This thesis reports on an extensive qualitative study of women ministers in the Church of Scotland. It examines the literature in relation to women clergy in other denominations in the UK and the USA and considers ways in which the Church of Scotland clergy are similar and dissimilar to their counterparts. The research included a quantitative survey, the examination of data from the Church of Scotland Yearbook and thirty one ‘ministry-story’ interviews. The Survey and the Yearbook produced basic demographic data about women ministers in the Kirk showing an increasing age profile and a shortage of younger women ministers. The survey also found that women ministers considered themselves to be different from male ministers most especially in the fields of collaboration and leadership style. The interviews considered factors in the path to ministry, women ministers in the exercise of their ministry, relationships with congregations, colleagues and the institutional Church. Whilst there was considerable progress in terms of the acceptance of women’s ministry by congregations and the wider community, there was also evidence of a lack of acceptance from some male ministers and an unwillingness to confront the issue on the part of the institution. Women ministers consider there to have been some progress towards integration of women’s ministry within the Church of Scotland but are also uncertain about the future and whether a backlash against women will be experienced. Although women have been ordained to ministry of word and sacrament within the Church of Scotland since 1968, this represents the first major study of women ministers within the Kirk and will provide a background for further study and exploration.

In his book Twilight Memories Andreas Huyssen (1995) famously described contemporary Western culture as 'a culture of amnesia'. That concern about social memory is evident in many areas of contemporary discourse. Social memory's confabulatory, subjective, and ambiguous nature makes its analysis an arena of conflicting and diverse opinions. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachs' concept of 'collective memory', and its use in more recent sociological studies, this study uses preaching theory and practice as a way of addressing those wider memory concerns in the life of the church. In particular, the profound challenge of memory work to Christianity's insistence on remembrance as the foundation of its authenticity is examined through contemporary homiletic practice. It is argued that, alongside the familiar didactic, cognitive, epistemological and contextual categories employed in preaching practice, the current crisis of memory requires a new emphasis on memory maintenance. Sermons are presented as mnemonic events essential to the ongoing living tradition of the faith.

Forgiveness might be said to involve a certain kind of intellectual suffering: we forgive, and are forgiven, whilst a great many questions remain undecided, and while it is far from obvious that they are unimportant. This thesis explores the way in which the difficulties in submitting forgiveness to thought may be significant. Contemporary accounts of forgiveness are put into creative dialogue with the work of Simone Weil, Rene Girard and Jacques Derrida in an attempt to assess different forms of approach to the resistance forgiveness offers to thought. Utilising the work of Simone Weil in particular, and through a creative interpretation of some of the gospel sayings from which the modern notion of forgiveness originates, the argument is made that forgiveness can be seen to involve a process of transformation of understanding that is akin to spirituality of death and resurrection. On this account, forgiveness is paradoxical and resistant to thought not because it involves a simple suspension of, or opposition to reasoned forms of judgment, but because it involves a way of holding together attitudes, concerns and insights that do not easily cohere. As such it calls for a ‘posture’ that cultivates and waits with this tension, rather than a theory that allows the meaning and goodness of forgiveness to appear unambiguously. In this sense forgiveness is an expression of a love that both hopes all things and bears all things; a way of accepting the worst whilst desiring the best.

In the history of Catholic initiation, there have been moments of dissonance between what the institution expects to happen in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist, and what actually occurs when they are practiced at the local level. Such dissonance often then leads to an evolution in the understanding and/or practice of these sacraments such as when Augustine‟s theology of imputed sin created an emphasis on infant baptism or when the drunkenness of early Christians at the Eucharist table led to shifting communion from an evening meal to a morning liturgy. In light of this historical pattern, this dissertation looks at a current form of dissonance and evolution in the specific context of the western suburbs of Minneapolis. Here, the dissonance relates to high rates of initiate attrition immediately following the ritual process despite institutional expectations that initiates be incorporated into the community as actively participating members. This dissonance is documented through two years of qualitative, interview-based research in multiple Catholic parishes as well as several Protestant churches on a comparative basis. Based on these reports, the dissonance, seen among Catholics and Protestants alike, seems to arise from the fact many initiates in this part of Minneapolis live as highly-empowered individuals who regularly negotiate a variety of disconnected social and relational networks – each of which vies for their attention. In this competition of social spheres, initiates commonly leave the church to participate in contexts that they perceive to “meet their needs” such as schoolwork, athletics, jobs, and other extra-curricular activities. As a result, the church appears to be in the early stages of an evolution in which initiation sacraments focus less on community incorporation and more on how they meet needs in an individual‟s faith journey.

In Nigerian Christianity, many theologians and Christians who do not have any formal theological training perceive Jesus Christ primarily as a solution to the problems that confront humanity. As a solution, they expect Jesus Christ to inspire some theological discourses that will deconstruct and overthrow Western theological hegemony, to rekindle the quest to preserve some indigenous traditions, to liberate the oppressed, poor and powerless, to expose the oppressors and all evildoers, to liberate and protect people from the attacks of the malevolent spirits, and to save people from being eternally separated from God. But what these solution-oriented Christologies have overlooked is that the Christ-Event is a paradox for it creates simultaneously a problem and a solution for the Christian community which confesses that God has revealed God’s self in this event. The contextual Christology that I develop in this study probes the theological, christological and anthropological consequences of this claim for interpreting and appropriating Jesus Christ in the Nigerian contexts. To achieve this task, I will converse with and critique some selected ‘constructive Christologies’ of some key theologians and some ‘grassroots Christologies’ that have been informed by social conditions, indigenous worldview, encounter with some versions of Christianity propagated by the West, and some existential issues that confront many Christians. However we choose to interpret and appropriate Jesus the Christ in our contexts, he remains simultaneously a question and an answer to the theological, cultural, religious, anthropological, political and socio-economic issues that challenge us. Viewed from this perspective, I will argue that the Christ-Event upsets, unsettles, critiques, and reshapes the solution-oriented Christologies of Nigerian Christianity. I will explore this claim within the circumference of the overarching thesis of this study; namely, as both a question and an answer, Jesus Christ confronts us as a ‘revealer’ of divinity and humanity. Thus, he mediates and interprets divinity and humanity for the purpose of enacting and sustaining a relationship between God and human beings.

The theology of reconciliation, as it applies to God’s relationship with humanity, has been studied extensively throughout ecclesial history. Currently, theologians are expanding this research to include the “horizontal” element of reconciliation, or the implications of God’s relationship with humanity on human to human relations. This dissertation further examines the development of the horizontal understanding of the theology of reconciliation in the context of two Christian reconciliation communities in Northern Ireland, the Corrymeela and Cornerstone Communities. This is attempted by exploring the use of the concepts most commonly associated with the theology of reconciliation, truth, justice, repentance and forgiveness, as interpreted through past publications of Cornerstone and Corrymeela and in interviews with current members. This study illustrates, through the use of a theology of reconciliation model, how the social context moves one’s theological beliefs between a focus on liberating tendencies (justice and truth) and reconciling tendencies (repentance and forgiveness). The result of this analysis show that within both Communities, throughout the years of the Troubles to now, it has been possible to map a movement between a focus on reconciling and liberating tendencies that correlates to the stability of the social context. Implications for further study include: creating a clearer definition of the theology of reconciliation, exploring the theology of reconciliation within other conflict-ridden areas, and working to establish the theology of reconciliation as existing under the umbrella of traditionally understood local theology.

This thesis is an attempt to understand the suspicion of money implied in Jesus' statement that it is impossible to serve both God and Mammon. I argue on the basis of Scripture, reason and tradition that problems associated with money do not arise simply from the way it is used, but from the nature of money itself. This is argued in three sections. First I consider the history of money and in particular of the commodity theory of money. Second I consider the issues of debt and interest, of central concern in the Christian Scriptures. Finally I consider money through four different lenses: justice, value, desire and power. The argument as a whole leads up to the last of these. As was already suggested by Jacques Ellul fifty years ago, I argue that money must be understood as a cosmic power to which we are all subject and which is in need of redemption. In the second and third sections I make suggestions as to what the redemption of money might look like. I summarise the argument in a final section, 'De-coding Mammon'.

This thesis explores how and why literature and reading, as a practice within Christian families, can play an influential role in the spiritual formation of children. The first part presents a picture of Christian parenting, drawn from three theologians: Karl Barth on parents and children, based in the doctrines of creation and Christology, and the I/Thou relationship; the Roman Catholic doctrine of family as ‘domestic church’, as discussed by Florence Caffrey Bourg; and Stanley Hauweras, largely concerning his emphases of a Christian ethic, the narrative structure of life, and the Body of Christ as essential for raising children. The second part moves to investigate philosophy and literary theory, in order to show how literature is formative, from three philosophers: Richard Eldridge sees it as intellectually educational as one moves between autonomy and embeddedness in moral personhood; Martha Nussbaum argues that it is emotionally experiential, returning emotions, imagination and particulars to a central part of the search for a good life; and Wayne C. Booth presents it as an educating experience, in which one should fully engage with the work, reflect upon it, and share one’s assessments in discussion. In the last chapter and conclusion, four major themes are discussed—individuals in community, narrativity, the good life of faith, and open closure—in order to bring into clearer focus the ways literature and its formative nature can enhance the raising of children in faith, the task of Christian parents.

A recent and minimally researched model of leadership centred in the role of the steward offers potential for a focused and expedient model for leadership of Christian nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this research is to add knowledge to nonprofit leadership by defining the primary characteristics of leadership that is focused around the role of the steward. It will secondarily describe the extent of awareness and implementation of steward leader characteristics among leaders of Christian nonprofit organizations. This study researches the characteristics of the steward leader through two major phases. The first phase of research involves the exegetical study of the history and characteristics of the historical steward as revealed in the ancient documents of the classical Greco-Roman and biblical steward. This study results in the development of a preliminary typology of historic steward leader characteristics. Phase two refines the characteristics of the steward leader by conducting field research using survey and in-depth interviews with contemporary leaders of Christian nonprofit organizations. The preliminary characteristics of the steward leader derived in phase one were presented to contemporary Christian nonprofit leaders through a quantitative survey to confirm a typology of contemporary steward leader characteristics and to pre-qualify participants for in-depth interviews. The survey also functioned to assess the extent to which leaders formulated their leadership role through such characteristics. Ten participants were chosen for in-depth qualitative interviews from the survey participants who self-identified their personal leadership style as steward leadership. The interviews engaged the leaders more deeply in the subject, sought to elicit their understanding, perceptions, and attitudes about steward leadership, and further refined a typology of steward leader characteristics. The research confirms that a primary typology of distinctive leadership characteristics exists among senior leaders of Christian nonprofit organizations who visualize and demonstrate their role as stewards.

This thesis investigates the recent growth of chaplaincy roles in community contexts. A gap in knowledge existed regarding how and why these roles were emerging at this time. The purpose of the research was to generate new insight into the significance of the growth in and practice of chaplaincy in community contexts for the mission and ministry of the church in England and thus to contribute to knowledge, policy and the development of best practice. The research adopted a case study approach. It was designed as a qualitative comparative case study of the emergence of chaplaincy roles in three contrasting geographical contexts of ministry. Data were collected by interviews, observation and documentary analysis providing rich descriptions and multiple perspectives on what was happening. A cross-case analysis identified three main themes from the data. These themes were used as the basis for proposing the significance of the phenomenon. The findings demonstrate that chaplaincy roles are emerging as a missional response to the challenge of engaging with the whole of society presented to the church by a changing culture. It also demonstrates the current lack of conceptual clarity about what chaplaincy is and the consequent lack of chaplaincy representation within the missiological and ministerial discourses of the institutional church. The study concludes that chaplaincy is of central significance to the mission and ministry of the church given that chaplains are located in the social structures of society alongside people whom the churches find it increasingly difficult to encounter. It offers the proposition for others to test, that if chaplaincy is to have a voice in church discourses and if sustainable best practice is to be developed, the identity and integrity of chaplaincy as a genre of ministry need to be described. The new knowledge generated by the research provides a basis for such a description, for the development of the researcher’s practice and for making a contribution to church policy and practice.