This thesis explores whether and how Christian social action groups are responding to generational change, specifically the changes that have been associated with the generation that has been termed the ‘Millennials’. Accordingly, this PhD considers the interactions between contemporary Christianity, socio-political engagement and participation, and generational change. Whilst there has been a considerable amount of scholarship that considers the relations between any two of these three areas, the interactions between all three have received little attention. It will explore these interactions through the analysis of six very different case study organisations, all of which seek to offer something specifically to Millennials, whether that is through an established programme for young adults, or through being a youth-led initiative. As well as highlighting a wider context of change – whether that is changes to Christianity, generational attitudes and behaviours, or cultures of political participation – exploring Christian social action groups that attempt specifically to engage young adults also offers an opportunity to consider the direction that Christian social action may be heading in, work with young adults being understood to shape future trajectories (see Ward 1996). The research questions that this thesis will explore are the following: To what extent, and in what ways, are Christian social action groups responding to generational shifts in attitude and behaviour? How effective and sustainable are these responses? How are these responses – and their effectiveness and sustainability – filtered and shaped by the varying religious positions of the different case study organisations? The emphasis in this set of questions on effectiveness and sustainability necessitates a focus not just on organisational practices, such as youth engagement strategies, but also on the experiences of the young adults who get involved with these organisations, including how they negotiate and interpret their participation, and the various assessments they make of the organisations. As a result, this thesis draws on thirty in-depth interviews with both organisation employees and participating young adults. This thesis will chart the varied responses - ranging from almost non-existent to fairly comprehensive – by Christian social action groups to generational shifts in attitude and behaviour. The six case study organisations can be split into three broad ‘types’. Firstly, I explore two organisations that demonstrate little response to generational change, exhibiting an ‘old’ model that stresses the creation of leaders who will go on to have influence through institutional channels, and need to be equipped with the ‘correct’ principles in order to do this. Secondly, I analyse two established NGOs that show many different responses to generational change, and a range of conscious attempts to appeal to Millennials. Thirdly, and by way of contrast, I explore two social action groups formed by Millennials themselves. This thesis thus offers a typology of Christian social action groups in the UK that can be summarised as: adult-forming; youth-empowering; and selforganising. These groups have varying levels of effectiveness, shaped considerably by their particular religious positioning. In addition, whilst some of these groups seem to have been very effective in attracting young people, there are more questions raised about their effectiveness and sustainability as social action initiatives, as they may appeal to values that, though successful in the short-term, may have problematic long-term legacies. I will conclude by reflecting on the theoretical implications of my research and making some recommendations for Christian social action groups, based on my findings.

This thesis explores surrogate motherhood using Christian ethics within a relational framework. A surrogate mother is a woman who has a child for a commissioning couple who are usually infertile. Chapter one explores how surrogacy is presented in three secular and three Church reports by focusing upon the surrogate, the commissioning couple and the child. The key theological and ethical objections to surrogacy are briefly explored: that it undermines motherhood, involves baby selling, coercion, exploitation and commodification. Chapter two analyses motherhood according to three secular feminists and three theologians. The secular feminists are criticised for not recognising the complexity of motherhood. By contrast, motherhood in Christianity is presented as multidimensional. Chapter three analyses whether paid surrogacy commodifies, exploits and coerces the participants. Theologically the chapter explores human beings as created in the image of God and as having dignity, which can mean that payment does not always have to lead to commodification, exploitation or coercion. Chapter four explores whether paid surrogacy involves baby selling. Theologically the chapter explores the concepts of the self and other in Augustine and Aquinas. It also explores agape in Anders Nygren and Gene Outka, arguing that self-interest and altruism can co-exist with care for the self and the other in a relational framework without detriment. Comparisons are made with blood donation to suggest that paid and unpaid surrogacy can operate together without paid surrogacy being regarded as baby selling or the purchase of parenthood. Finally, chapter five outlines three models towards surrogacy: a contract model, an adoption model and my relational approach, influenced by Louis Janssens’ personalism. My relationalism aims for a more sophisticated ontology of the relationship between the self and the other and calls for various solutions in a surrogacy custody dispute.

Identifying what is important in the self-interpretations of young people who report no religion, this study examines how relationships of difference to religion relate to matters of importance. Twenty-three Year 10 pupils (14- and 15-year-olds) from two non-denominational secondary schools in the West Midlands who ticked the ‘no religion’ box on a questionnaire were asked to take photographs to represent what was important to them. These were used as prompts for discussions during one-to-one interviews that explored what was important to these young people, before asking questions about religion and their reasons for reporting none. Taking a relational approach to the study of non-religion (Lee 2012a; Quack 2014), this thesis identifies participants’ relationships of difference to their constructions of religion. Understanding identity as a self-interpretation relating to things that matter to us (Taylor 1989), it determines whether and how relationships of difference are significant in participants’ self-interpretations and how, therefore, ticking the ‘no religion’ box on a questionnaire relates to issues of identity. Participants’ constructions of religion and their decision to report none were influenced by what they considered to be matters of importance, and what they considered to be important was reflected in their beliefs about life, the end of life, life after death, God, the supernatural and prayer. While many participants held beliefs adapted from religious traditions, they considered these to be different from those they associated with religion. The question of whether participants expressed non-religious identities depends on the relative significance of relationships of difference to religion in participants’ self-interpretations. For the majority of participants, relationships of difference to religion were not of central importance, meaning that very few should be categorised as having non-religious self-identities. Implications are drawn for the study of youth, religion and non-religion and for the teaching of religion and belief in schools.

Genesis 2:23 speaks of a miraculous couple in a literal one-flesh union formed by God without a volitional or covenantal basis. Genesis 2:24 outlines a metaphoric restatement of that union whereby a naturally born couple, by means of a covenant, choose to become what they were not in a metaphoric one-flesh family union—such forms the aetiology of mundane marriage in both the Hebrew Bible and the NT. It is this Gen 2:24 marriage that is understood in the Hebrew Bible as the basis of the volitional, conditional, covenantal relationship of Yahweh and Israel, and in the NT of the volitional, conditional, covenantal relationship of Christ and the church—that is, Gen 2:24 is the source domain which is cross-mapped to the target domain (God ‘married’ to his people) in the marital imagery of both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. It is an imagery that embraced the concept of divorce and remarriage. The NT affirms that the pattern for mundane marriage is to be found in Gen 2:24 (Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). But NT scholars and the church have conflated the aetiology of the Gen 2:24 marriage with that of Adam and Eve’s marriage described in Gen 2:23, and thus see that the NT teaches that mundane marriage is to be modelled on the primal couple—a model that imposes restrictions on divorce and remarriage that are not found in the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, this study suggests that the NT writers would not employ an imagery they repudiated in their own mundane marriage teaching, and that an exegesis of that teaching can be found, focusing on divorce and remarriage, which is congruent with its own imagery.

The thesis considers the career of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) which was founded in 1892 to promote missions and to recruit students for missionary work. As it grew, the SCM extended its operations to the founding and servicing of Christian Unions in colleges and progressively abandoned its evangelical roots and come to play a major part in the development of liberalism and ecumenism. In the nineteen sixties it became more radical than liberal and developed an interest in Marxism and alternative life styles. The career of the conservative evangelical Inter-Varsity Fellowship (IVF), formed as a result of a number of schisms from SCM, is also charted. These two movement organisations are considered in the light of ideas derived from the sociology of social movements. In the Introduction a brief critical account of various dominant theories of social movement origination is presented and elements of an alternative, voluntaristic, and essentially processual account are advanced. The careers of SCM and IVF are used to suggest correctives to a number of theoretical insights that have been developed on the basis of an exaggeration of the division between stable society and social movement. Particular topics dealt with include the growth and spread of social movements, goal transformation, schism and decline. It is argued that the rapid rise of SCM can be understood as resulting from (a) the existence of a wealthy milieu which accepted the movement as legitimate and (b) the SCM's attitude towards its own purpose and ideology which was open and inclusive. This denominationalism allowed the SCM to utilise the resources of the milieu and to recruit rapidly. It also laid the foundation for an erosion of purpose and identity. Many of the problems that promoted the decline of the SCM were caused by the particular nature of its constituency, recruiting as it did among students and experiencing therefore a high membership turnover, but a full understanding of the contrast between the decline of SCM and the stability of lVF requires consideration of the ideologies that informed the two organisations. For this reason the final chapter is concerned with the reasons for the precariousness of liberal protestantism and the strength of conservative evangelicalism.

This thesis explores chosen practices of silence in contemporary Christian women’s lives, insubstantially addressed within the literature of feminist and practical theologians. A survey of their discourse, which predominantly addresses the imposed silencing of women and the attendant quest for authentic voice to name their experiences, is supplemented by interdisciplinary exploration of silence within wider theologies, Quaker Studies, linguistics, and the talking and arts therapies. Employing feminist research methodologies, this qualitative study utilises descriptively rich material from semi-structured interviews to consider the function of silence within research interviews, to identify and map women’s engagement within a spectrum of practices of silence, to explore their role in the women’s spiritual journeys, and to highlight difficulties reported in sustaining this discipline. Data analysis shows that although frequently associated with solitude, practices of silence are valued as transformational in the women’s relationships with God, self, and others. A metaphor of a web is proposed to represent the process of relational change, and silence’s potential in developing relationally responsible communities is advocated. Explanations for feminist theologians’ neglect of chosen silence are derived from the analysis, and this discipline is invited to re-engage with silence as a resource for discovering authentic identity beyond egoic selfhood.

No description available.

This thesis frames the transition into motherhood as a rite of passage; proposes a new model for the rite of passage into motherhood based on the four seasons; and highlights the importance of contextual and specific ritual actions or sequences to navigate the transition. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with ten western women, from a middle class, Christian background, who had all become mothers through childbirth, are examined under three main headings. Firstly, the women’s experiences of their transition are explored using rites of passage theory as a lens. Although significant differences emerge, particularly from a gender perspective, important themes within the women’s experiences are highlighted, including the nature of relationships; the importance of support; journaling; and the telling of birthing stories. The influences of contemporary cultural aspects such as the medicalization of childbirth and myths about motherhood are also taken into account. Secondly, the field of ritual studies is explored in order to provide a framework in which to situate the women’s ritualizing. Existing rituals associated with motherhood are analysed and gaps are identified in existing Christian liturgical resources for this area, specifically for ritual actions or sequences marking motherhood as a rite of passage, and for the expression of birthing stories. A working definition of ritualizing is also established and the research findings are divided according to time frame, exploring the women’s ritualizing before birth, around birth and after birth. Thirdly, spirituality in relation to childbirth and the transition into motherhood is explored and its place within healthcare and theological literature examined. Nicola Slee’s theory on women’s faith development is used to draw out some of the patterns that emerge from the interviewees’ experiences, and the sacramental nature of birthing is considered. The thesis concludes with a critique of implications and associated suggestions for those within a church or healthcare context with responsibility for the pastoral and spiritual care of women during their transition into motherhood.

No description available.

The late antique figure of the female monk has been commented upon within the spheres of socio-history, theology, and literary analysis, but no comprehensive study has focused on the contemporary historical and gendered context. This thesis therefore reexamines female transvestite monk hagiographies, revealing that the female protagonists are portrayed as possessing a holy womanhood regardless of having layers of masculinity applied to them. Three layers of masculinity, namely outward, social, and inward, are identified in the characterizations of the female monks. Each masculine layer is scrutinized separately to explore its purpose in the plot structures and to show plausible motivations for the utilization of transvestite figures in religious literature. The use of an intertextual method reveals gendered intertexts, or literary motifs, in the hagiographies which serve as familiar ideological vehicles carrying the intended inspirational, instructional, and theological messages of the writers. Through the removal of these holy women’s masculine layers, this thesis reveals that outward and social masculinity are superficial and heavily relied upon as a means of concealment, but inward masculinity, considered akin to genuine expressions of self in these literary characters, is essentially non-existent. Hagiographers had no intention of transforming their religious protagonists into anything but determined, holy women who are forced to act drastically to sustain ascetic dreams begun while mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters. Masculinities and intertexts located in these Vitae contextualize praise for a holy womanhood within acceptable gendered language, which seems to support a belief in the spiritual potential of women. In comprehending the intertexts’ function in these legends, this thesis highlights the potential for complex irony to develop around the figure of a female transvestite, which supplies religious tales with intrigue and interest, the ability to instruct or chastise mixed audiences, and the potential to portray the reversal inherent in the human drama of salvation.