The thesis proposes a liberative Mariological model for southern African Christian women disproportionately infected/affected by HIV/AIDS. The first chapter argues that women are disproportionately infected and affected by HIV and AIDS impacts in southern Africa. It proposes the utilisation of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an inspirational symbol for the empowerment of southern African Christian women against HIV/AIDS. The second chapter explains the basic themes of the thesis of ‘symbol’, ‘inspiration’ and ‘empowerment’ in relation to Mary. It also illustrates how Mary is utilised as a symbol of empowerment within the chapters that follow. Chapter three considers some African theological writings on Mary, mainly by African women theologians and also reflects on how Mary interacts with some communities in southern Africa. Chapters four to eight are built on chapter themes of Mary as mother, as mother of sorrows, Mary’s incarnational role, Mary as virgin, and as a revolutionary respectively. Within each chapter theme, the thesis considers how Mary could inspire southern African Christian women for empowerment against HIV infection and AIDS impacts. In chapter nine, a Marian healing ritual for women living with HIV/AIDS is proposed, using feminist ritual healing guidelines, for the women’s empowerment, followed by the concluding chapter.

This thesis explores the experience of spiritual dissonance described in the spiritual life histories of twenty one Christian women associated with the evangelical Christian community in Scotland. It describes the symptoms of constriction, paralysis and impasse which some of these women report and explores the reasons for their interpretation of their symptoms as signs of spiritual sickness. It uses faith development theory to explain some aspects of these symptoms in the context of healthy transitional faithing change. It suggests however that women’s reluctance to speak publicly about their experience, their habitual repression of their deep emotions and questions, their tendency to use psychological ‘splitting’ to conform within their faith communities and resist the fragmentation of their spiritual identity, indicate that their development has been seriously damaged by spiritual restriction in some congregations. It argues that patriarchal church culture, androcentric educational approaches and the deliberate perpetuation of dependent faithing styles militate against women’s spiritual development. It demonstrates the extent to which some women’s interiorisation of the patriarchal structures and values of their communities has led them to separate themselves from aspects of their relationship to self, church and God in a manner resembling the behaviour of those who have been abused. This thesis calls the evangelical church in Scotland to acknowledge and respond to this phenomenon, recognising that while some of these women are at present ‘internal leavers’ in the church - physically present within but emotionally detached from their congregations - they may ultimately make the decision to leave.

Although the advent of the Kingdom of God in Jesus contains as an intrinsic quality the opportunity for repentance (μετάνοια) as often as required, the Church of the first five-hundred years shows serious difficulties with the opportunity of conversion after a relapse in sinning after baptism. The Church allowed only one chance of repentance. Requirement for the reconciliation were a public confession and the acceptance of severe penances, especially after committing the mortal sin of apostasy, fornication or murder. As severe as this paenitentia canonica appears, its entire conception especially in the eastern part of the Church, the Oriental Church, is a remedial one: sin represents an ailment of the soul, the one, who received the confession, is called upon to meet the confessing person as a spiritual physician or soul-friend. Penance does not mean punishment, but healing like a salutary remedy. Nevertheless the lack of privacy led to the unwanted practice of postponing repentance and even baptism on the deathbed. An alternative procedure of repentance arose from the sixth century onwards in the Irish Church as well as the Continental Church under the influence of Irish missionaries and the South-West-British and later the English Church (Insular Church). In treatises about repentance, called penitentials, ecclesiastical authorities of the sixth to the eight centuries wrote down regulations, how to deal with the different capital sins and minor trespasses committed by monks, clerics and laypeople. Church-representatives like Finnian, Columbanus, the anonymous author of the Ambrosianum, Cummean and Theodore developed a new conception of repentance that protected privacy and guaranteed a discrete, an affordable as well as a predictable penance, the paenitentia privata. They not only connected to the therapeutic aspect of repentance in the Oriental Church by adopting basic ideas of Basil of Caesarea and John Cassian, they also established an astonishing network in using their mutual interrelations. Here the earlier penitentials served as source for the later ones. But it is remarkable that the authors in no way appeared as simple copyists, but also as creative revisers, who took regard of the pastoral necessities of the entrusted flock. They appeared as engaged in the goal to improve their ecclesiastical as well as their civil life-circumstances to make it possible that the penitents of the different ecclesiastical estates could perform their conversion and become reconciled in a dignified way. The aim of the authors was to enable the confessors to do the healing dialogue qualitatively in a high standard; quantity was not their goal. The penitents should feel themselves healed, not punished.

This study examines the lived experience and perceptions of the wives of the Elizabethan parish clergy following the introduction of clerical marriage. It challenges the widespread, but mistaken conviction that the first ministers’ wives have vanished from the historical record and shifts the emphasis from the institution to the individual. This has been achieved by consulting a large and heterogeneous collection of archival material including more than 1000 parish registers, 1000 wills, marriage licences, church court records, memorials and some newly-discovered certificates for ministers’ wives. This body of evidence, assembled from twelve dioceses in the southern province and from the archbishopric of York, demonstrates that the story of parish clergy wives can indeed be recovered. Qualitative and statistical analyses of social origin, considered assessments of the extent and nature of the abuse aimed at minister’s wives and a re-evaluation of the persistence, structure and significance of the letter testimonial refute most of the common assumptions about clergy wives derived from speculation and generalization. The impact of clerical marriage on charitable giving is evaluated in relation to the demands of family and the lack of provision for the clergy widow. Scrutiny of clerical courtship, relationships within the clerical household and involvement with her husband’s pastoral ministry enables us to chart the emerging importance of the clergy wife and changing attitudes towards her. Engagement with such extensive archival material exposes the close involvement of ministers’ wives with the wider community and reveals the agency of the women themselves in the advent and evolution of their role. Women who have hitherto been defined by their supposed obscurity and unsuitability are shown to have anticipated and exhibited the character, virtues and duties associated with the archetypal clergy wife of later centuries. The breadth of this investigation, therefore, uncovers and explores a neglected but crucial aspect of religious, social and women’s history.

Training incumbents have long worked to support and train new clergy for ministry in the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Often unacknowledged and uncelebrated, their skill, expertise and dedication has been one of the key elements in preparing junior ministers for the demands and challenges of the role of 'Vicar' in the Church. Employing quantitative data gathering, this thesis seeks to break new ground in investigating the reality of the life of the training incumbent today: their understanding of the role they undertake; their motivation for taking on or persevering in a training role; their profile from ethnicity to psychological type; their priorities and the resources available to them. This research recognizes the importance of context and so traces the history of training incumbency while offering an analysis of the mind of the wider Church on the role of the training incumbent as expressed in various reports. The verdict of those curates on the receiving end of the training is also to be weighed very carefully, acknowledging their unique insights and recognizing that the reality of the training experience for them will be different from that of their trainers. These insights will be treated as equally valid and prized for the way in which they illuminate the training dynamic from an alternative perspective. Psychological type theory will be employed to explore that dynamic further as the project seeks to understand to what extent approach to the training task is born out of theological conviction, personality type, prior experience or Church directives. Above all, this project seeks to celebrate the skill and dedication of an unheralded group of talented ministers; thereby disseminating their learning and pleading for further resources to enable them to continue to serve the Church.

"Older people are beautiful!" "Older people are beautiful images of God!" Even though contemporary western society is powerfully shaped both by the visual and by an increasingly ageing demographic, the above statements are rare and counter-cultural. Yet they are statements totally true to my own experience as a minister with special responsibility for older people. I am drawn to wondering how the beauty of older people can be highlighted in ways that our culture will see and engage with; and therefore begin to own, and even possibly celebrate, the ageing process. In the first part of my thesis I aim to discover why our society does not see beauty in age, or even perceive age itself. I begin with a historical study of western artistic expressions of beauty, tracing a reoccurring and influential strand of classical symmetry and perfection. A social analysis of our contemporary culture of youth is followed by an overview of the church's attitudes towards ageing. All three studies reveal a picture of deeply rooted ageism in society. Alongside these discoveries, an alternative perspective and antidote to ageism is offered through an inclusive reader response to Paul's description of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12. My discoveries inform my choice of research methodology - the ways in which I endeavour to uncover new perceptions of older people and forms of expression that honour and include them. Thus embracing them as part of the Body of Christ. Participant observation, the inclusive tool favoured by social anthropology suits the aesthetic and subjective nature of my research. Older people themselves are my research participants. Group situations, where they play with clay and comment upon portraits and landscapes, enable them to express their perceptions of what is beautiful and so reflect a perceptible beauty of their own. A biblical structure allows the participants' thoughts about beauty to become expressions of their own particular spirituality. This uncovering of an embodied spirituality of older people as vital and beautiful is offered as a counterpoint to a culture that renders older people invisible. I discover that there is much that older people can offer younger generations through their laughter and tears, their interpersonal relationships and their intrepid journeying through the unknown territory of ageing itself. A search for and reflection upon theological perspectives and art images that resonate with these discoveries and illuminate older people as beautiful images of God forms the final part of my thesis.

This thesis is the formulation of a theological response to the modern economic market. It argues for a Two Pillars paradigm for the economic market, whereby covenant and contract serve together as the two “pillars” that uphold economic order. The modern market is derived and developed upon the legal contract that supports and governs economic activities. Non-contractible assertions in the market remain background presuppositions, of which enactment depends largely on the individual economic agent. In the Two Pillars paradigm, I argue that the theological covenant and the legal contract are equally significant assertions that interact and complement each other to uphold a well-balanced economic market. They are both essential in deriving a market that promotes genuine human relationship, freedom and economic justice. In this study, the covenant foundation of society and its economic significance are rediscovered and examined. The universality and relevance of the covenant concept for economic order is explored, and the covenant compared and contrasted with the contract to show their distinctiveness, significance and interaction in the market. The Two Pillars paradigm is then presented and illustrated through the example of long-term employment arrangements to demonstrate its practicability and potential use as a dialogical framework to examine other economic relationships. Finally, market fundamentals including market motif, limits, assumptions, morality and regulations are explored in dialogue with the Two Pillars response to economics. This study should appeal to a wider audience beyond the ecclesiastical community, placing it in the arena of public theology. It draws upon the thoughts of economists to examine the Two Pillars paradigm in a wider context. The result is an interdisciplinary study offering a theological-based paradigm that addresses the situation of the modern market in a fundamental and practical way.

There is continuing interest in religion and spirituality in Britain, although membership of mainstream churches is declining. Perceived secularisation of contemporary British society, together with increasing competition from ‘New Age’ movements, is causing many churches to review their approach to mission. This study considers the impact of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s strategy, Mission 21, during 1999-2004, initially under the controversial leadership of Primus Richard Holloway. Its explicit aim was to create a ‘postmodern’ church, attractive to those ‘on the margins of faith’. The research discovered that managerial and sociological approaches alone are insufficient to understand meaning and change in organisations, and that unique insights into the cultural change process may be gained from understanding of psychological individual differences, both of organisations and their members. In this case the instrument used was the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and derived Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS). A case study approach was adopted to develop theory grounded in the data, collected from grass roots congregations in the shape of MBTI profiles of clergy and key players, and a repertory grid analysis of the clergy role; and at strategic level with a participant observation study. Clergy were expected to be spiritual enactors of worship, leaders and managers of resources, and, most importantly for congregational key stakeholders of all personality types, to minister to congregations’ emotional needs. This tended to inhibit their ability to drive through culture change. The Church’s culture appeared predominantly traditionalist, although there was also evidence of a more liberal and mystical strain. However, the aim by Holloway to attract the interest of ultra-liberals was seen to extend the Church’s ‘market niche’ further than could be sustained even in a relatively heterogeneous culture. The research indicated that change in a faith-based organisation, concerned with people’s deepest emotions and anxieties, cannot ignore individual differences at the expense of managerial factors when understanding of the former provides a unique insight into the change process.

This thesis is a theological reflection on substance use and misuse. René Girard’s mimetic theory of human Desire is used as a hermeneutic to explicate the formation of self in Western modernity. The role of intoxicative and hallucinogenic substances in Western culture is seen primarily as facilitating the Capitalist template of homo oeconomicus whose central tenets are individualism, autonomy and rationalism. The mind-altering quality of such substances is a means to cope with the existential angst of individualist modes of life and provides, in the milieu of social interaction, an artificial and temporary sense of connectedness with others. Humanity’s ubiquitous search for connectedness and meaning beyond itself is argued as its defining spiritual character. Consequently the addiction recovery principle of sobriety through accountability to a Higher Power – seen as a spiritual principle and practised in recovery programmes based on the twelve-step method of Alcoholics Anonymous – provides the foundation for the empirical aspects of this study. Lifestory narratives of a sample of recovering individuals reveal the spiritual roots of substance misuse as disconnection and isolation from certain significant others (such as parents), or from a normative code of early social settings (such as schools). The role of intoxicative and hallucinogenic substances in providing alternative means of connection and belonging is illustrated through the mimetic patterns in the narrative accounts which substantiate Girard’s reading of human Desire as fundamentally contingent upon the Other. In considering the implications for the Church’s praxis, Girard’s notion of nonrivalistic mimesis is elucidated as an antidote to Capitalist Desire in which the Church unwittingly participates. Hauerwas’ vision of a communal and sacrificial witness is put forward as an alternative template for the Church in its witness and offer of Christocentric relationality whose economy of Love removes the need for mindaltering substances in order to affirm one’s identity.

This thesis argues that since in our increasingly secularised culture one of the very few direct points of contact between the Church of England and the young is the ministry of school chaplains, theirs is a vital ministry for the Church and its future. The study described in the thesis researched school chaplaincy in Church of England secondary schools to establish what chaplains do, how they understand their ministry and how school students themselves respond to chaplaincy. Originating in the researcher’s professional role in support of school chaplains, the research was undertaken on a multi-method basis. Initial scoping interviews were undertaken with school chaplains and headteachers in a range of schools. A full literature review located school chaplaincy within the conceptual contexts of missiology, ministry and chaplaincy. In-depth interviews with school chaplains explored their self-understanding as ministers. A national, internet-based survey of all contactable school chaplains was undertaken to explore issues identified earlier in the study, and a series of focus-group interviews was undertaken with senior school students. The research revealed that chaplains perceive little awareness within the Church of England of the missional significance of their ministry, although individual chaplains emerged as highly-motivated spiritual professionals committed to the pastoral welfare of their communities, and with a strong sense of their mission as ‘God people’. From a wide variety of ecclesial and personal backgrounds and working in very different school contexts, chaplains have multiple, significant functions which are well understood by school students, and exercise a ‘ministry of presence’. The research evidence highlights the need for greater recognition of the ministry of school chaplains and for structures of support and development to resource this vital ministry. The thesis concludes with an outline of policy proposals for the Church in the light of the recent development of a new ‘para-chaplaincy’.