This thesis is primarily an application of the Christian tradition of Just War to the problems arising from the basing of US nuclear weapons in South Korea and the development of nuclear weapons by the regime in the North. The Christian theology of Just War has developed over the last two thousand years, adapting as first Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, through the break down of any enforceable norms in Europe‘s 'Dark Ages‘, to the emergence of the concept of the modern nation state at the end of the Thirty Years Wars in 1648. Throughout these shifts, two issues have remained constant, although their relative weight has changed. First that a war can only be described as 'just' if it is being waged for legitimate reasons, jus ad bellum, and that is waged in a proportionate manner that seeks to separate combatants from non-combatants, jus in bello. Both these ideas were severely weakened in the period of warfare that followed on from the American and French Revolutions at the end of the Eighteenth Century. The new ideology of nationalism brought with it the idea of the nation at arms, the armed citizenry, and with this, a further blurring of the always weak distinction between soldiers and the wider population. By 1945, both the secular and Christian tradition lay in ruins, damaged by the total warfare in the twentieth century when anything and anyone who could contribute to the wider war effort became a target. Also, although not the most destructive weapon, this saw the advent of the nuclear bomb. In response, Christian thinkers sought to redefine the concepts of Just War for a nuclear age, with the potential for the use of weapons that could destroy all of humanity. Some saw this as the lesser evil, when faced with the victory of a totalitarian political system, and others argued that proportionality could be maintained if the size of weapons, or their targeting, was such as to minimise wider damage. On the other hand, many theologians argued that by definition they could never be discriminate or proportionate and that their use (or even the implied threat of their use) would always fail the precepts of Jus in Bello. In the modern Korean context, this debate is not abstract, but has real bearing on the practical steps being taken by all the main parties. The acquisition of nuclear weapons by the North (the DPRK) has meant that the desire for Korean re-unification has become entwined with how best to resolve the nuclear issue. At the moment, in the South amongst the Protestant communities (split between the CCK and the NCCK), this debate has become fixed on issues of practical politics. In effect, is it better to negotiate with the North over the nuclear weapons issue and hope that resolving this will then lead to reunification or is it better to aim to overthrow the DPRK (economically, politically or even militarily) and, this, by definition, would resolve the question of their possession of nuclear weapons. At the moment both the NCCK and the CCK have based their policies towards North Korea (the DPRK) on the basis of secular politics not the teachings of the Christian gospel. The NCCK is tending to overlook human rights abuses in the DPRK, and the threat of that regime‘s nuclear arsenal, in their emphasis on the need to overcome the political division of Korea. In turn, the CCK ignores much Christian teaching with its emphasis on seeking the collapse (perhaps by military means) of the DPRK as a precursor to unification. In this, both bodies seem to have forgotten that they are fundamentally Christian confessional bodies, and as such their public statements should be based on the Gospels, not on the practicalities of day to day politics. Neither approach is particularly grounded on either in the Christian message of the gospels or the Just War tradition. Thus this thesis does not just seek to explore and explain the current situation in Korea using the concepts of Just War, it also seeks to provide a basis on which the Protestant community can resolve their current impasse. This means the thesis is grounded on the Christian concept of political theology, in particular in so far as this approach 'offers alternatives to better comprehend the different postures and approaches towards a solution‘. In the case of the situation in Korea, this means there is no military solution to the problem of unification. Nor can a solution be found in ignoring the human rights abuses in the DPRK. The answer lies in stressing three aspects that remain fundamental to any Christian identity in Korea – of a unified Korean koinoina, that any resort to force must meet the conditions of the Christian Just War tradition, and that, as faith groups, any response must stem from the Gospels.

In this thesis I investigate contemporary education theory as a way of understanding formative influences in the development of Christian preachers. I suggest that concepts of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation, along with recognition of role models and mentors, have a part to play in the life-long project that is learning to preach. In my Introduction I consider a definition of preaching for the purpose of the research and some historical approaches to developing preachers. I examine in Chapter 2 adult learning principles and cognitively-oriented concepts, such as learning styles and the theory of multiple intelligences. In Chapters 3 and 4 social learning theories that I examine include imitation, the effect of role models, and the influence of the mentor or the coach. Further, I ask to what extent the development of the preacher, as in many other professions with agreed standards of competency, does and should take place within communities of practice where legitimate peripheral participation (as developed in the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger) marks the developing preacher‘s sense of his or her own learning trajectory. After a fifth chapter on methodologies, these concepts are tested in three field studies that use a range of sociological research methods. I conduct in Chapter 6 quantitative analysis of questionnaires returned by Church of Scotland ministers, in Chapter 7 qualitative analysis of the published testimony of fifteen experienced preachers, and in Chapter 8 qualitative analysis of interviews with twelve young Methodist preachers. In my conclusion I develop a theologically nuanced version of Lave and Wenger‘s concept which I term a community of agreed sermonic enterprise. Principal practical recommendations deriving from this centre on creating supportive networks of reflective preaching practitioners, enhancing the provision of mentor-mentee relationships, and educating congregations for their role in shaping preachers.

In this thesis I analyse the reporting and the reception of news about distant suffering in the light of John Howard Yoder‘s work on witness. Studies of news reporting about foreign wars, genocide and disasters commonly conclude that the practice of bearing witness to distant suffering contributes to a context where both journalists and spectators appear to have limited moral agency. I argue that the practice of bearing witness has ethical significance for those actively engaged in bearing witnessing. In his work on Christian witness, Yoder demonstrates how witness can be understood as a method for moral reasoning. I assert that Yoder‘s argument presents a fruitful approach for interdisciplinary consideration of the ethical significance found in the practice of bearing witness to distant human suffering. In chapter one, I lay the foundation of my investigation into the ethical agency involved in bearing witness. John Howard Yoder‘s theological approach to social ethics provides that foundation. Central to Yoder‘s claim that witness is a form of ethics, is the premise that presence testifies. Yoder calls this the 'phenomenology of social witness‘. Yoder‘s work opens new ways in which to ask questions about the practice of bearing witness as a form of social ethics. It is from this foundation that I begin to ask questions about the news media practice of bearing witness to distant suffering, the subject of chapter two. Media practices are social practices that involve a dense interaction of many layers of society. In the media practice of witnessing distant suffering, governments, charities, news media organisations, and audiences are all involved in what I call the social formation of the Global Samaritan. The foundational work on Yoder in chapter one allows me to ask the question: How is the Global Samaritan a presence, and to what does this presence testify? In chapters three and four, I focus on two of the prominent groups which contribute to the formation of the Global Samaritan: audiences and foreign correspondents. News audiences as moral agents already seem a problem for Yoder‘s claim that presence testifies. Do audiences who bear witness to distant suffering have moral agency? How can the amorphous and fleeting presence of television, internet, or twitter audiences testify? In the chapter on audiences, the initial claim regarding presence makes for an important investigation into how audiences can potentially move beyond mere spectatorship and towards participation in care for the suffering. Foreign correspondents bearing witness to distant suffering do not face the same obstacles to testifying as audiences do. After all, foreign correspondents are often live, on-the-scene of extraordinary circumstances of suffering. The danger and risks foreign correspondents face in order to report live from scenes of devastation and disaster testify to the fact that the situation is indeed dangerous and causing suffering. Yoder‘s claim that presence testifies is a claim strongly paralleled within the tradition of investigative journalism. In chapter four, I investigate the ethical function of foreign correspondent presence. I consider the foreign correspondent‘s dual role as the proxy 'eyes and ears‘ of the public and the proxy voice for those without a voice. Through these two roles, I explore major concepts involved in the practice of investigative journalism. One prominent issue I explore is the tension between the principles of a liberal democratic press and the practice of frontline reporters live, on-the-scene of extraordinary and extreme situations. In the final chapter, chapter five, I focus on the experience of three frontline reporters bearing witness to human suffering. BBC [British Broadcasting Company] reporter John Simpson‘s reflections on his coverage of the beginning of the Iraq War illustrate the importance of bearing witness as involving real presence on location. Norwegian freelance reporter Ǻsne Seierstad‘s reflections on covering the Iraq War from Baghdad further contributes to the concept of 'being there‘ as central to bearing witness. Focus on Seierstad also furthers discussion on women reporters bearing witness to war. The third reporter I highlight is BBC reporter Fergal Keane. I focus on his reflections covering the Rwandan genocide to illustrate how the claim to bearing witness involves more than spectatorship, but often involves participation. I conclude with an analysis of the media practice of bearing witness, involving the range of reporter presence to the quasi-presence of the audience, in the light of John Howard Yoder‘s claim that bearing witness is a form of social ethics.

This thesis presents a theological account of homelessness and applies it to the state’s and the church’s responses to the problem. This is accomplished in three parts. Part I traces sociological and governmental understandings of homelessness in the United States and shows that government and activists have difficulties coming together on a definition due to the differing political, fiscal and moral commitments that may be required from a particular definition. An analysis of the sociologist Kim Hopper’s approach to homelessness, which claims that homelessness is best understood in the context of extreme poverty that results in residential instability, is then undertaken. Part II elucidates a thematic reading of Bonhoeffer’s theology of sociality. This includes highlighting such concepts as person, community, vicarious representative action, and ultimate and penultimate to describe the world as ordered by the Word for the coming of Christ. This leads to a discussion of the concept of the mandates of preservation – church, government, family, work – that form the world through concrete response to the Word. Then a theological understanding of poverty is defined as persons who are marginalized in society due to their lack of basic sustenance and freedom to flourish. After establishing this theological account of poverty, Hopper’s understanding of homelessness is revisited to expound a theological description. This allows for an application of particular content to what it means to be extremely poor and in what ways access to basic sustenance and freedom are compromised. Extending Bonhoeffer’s account of the power of sin, the forces that thwart freedom in such a way that homelessness may result are then detailed. Part III applies this theological understanding to the NAEH’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness and to Church on the Street’s outreach ministry to the homeless.

<p class="Abstract">This thesis has examined the phenomenon of pupil disaffection in State Schools in Scotland from a Christian perspective.&nbsp; From an overview of literature concerned with pupil disaffection, I noted the absence of theological studies concerned with the phenomenon in the UK.&nbsp; Therefore, I located the study within the discipline of practical theology, developing a critical correlative practical theology model as the framework to guide the research. <p class="Abstract">I undertook research into the retrospectively reported lived experience of six young people who experienced disaffection at school, and who, after a ten year gap from leaving school, re-engaged with education.&nbsp; Having selected hermeneutic phenomenology as both methodology and method, but within my theological framework, I interviewed the young people and utilised Hans Georg Gadamer’s principles of prejudice, horizons of understanding and the hermeneutic circle to gain a deeper understanding of the stories told to me.&nbsp; Having given voice to those so disaffected as a first step I compared and contrasted the themes that emerged from their firsthand accounts with educational literature. To deepen my understanding of the meaning of pupil disaffection, I similarly compared and contrasted the research themes through a theological lens. <p class="Abstract">Using Martin Luther’s theology of the cross, I reconstructed the lived experiences of my research participants within a framework where power and authority turn out to have quite a different meaning to understandings within State Education. I noted that a great deal of educational thought can be viewed as a theology of glory in a world where little significance is given to the vulnerable God of the cross. <p class="Abstract">Having urged Christian teachers to become educators of the cross, I introduced the concept of “bearing witness” to explore how they might begin to address the education system to find new ways of responding to disaffection. Central to my understanding of what it means to “bear witness” as a Christian teacher, is the practice of Christian hospitality.

This submission for a PhD by Published Work contains a selection of my published work from the period 2002-2012. The submission demonstrates my contribution in the field of practical theology to the quest to find a critical space in the dialectic between tradition and experience. The motor of my work has been the varied character of my context, and the discovery within that context of critical spaces to reflect upon its diversity. The publications are divided into three groups. The first outlines and explores the features of this foundational dialectic, with particular emphases on feminist theology and on the Bible. The second discusses and disseminates my pioneering work in developing the Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology, through a pedagogy in which this dialectic is illuminated. The work on the Professional Doctorate programme, which began in 2003 with the first student intake in 2006, constitutes the professional and practical context in which the majority of the publications submitted have been written. The third group of publications identifies the contribution which my research on John Ruskin’s interpretation of the Bible makes to our understanding of Ruskin and to the discipline of practical theology. The work on Ruskin includes the discovery and discussion of unpublished lectionary annotations and diary material, and analysis of these, both in order to demonstrate the ongoing significance of the Bible to Ruskin, and to understand and categorise Ruskin's biblical interpretation. Ruskin offers an analogue to the contemporary dialectic between experience and text/tradition/Bible. Through this exploration an innovative argument is made for the use of an historical figure in the work of practical theology. Conceptualising the pedagogical philosophy and practice of the Professional Doctorate is inextricably entwined with the research on Ruskin, and together they have given shape and form to the finding of a critical space.

This thesis seeks to present a study of one particular rural Paraiyar Christian community in Tamil Nadu, focusing on their religious identity and theological expressions. Such people, more commonly known as Dalits, or Untouchables are a largely socially marginalised group living within a dynamic and complex social matrix dominated by the caste system and its social and religious implications. They are heavily reliant on their landlords (the high caste Hindus) for their wages, food, and access to resources. The village has two Paraiyar communities, one of which is Hindu and other Christian, with intermarriage occurring frequently between them. With one exception, all of the thirty-one Christian families in the village were once Hindu Paraiyars before converting to Christianity. The first convert to Christianity was in the beginning of 20th century as the result of the American Arcot Mission. Fieldwork highlighted various tensions and areas of creativity regarding how Paraiyar Christians negotiate their lives within a marginalised and oppressed hierarchical system. Although the study focuses on the Christian community, it can only do so by examining their wider social context, which is dominated by religious and caste structures, ascribed and achieved identity, symbols, ritual, and boundaries. Recent writing within Dalit Theology naturally discusses Paraiyar Christians, but it is a contention of this thesis that much ‘Dalit Theology’ ignores the social, ritual and basis of rural Dalit life and thought, an omission which this thesis redresses. The main body of the thesis is divided in to three parts. The first part presents a review and discussion of written works on missionary encounters with the caste system in the church history of south India, as well as Dalit Theological writings. The second section concentrates on the ethnographic information gathered from eight months’ fieldwork and analysed under four different themes: understanding Paraiyar identity, Yesusami and the religious worldview of Paraiyar Christians, the utilisation of religious symbols and performances to advance social change, and, finally, the reproduction of social hierarchies among Paraiyar Christians. The final section attempts to articulate a relevant theological understanding of Dalit Christology using Gillian Rose’s concept of ‘Broken Middle’. This thesis does not set out to provide a comprehensive ethnography of this Paraiyar Christian community, nor does it propose a completely new theological system. Rather, it attempts to allow for the research subjects themselves to articulate their own perspectives and opinions regarding what it means to be Christians and Paraiyars simultaneously. This work allows for flexibility and volatility between the two identities combined within the Paraiyar Christian community. I argue that this is only made possible by their fluidity, being able to balance their individual and communal religious identities - creatively living in the middle of their multiple belongings.

This interdisciplinary study is a work of missiology and aims to formulate a model of partnership for mission in the Anglican Communion which can be used as a critical tool in order to understand the failures of the past and enable planning for the future. Throughout the thesis a consistent method of modelling is applied. This consists of the formulation of explanatory models from the examination of real instances, and their application as exploratory models in other contexts. It is argued that the explanatory models guiding the development of mutual responsibility and interdependence between the provinces of the Anglican Communion have been insufficient. Evidence is given of their inadequacy as exploratory models. It is further argued that models developed in response to crises in the Anglican Communion do not take seriously The Anglican Way of “discerning the mind of God.” An alternative explanatory model is distilled from the relationship between Paul and his community and the community of Christians in Philippi. This is applied as an exploratory model and is shown to enable a critical assessment of past and present programmes, and to be useful in developing new initiatives.

Understanding evil spiritual forces is essential for Christian theology. Evil has typically been studied either from a philosophical perspective or through the lens of ‘spiritual warfare’. The first seldom considers demonology; the second is flawed by poor methodology. Furthermore, warfare language is problematic, being very dualistic, associated with violence and poorly applicable to ministry. This study addresses these issues by developing a new model for conceptualizing and counteracting evil using ‘non-warfare’ biblical metaphors, and relying on contemporary metaphor theory, which claims that metaphors are cognitive and can depict reality. In developing this model, I examine four biblical themes with respect to alternate metaphors for evil: Creation, Cult, Christ and Church. Insights from anthropology (binary oppositions), theology (dualism, nothingness) and science (chaos-complexity theory) contribute to the construction of the model, and the concepts of profane space, sacred space and sacred actions (divine initiative and human responsibility) guide the investigation. The role of the Holy Spirit in maintaining the boundaries of divine reality is emphasized, and the ontology of evil minimized (considered quasi-real). This model incorporates concentric circles, evil being considered peripheral to godly reality. I suggest metaphors of cleansing, ordering, separating and limiting evil and discuss potential applications of this model.

The large numbers of Africans that have come to live in Britain in the last few decades have necessitated a better understanding of African Christianity. Focusing on Pneumatology, this study sets out to achieve such understanding by first undertaking a research of a church in London with a congregation made up of mostly Africans. This fieldwork yielded twelve concrete statements or “pattern-theories” on what the church members believe about the Holy Spirit. At that point, a review of existing literature was used to understand these “pattern-theories” more deeply. A second fieldwork was then carried out whereby two of these twelve “pattern-theories” were tested on a larger number of Africans drawn from four different Christian denominations. The second phase enabled the study to achieve a wider understanding based on a more diverse population of Africans. These two phases of fieldwork constituted the empirical cycle. Following the analysis of the findings the study advances five factors which determine African Pneumatology. These are their day to day experience of life, the Bible, their African worldview, the African traditional concept of God and the worldwide Pentecostal movement. The study also suggests that the Doctrine of the Trinity is a key factor determining African Pneumatology.