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Four hundred years after their beginnings in Europe, Baptists are still proud of their reliance on scripture, which has been at the centre of their devotional life and the basis for their ethics and practice. Among British Baptists, however, sustained self reflection on the reception of the biblical text has been neglected, resulting in a lack of a framework for understanding and negotiating interpretative diversity within the community. From a different perspective, and critical of'reductionist' Old Testament study, WaIter Brueggemann encourages the church and academy to dissent from a dominant interpretative hegemony no longer appropriate in a postmodern context. His work presents Baptists with an imaginative dialogue partner for considering their hermeneutics. His rhetorical and sociological criticism accentuates the dialectical aspect of the biblical text which he believes is crucial to Israel 's faith practice in dialogical relationship with God. In relation to a specific interpretative community, Brueggemann's commitment to the ongoing interaction of sometimes conflicting testimonies stimulates the work of aspirational Baptist helmeneutics, which draws on, and develops, key Baptist themes of covenant and the ongoing search for further light and truth. The fruits of this reinvigorated approach are highlighted in an analysis of Psalm 22. In developing Brueggemann's analysis for the British Baptist context, a renaissance of the Baptist understanding of covenant relationships helps create a hermeneutical context in which Baptists may negotiate interpretative diversity constructively. A renewed commitment to Baptist covenantal understanding of discipleship as 'walking together with God and with each other' requires a willingness not to 'close down' the process of ongoing biblical interpretation in a desire for interpretative stability and certainty. Instead, a willingness to risk a dialogical openness to the voice of divine and human covenant partners, constitutes interpretation that is always 'on the way and in the fray ' .

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This study assesses the imperial cult as a possible background for understanding the social setting of Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches. After providing a new reading of certain sections of the letter, I offer a fresh hypothesis for the situation of the Galatian churches. The thesis also aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the importance of the imperial cult for our appreciation of the setting of the NT writings. In order to place this study within the broader context of Galatians scholarship, I first discuss some recent studies on the social and religious context of Galatians, including two hypothesis on the setting of the letter with special reference to the imperial cult. The chapter ends by setting out the aims of, and the approach taken in, this study (Chapter One). The thesis is then advanced in two parts, each consisting of two chapters. In Part One, ‘The Imperial Cult and Ideology in the Roman World and in Galatia’, I begin with a thematic sketch and assessment of emperor worship and imperial ideology during the Julio-Claudian period (Chapter Two). This chapter is followed by a more specific study on the province of Galatia; its primary aim is both to explore historically and to assess critically the presence and reception of imperial ideology and the public worship of the emperor (Chapter Three). In Part Two, ‘The Imperial Cult in the Galatian Letter’, I then turn to Paul’s letter in order to evaluate the imperial cult as a backdrop from which to understand the crisis in Galatia. I begin with a study of Gal 6.12-13, specifically Paul’s claim that the ‘agitators’ were compelling the Galatians to be circumcised only that they (the agitators) might avoid persecution for the cross of Christ. After arguing that Paul’s charge in the first instance should be taken at face value, I evaluate critically the recent hypothesis that the sources of persecution were the civic authorise, who were persecuting the members of the Galatian churches for not observing the imperial cult (Chapter Four).

This thesis considers the ‘problem of labour’ from a theological perspective. I begin with a survey of twentieth century theologies of work, contrasting differing approaches to the contemporary reality of work, and the relation between divine and human work. I go on to explore the nineteenth and twentieth century debates about labour under capitalism: Through a reading of Weber’s <i>Protestant Work Ethic</i>, I argue that the triumph of the ‘spirit of utility’ is crucial to understanding notions of modern work, and that this is bound up historically with an anti-theological agenda. In exploring Marx’s critique of labour, I argue that the very possibility of critique was premised upon a version of unalienated labour which Marx derived from the quasi-theological traditions of German Romanticism. This critique was however compromised when these sources were suppressed in favour of the anti-theological prejudices of political economy, creating contradictions that have continued to haunt the Marxist tradition, as illustrated i the work of the Frankfurt School. The English Romantic tradition of social criticism, as represented by Ruskin and Morris, represents another critique of labour, which was more explicit about its theological presuppositions, criticising contemporary labour conditions on the basis of a vision of true work as art, like God’s work in creation. Finally I turn to various twentieth century Catholic thinkers who supplement this aesthetic tradition with classical metaphysical categories which help them to think through the nature of art and the relationship between utility and non-utility in work. Such a perspective enables us to see the ultimate nothingness of utility, and how non-utility can be not only defended against work, but also extended to transform work so that it participates more fully in divine work, and so becomes a liturgical offering.

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This thesis is written as a response to a movement within contemporary scholarship that has tried to date Qoheleth to the Persian period rather than to the more generally-accepted Ptolemaic period. In Part 1 of the thesis I examine the arguments that have been put forward in favour of a Persian date. I look at five areas which provide evidence for dating Qoheleth. These are: Qoheleth's place in the Israelite wisdom tradition; literary parallels between Qoheleth and other Ancient Near Eastern and Greek texts; linguistic characteristics of Qoheleth; the political history of the time; and the archaeological data which derives from the period in which Qoheleth is said to have been written. Having examined each of these areas, I conclude that the commonly-held date of the third century B.C.E. remains the most likely setting for the text. Part 2 of the thesis then seeks to appropriate methodological insights gained from studies that have argued for a Persian date and apply these insights to the Ptolemaic period. In particular, I try to build on recent studies that have looked at Qoheleth from a socio-economic perspective. I concentrate on those passages in Qoheleth that address aspects of public life. I look at Qoheleth's remarks about the King, Government Administration and Bureaucracy, the Judicial System, the Temple, and the Social Hierarchy, in order to assess the manner in which his remarks were influenced by contemporary circumstance and events. The thesis concludes by arguing that Qoheleth wrote as one who was critically engaged with his society, commenting on many aspects of its life and governance, and did so to an extent that has not fully recognised by previous studies on the book.