological literature. In addition to this, four leaders of ecclesial groups who claim to be engaged with postmodern culture are interviewed, and a grounded theory analysis carried out upon the transcripts. Anthropology emerges from both practical and theoretical streams of enquiry as an important way of speaking of the possibility of postmodern and theological dialogue. The analyses from both contexts are then brought together, questioning whether a coherent and suitably rigorous anthropology can emerge from postmodern and theological dialogue. It is argued that ‘the participative self’ is just such a concept, emerging from a dialogue between constructivist-Lyotardian postmodernism and open-narrative theology. This suggests that postmodern and theological discourses, when carefully defined, are both suitable and important discourses to hold in dialogue. Furthermore, the method of bringing together practical and theoretical resources demonstrates two final points. First, that Fresh Expressions and Emerging Church groups should not be patronised as ecclesial novelties, but rather groups who offer a serious consideration of theological discourse in its socio-cultural context. Second, that holding practical and theoretical resources in conversation is vital to the development of theology.

A literature review on the conversion studies reveals that most models of religious conversion postulate Christian-centric and western-centric perspectives. One of these models is the seven-stage Rambo Model. This study’s main objective is to critically engage the Rambo Model in exploring the conversion process of the Dusun Muslim converts in Brunei Darussalam and to answer the first research question that seeks to find out the actual definitions of the conversion stages as how they had been typically experienced by the converts. The model’s framework is further tested by the second research question which aims to identify the determinant that explains the variations and similarities found in the stage sequence of the conversion process of the Dusun Muslim converts in comparison to those occurring in different religious settings. Drawing on the qualitative data obtained through interviews and the utilisation of relevant literature, the case study of the Dusun Muslim converts confirms the cultural specificity issue inherent in the Rambo Model. Some theoretical changes were suggested where a new concept of contextual components and of culture-free definitions of the stages were added to the model’s framework. This modified version of the Rambo Model was found to be effective in demonstrating that the actual definitions of the conversion stages of the Dusun Muslim converts are unique and distinctly specific, principally due to the effects of Brunei’s majority-religion context. The theoretical changes of the model were also useful in explaining the variations and similarities in the stage order of conversion process occurring in different religious settings. Thus, by presenting a non-Christian and non-western case study of religious conversion, this study concludes that a more generic version of the Rambo Model can actually be formulated and be utilised by future research undertakings.

This study probes the eucharistic implications of the doctrine of the Trinity in the theology of John Calvin (1509-1564). Calvin scholarship has established that the doctrine of the Trinity is the key paradigm of divine-human relationship in Calvin’s theology. Drawing upon this, this study explores how the doctrine affects Calvin’s concept of divine-human interplay in worship and the Lord’s Supper, and how it has liturgical implications for both disciplines. After a reflection on the connection between the doctrine of the Trinity and worship and the sacraments in Calvin’s thought, this thesis shows that the doctrine of the Trinity is an underpinning paradigm for Calvin’s distinctive understanding of the Lord’s Supper as a heavenly communion, a concept by which a personal, experiential, and dynamic, nature of eucharistic communion is highlighted. It also provides surveys of the meaning of the eucharistic heaven, and of the actual mode of the heavenly communion in the ministry of the church, along with a consideration of how this Trinitarian doctrine of the Lord’s Supper distinguishes Calvin’s liturgical thought and practice from those of other reformers. From these surveys it is concluded that the doctrine of the Trinity is the essence of Calvin’s theology and practice of the eucharist.

In this thesis I first of all outline the nature of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Against the prevalent academic consensus that the conflict is an ethnic one, I argue that it is a religious conflict with features of ethnicity and colonialism. I then assess the behaviour of the state, both under the Unionist government at Stormont and then under Direct Rule from Westminster. Pre-1972 I look at the question of discrimination against the Roman Catholic minority community. I argue that this was 'institutionalised partiality'. In the era of the 'Troubles' I provide continuity by seeing through the issue of 'fair employment' and also focus on the British Government's response to the violence in terms of abuses of human rights. My view is that political theology in Northern Ireland has never engaged critically with all the material presented in these chapters. After establishing that religion is the central motif of the 'Troubles', whose political manifestation is the parameters and behaviour of a particular state, I examine the broad sweep of the role the Churches played as they responded to the outbreak of inter-communal violence in 1968. I concentrate on the missed opportunity of the Violence Report of 1974 and what I term the 'ecumenical paradox' of the Churches reaction to the 'Troubles'. I then examine three representative theological reflections on the situation. One advocates a theological response to the 'Troubles' of reconciliation, one of citizenship and one of justice. After examining the evidence I offer a theology of justice, or liberation, which needed to be added to the dominant theological paradigm of reconciliation to provide a cogent response to the 'Troubles'. I give the example of the role of prisoners as a model from which the Churches could learn from.

In Southeast Asian history, Thailand is the only nation which resisted Western colonialism. No nationalist movements agains the Western colonialist rulers emerged as in Burma and Sri Lanka. As far as rural villagers who constitute the majority of Thai population are concerned, there were two significant historical events which had a tremendous impact on Thai society. One was the 1855 Bowring Treaty between Thailand and Britain which gave birth to the seeds of capitalism in Thai society. The other was the proclamation of the military dictator's First National Economic Development Plan of 1961 (and subsequent plans) which represented the World Bank's capitalist model of national development. While the former functioned as an external factor stimulating Thai peasants to produce more for the world market, the latter took the role of internal 'westernizing agent', armed with large-scale financial resources and nation-wide bureaucratic apparatuses, intending to transform Thai self-sufficiency into a monetized/consumer-oriented society. In this process of planned change, Buddhism was considered irrelevant to modern development by the capitalist-inspired rulers. In the course of time, while a materialistic and consumeristic ethos was promoted, communal culture, which is deeply rooted in Buddhism, began to erode and Thai rural villagers experienced much suffering. Even though Buddhism was not taken into consideration in the process of national development planning and implementation, Buddhist teaching (or the Dhamma) and Buddhist institutions still remained significant and meaningful in various aspects of people's lives. The existence of Buddhist teaching and the pervasiveness of Buddhist institutions in Thai society provide a firm basis on which several grassroots development movements have developed. These movements were initiated by Buddhist monks as well as lay Buddhists. They work hand in hand and establish both local and national networks, with assistance from Thai and international NGOs. They carried out various kinds of development activities throughout the country to encourage the disadvantaged to work together in solving their own problems.

This thesis examines the formation of identity in religious discourse as necessarily gendered and embodied. I will establish that while theories of corporeality, bodies and embodiment have explored diverse processes of bodily identity formation, the production of bodies within religious discourses has not been adequately addressed. I develop a critical feminist analysis that demonstrates how and why religious discourses are formative of embodied, gendered identities. Specifically, I argue that historically Christian soteriology has been productive of embodied, gendered identities in multiple ways: (1) soteriological discourses produce normative ideals of embodiment; (2) these normative ideals result in the materialisation of human desires for their own bodies to approximate those ideals; (3) the disparity between normative ideals of religious embodiment and actual bodies produces material effects that are damaging for those bodies which are farthest from the religious, and thus normative ideal. I assert that this final layer of production becomes apparent through reading religious discourses as performative; that is, bodily identities do not materialise in a 'singular or deliberate "act", but, rather, as the reiterative and citational practice by which discourse produces the effects that it names' (J. Butler 1993: 2). I test my hypothesis via a historical case study of those fourteenth-century Florentine soteriological discourses and doctrines which necessitated the materialisation of female bodies as 'damaged' alongside the articulation of women's desires for their bodies to approximate the normative ideal (specifically the resurrected male body of Christ). My reading of these discourses indicates how the normative ideal, because of its necessary iteration, was elastic, enabling gendered, embodied subjects to negotiate their discursive positions and I argue that this negotiation enables identification of female agency in the historical record. However, I depart from some feminist scholarship by disputing that this agency must necessarily be read in terms either of collusion or subversion. Instead, I argue that in contexts where Christian soteriological discourses produce not only normative ideals, but also desires within embodied subjects to approximate those normative ideals, it is contradictory to suggest that agential action must be only either subversive of or collusive with discourse. Female agency in trecento Florence was far more complex.

The religious practices that may be labelled "ascetic" are still alive and well in contemporary Japan, from the strict hardships undertaken by practitioners of various religious denominations to the "fire-walking" by lay people on harmless halfextinguished sacred fires at local celebrations. Despite the various manifestations of asceticism in Japan, few scholarly works on the subject exist, and of those that do, almost all focus on the practices of a single sect, or mention asceticism only as part of a wider discourse. This study suggests the presence, in Japanese asceticism, of threads in modes, circumstances and purposes which can be systematised in order to individuate themes underlying ascetic practice in a more general sense. In-depth qualitative fieldwork involving selected contemporary ascetic phenomena has been undertaken in order to penetrate the reality of the individuals and religious institutions involved. It emerges that the same ascetic feats can be part of the activities of a variety of religious groups, regardless of their doctrinal differences. Moreover, the process through which practitioners build their identity as ascetics, and justify their purposes, is widely subjective. This fluidity appears to be the result of a two-layered hermeneutical interpretation of the ascetic effort: an initial level of cognitive interpretation, which in some cases may correspond to doctrinal positions, and a second level of a 'bodily hermeneutic' enacted through performance. This study argues that this second level existed before doctrinal interpretations, thus allowing the circulation of the same ascetic activities within different religious traditions. My direct participation in many ascetic practices as a part of my fieldwork methodology was aimed at accessing 'bodily data' which in this work is employed in reconsidering the role of the human body as the main tool and text of ascetic practice, and in understanding asceticism as an 'embodied tradition'.