The use of models to study mission activities enables not only vivid description and systematic analysis but also prescriptions for the future. This thesis examines the mission activities of the Church of Pentecost from 1917 to 2008 using five mission models: local, regional, migrational, reverse and reflex. Departing from the general pattern, where mission activity is normally shaped from above by a mission organization, members of the Church of Pentecost developed a ‘mission from below’ strategy that has become a feature of all aspects of mission work in the church. These models were formed and shaped by members at the grassroots. Reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses, the thesis proposes another mission model that can be used as an analytical tool to evaluate mission models generally. The ‘Economission’ model which draws on economic principles enables the mission practitioner to assess, evaluate, identify and apply the appropriate model to a particular mission context.

This study is an attempt to do relevant Mizo Theology of Mission in a Mizo context. The author has drawn theological hermeneutics from the interaction of the gospel and Mizo cultural elements with the aim of reconstructing Mizo Contextual Theology of Mission. Methodologically the author employed the postcolonial and synthetic models. This study introduced the Mizos and their traditional elements with a brief interpretation. Then the colonial power and Christian mission came to Mizoram which brought various changes in Mizo society. While admitting that change was a need of the Mizo society and irreversible process, it has also brought problems which shake the foundation of the Mizo society and also alienated from their traditional culture. To regain the lost identity and cultural alienation, revival movements have been taken place and this inspired the Mizos to construct a contextual theology to address their problems. However, the impact of western theology was so great that the present theological paradigm is an exclusive one and not relevant for today. Therefore, the author developed a Mizo contextual Theology of Mission that would seriously take contemporary realities and promote participation in ‘Missio Dei’ in building the reign of God here and now.

This thesis studies the identity, context and features of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India as well as the internal and external issues facing Pentecostals. It argues for an indigenous origin of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, as it is a product of local Spirit revivals in the existing churches and the missionary activities of Indian Pentecostals. It also reveals that both the intra-church as well as extra-church issues place Pentecostals in a ‘missio-ethical dilemma.’ The thesis aims to suggest ‘a contextual missiology of the Spirit,’ as a new model of contextual missiology from a Pentecostal perspective, which has emerged from this study. The inherent theological characteristics of Pentecostalism underline the pneumatological foundation of a contextual Pentecostal missiology. As a contextual missiology of the Spirit it has certain contextual features. By dealing with the global-local tension, it can be considered a glocal missiology. It is capable of promoting ecumenicity at various levels, and so it is an ecumenical missiology. By empowering people to engage in spiritual as well as socio-political issues, it aims to be a transformational missiology. As it is concerned with the well-being of the community, it has the potential to become a public missiology.

The Church of England's approach to urban regeneration has been shaped by government-led regeneration and its own social, political and financial situation, rather than its theology. The encouragement towards partnership working as a means of financing parishes in deprived areas in its 2006 report Faithful Cities is a result of the Church's inability to finance its work in deprived areas using its own resources. This thesis evaluates the impact of Faithful Cities within the dioceses of Worcester and Birmingham. It does this through geographical mapping of deprivation in each parish; review of diocesan policies on urban regeneration; the assessment of resource allocation to parishes with differing degrees of deprivation, and through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (Bishops, Archdeacons, Diocesan Staff, Parish Clergy) in each diocese. Barriers to resourcing parishes in deprived areas through redistribution of internal resources are noted in both dioceses. However, partnership working is found to be impractical for overworked and untrained parish clergy to manage, and volunteers from churches lack the skills and interest to deliver projects which have partnership funding attached. Partnership funding is therefore potentially as problematic as the reallocation of internal resource as a way to fund Church presence in deprived areas.

This doctoral work examines the thesis that mutuality is an effective form of resistive and transformative postcolonial praxis. This thesis is explored through the interpretation of six texts from the Gospel of Mark, read in dialogue with groups of people who have variously experienced poor mental health. When juxtaposed next to biblical scholarship, these reading group interpretations offer emphases and expansions on the roles of identity, agency, and dialogue within the relational dynamics of the Markan characters. Mutuality was found to operate in these texts as a praxis that works within hegemonic power dynamics, that enables other praxes of resistance, and that is transformational of relational dynamics in supplemental ways. Within the milieu of postcolonial criticism, whilst it is not concluded that mutuality leads to the end of hegemonic power, this work finds it to be a biblically informed heuristic for the re-imagining of that power with regards to mental health in 21st century societal contexts.

This thesis develops a Pentecostal ecotheology by utilizing key pneumatological themes that emerge from the Pentecostal tradition. It examines and utilizes the salient Pentecostal and Charismatic voices that have stimulated ecotheology in the Pentecostal tradition and situates them within the broader context of Christian ecumenical ecotheologies (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Ecofeminist). These Pentecostal expressions are placed in dialogue with the particular ecological pneumatologies of Denis Edwards (Roman Catholic), Mark Wallace (Protestant), and Sallie McFague (Ecofeminist). The thesis advances a novel approach to Pentecostal ecotheology through a pneumatology of the Spirit baptized creation, the charismatic creational community, the holistic ecological Spirit, and the eschatological Spirit of ecological mission. Significantly, this thesis is the first substantive contribution to a Pentecostal pneumatological theology of creation with a particular focus on the Pentecostal community and its significance for the broader ecumenical community. Furthermore, it offers a fresh theological approach to imagining and sustaining earth-friendly practice in the twenty-first century Pentecostal church.

This thesis argues that people create their own ‘temporal collages’ in order to balance competing and conflicting demands for time. It uses British Quakers as a case study. From the mid-twentieth century to 2008 the nature of work and family life have changed considerably, and this thesis shows how British Quakers balance those worldly changes in order to remain faithful and involved with the Religious Society of Friends. The Society is in numerical decline, has no paid clergy and relies heavily on time given voluntarily as service. Democratised relationships enable commitment in friendship networks, and the research demonstrates how social capital is built in the much-valued Quaker communities to which Friends belong. The thesis also reveals how Friends choose those communities, and describes what they want from involvement and what they gain. Throughout the thesis, time is considered to be polychronic in order to accommodate the varied qualities given in Friends’ descriptions about time. Polychronic time is heterogeneous and includes the paradoxes, cycles, juxtapositions, interconnections and linear time (that of clocks and calendars). These diverse elements of time are drawn upon to build individualised and flexible constructs with priorities that vary from person to person and are adjusted throughout a lifetime according to circumstance and choice. The result is a temporal collage, a descriptive tool for the way in which individuals compile choices about time.

This thesis examines the nature and extent of the participation of women in the Catholic Church and attitudes towards this, from the Second Vatican Council to the present day in the Anglosphere nations. The originality of this contribution to knowledge derives from the analysis of earlier survey data on the subject authorised by the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, England & Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. A comparative study is made of these findings with those of a parallel qualitative and quantitative study undertaken in 2013 in Scotland. The findings evidence analogous themes running through both the earlier research data and that from 2013. The duty to appreciate the diversity of Catholic women is a key factor. The dangers of a culture of clericalism are evidenced as a serious barrier to any lay participation. The need for education and formation of the laity is identified as crucial, as is the importance of Catholic social teaching in providing a conduit for increased dialogue and respect between women and men. The Church’s emphasis on unity and continuity is acknowledged as both a barrier to, and yet potentially a positive means for, future collaboration between men and women. Proposals are made about how this research could underpin future development in the Catholic Church, particularly in Scotland. These include utilising an oblique methodology and the implementation of a receptive feminism. The facilitation of dialogue would ensure there is true gender equality, allowing the gifts of both women and men to be engaged in meeting the needs of the Church and the world.

Analysis of current pastoral care practice, particularly of Christian pastoral care providers and chaplains, reveals a contemporary lacuna in Christian theological frameworks which contributes to North American Christians’ inability to connect a theological understanding of death with the experience of their human finitude despite the presence of considerable literature on death and dying. This gap deprives many Christians of the possibility of finding a unique and specific source of hope and strength within their own faith tradition for facing crisis. This thesis provides a methodology and theological foundation for a uniquely Christian contribution for facilitating hope, resilience--even transformation--throughout the various stages of life until the time of death. Extensive analysis of Christian views of death, as contrasted with non- Christian views, examined through early Christian writings, late Medieval and early Reformation texts, and the late twentieth century work of Moltmann contributed insights into theological frameworks to remedy the gap and also uncovered themes, metaphors, and language that could be important as Christians interpret life experience and dying. The thesis then utilized three contemporary fields of study to apply the insights into a practical ministry model: (1) research in resilience; (2) Narrative Therapy as developed by White and Epston and utilized by Christian therapists; and (3) hermeneutic theory from Capps, Browning, and Gerkin. Insights from these sources were critically evaluated for application in pastoral counselling, support, and education to help people, both in crisis and when facing death, find a substantial hope that transcends the reality of what they are experiencing. This thesis proposes a distinctively Christian response to death that enables people to retain a sense of their own worth and dignity in order to live meaningful lives until they die. Many people find 21st Century healthcare impersonal and non-empathetic; the work of this theses is intended to be important for helping people regain their sense of self and identity, thereby supporting healing and resilience. In addition, the thesis proposes pedagogic and theological reflection methods that would enhance the practice of chaplains in a rapidly changing healthcare environment that will increasingly require them to demonstrate how their practice enhances the wellbeing of those they serve and provides a contribution that is unique and has value to the healthcare system.

This thesis is essentially an ethnographic examination of the instrumentalist and functionalist reading of African evangelical Christianity that is prevalent in a section of Western scholarship. Thus, it sets out to achieve two primary objectives: to investigate, describe and analyse Christian theological and socio-political consciousness within the context of oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria from Baptist and Pentecostal perspectives; and to use the data to test the veracity of the prevalent account on African evangelical Christianity regarding social witness. This account is succinctly represented by Paul Gifford who claims, among other things, that such Christianity lacks social responsibility and is anti-development and a-political. In order to achieve these objectives, the thesis adopts approaches from practical theology, particularly the burgeoning field of congregational studies, with its focus on qualitative research, and African Christian Theology, with its emphasis on grassroots theology, or ‘theology from below’. Also, achieving these objectives requires an analysis and description of Nigeria’s political economy of oil and conflict, which forms the secondary goal of the study. Consequently, two local Baptist churches and a Pentecostal congregation were selected on theological, geographical, and pragmatic grounds. The thesis is in two parts. Part I, comprising Chapters One to Three, gives the background to the study. Chapter One is the introductory chapter. In Chapter Two an analysis of Gifford’s account of African evangelical and ‘fundamentalist’ Christianity is provided. Chapter Three identifies and critiques the prevalent perspectives on oil and conflict in Nigeria. Part II covered in Chapters Four to Eight comprises the core ethnographic data from the case studies and their description and analysis. Chapter Four is essentially a thick description of the three congregations. In Chapter Five the first set of theological themes from the case studies – God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit – are discussed. Also included in the chapter is their theology of prayer. Chapter Six focuses on the theme of ecclesiology and also addresses their perspective on Christian socio-political role, as well as their theology of conversion. Chapter Seven offers a detailed analysis and description of their experiences, response and understanding of oil and conflict. Chapter Eight, which is the concluding chapter, sets the research findings against Gifford’s claims and concludes that most of them are at variance with the reality in the three congregations. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are offered, as well as some implications the study has for the scholarship on African Christianity and for the three churches. The chapter also includes the description and proposal of a contextual political theology for the Niger Delta.