This thesis answers the question How might an understanding of shame in the church inform approaches to ministerial praxis? It is methodologically a creative piece of practical theology which begins and ends with an autoethnographic reflection, drawing on the metaphor of landscape. The practical theology methodology involved the following stages: noticing; reflexivity; describing, naming; focusing; investigating; analysing; evaluating; theorizing, synthesizing; and responding, while drawing on insights from a mixed methods approach to qualitative research. The empirical research involved an anonymous online survey (261 respondents) to church leaders, church members and theological educators and two representative focus groups. Shame is defined phenomenologically using a range of disciplines; a review of literature relevant to shame and ministerial praxis is included. The unique contribution this thesis makes is twofold. Firstly, the development of an empirically underpinned typology of shame in the church which has six domains: personal, relational, communal, structural, theological and historical facilitating the identification of shame which is often a hidden phenomenon. Secondly, identifying specific approaches to ministerial praxis which help mitigate such shame including a shame examen to assist conscientization. The final chapter discusses the author’s learning about shame, ministerial praxis, doing theology and theological education.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften--Aachen--Rheinisch-Westfälische technische Hochschule, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 454-479. Index.

This study is a work of Practical Theology aiming to create an interpretative paradigm within which to evaluate faith brands theologically and identify whether faith brands are problematic or beneficial to Christian faith. The research used qualitative research techniques – five focus groups drawn from a church in the East Midlands, triangulated with interviews with practitioners in both marketing and ministry, and documentary analysis of faith brands. An element of comparison was possible between focus groups by grouping those church members who self-identified as “charismatic/evangelical” into three groups and examining how the data generated in those groups compared with the other two groups, drawn from a more “central Anglican” tradition. The importance of relationships and the motif of the faith being a journey and a process are validated by the data. Some of the problematic issues that faith brands raise for Christian faith – including challenges of ecclesiology, and the risk of a reductionist approach to faith – are considered both from the perspective of faith brands (such as the Alpha course) which might be considered as “McDonaldising” the faith, as well as the perspective of more “localized” faith brands, embodied within the “Fresh Expressions” movement. The results suggest that whilst faith brands do pose risks for Christian faith – including the danger of reductionism, or challenges to traditional ecclesiology - they can also be beneficial where they are utilized in ways that are sensitive to the context in which individuals are relating to them. This PhD makes an original contribution to knowledge through by exploring in detail the impact of faith branding upon some members of East Midlands Churches, in itself an original focus of study. It also makes an original contribution by utilising the insights of Rational Choice Theory to interrogate the data and extends the field of Practical Theology in also beginning to develop a constructive theology of branding. Tracing the contours of an emerging theology of branding, the Apostle Paul’s contextual missionary flexibility is noted alongside an acknowledgement that creation is both fallen, and yet also nevertheless pregnant with goodness and grace. It is suggested (through drawing on insights in the work of Cavanaugh) that faith brands can be located comfortably within an Augustinian framework with respect to notions of choice and desire. Within a theological evaluation, faith brands could be seen to offer a way of seeking to influence the will towards to God – and as such, offer a counterpoint to consumer brands, because they are a means to what is understood theologically to be a true end (God), whereas in consumerism, the end is simply to continue desiring to buy. Finally, the notion of the missio Dei and Bosch & Sherry’s theology of the work of the Holy Spirit are offered as ways of understanding of how God works through human culture and human creativity.

The worship service of the Yoruba Baptist Churches of the Nigerian Baptist Convention reflects the Western ways of life. The Nigerian Baptist pastors are oriented from the seminary where suits and ties are the official dress for ministration, the teaching of theology is Western oriented, many of the worship services are conducted in English language, most brides and bridegrooms often put on Western clothes during their wedding ceremonies and Western music and musical instruments are used to the detriment of the indigenous ones. Most of the African ways of life are not encouraged. Consequently, the worshippers are alienated, confused, disoriented and dissatisfied. This alienation is the result of what I describe in this research as ‘psychological slavery’.In this research, I argue that the Yoruba Baptist Christian of Nigeria, like other tribes in the world, have their cultural heritage which ought to be used in the place of the foreign elements/materials of worshipping the Lord. Some of the elements/materials I emphasize in this research include akara (local cake) and sobo drink (juice extracted from Hibiscus sabdariffa) in the place of bread and wine for Eucharist, indigenous clothes for the pastors and couples in the place of Western clothes during ministration and the wedding service respectively, indigenous music and musical instruments, oriki Olodumare (God praise-name) and the use of the Yoruba command-language in prayer. The aim of this thesis is to propose a contextual form of worship whereby the Yoruba Baptist Christians have a holistic worship fulfilled within their socio-religio-cultural context.

In 1914, Church leaders assumed that fighting men would require the ministrations of ordained clergymen close to the front line. The War Office Chaplains' Department had few plans for the deployment of chaplains beyond a general expectation that the Churches would be willing to release men for service as required. Army Officers seemed to have little warning about the arrival of chaplains to accompany their units and very few ideas about the role chaplains could be expected to fulfil once they had arrived. The chaplains themselves embarked on overseas service with no special training and very little guidance about the nature of the task ahead of them. They received very little support from the Chaplains' Department or their home church in the first months of the war. Left to carve out a role for themselves, they were exposed to an environment churchmen at home could not begin to comprehend. Many chaplains left diaries and letters, the majority of which have never been published. They provide a unique insight into life with the troops, seen through the eyes of men who owed their first allegiance to their Church rather than to the Army whose uniform they wore. Post-war criticism of chaplains has obscured the valuable contribution many clergymen made to the well-being of the troops and to the reform movement within the Church of England after the war. The files of the Archbishop of Canterbury also provide important information about the troubled relationships between chaplains and their Department and with Church leaders at home. In seeking to determine the nature of the chaplains' duties and responsibilities, this study attempts to discover why clergymen faced so much criticism and why even their own churches were sometimes alarmed by the views aired by serving chaplains.

This research is concerned with the construction and expression of selfidentity in a sample of lay Christians working in a contemporary workplace. It seeks to understand how these believers construct and sustain, in and through autobiographical narrative, a faith-full self-identity at work. It is inspired by my own experience as a Christian believer in a secular workplace. The results of the study contribute to the discipline of practical theology in the specific area of understanding autobiographical construction of Christian self-identity. Although the study takes an overt Christian theological stance, it draws not only from the theory of autobiographical narrative in theology, but also from corresponding theory in philosophy, sociology and psychology. In particular the research draws on the Confessions of St. Augustine (c AD 400), using this patristic text as a benchmark expression of Christian selfidentity. Augustine’s neo-platonic thinking informs the central research question which asks whether fragmentation of self-identity is experienced by Christians in the challenging environment of the present-day workplace. Narrative is both phenomenon under study and research methodology. It is a particularly appropriate means by which to study faith identity. The concept is a fluid one and narrative inquiry is more concerned with establishing meaning and significance than facts and truth. The research resides within a constructivist paradigm and acknowledges that the findings are limited and specific. The findings suggest that fragmentation of self-identity is experienced by the research actors in work/faith tensions. However, these believers move through a process of growing self-awareness and awareness of God’s action in their lives as they construct personal work/life narratives. The research findings explore this process of self-identity construction and offer conclusions about the discovery of a sense of deep self-identity amidst the experience of fragmentation.

This thesis examines the relationship, in theory and in practice, between the concepts of justice (iustitia) and mercy (misericordia) in English courts between c. 1100 and c. 1250. During this period English judges (in courts of both common and canon law) were faced with a serious dilemma. The emergence of systematic law had fundamentally altered the pastoral foundations of the act of judgement. On the one hand, judges were incorporated into a system of law in which justice was expected to be routine and regular. They were bound by procedure, and ‘justice’ was considered to lie in the return of due punishment for injury. On the other, this notion of strict justice coexisted with an alternative way of conceiving of judicial responsibilities, which emphasised that justice was incomplete unless it incorporated within it the principle of mercy. This tradition argued that, both for the benefit of the offender and the judge’s own soul, it was safer and more virtuous to mitigate the punishments prescribed by law. English judges were caught in a dilemma, and were, in effect, obliged to choose between two fundamentally opposed ideas of justice, and two starkly contrasting approaches to sentencing. This thesis argues that such a choice was a problem which concerned the schools of theology as much as it did the courts of law. It examines the attempts of theologians and lawyers to resolve the dilemma and provide practical counsel to judges. Scripture, classical philosophy and patristic texts were the key sources in a discussion of how judicial discretion should be exercised in choosing between punitive and merciful courses of action. Rather than conceiving of justice as a purely procedural exercise, English law, and English judges, appreciated that the act of giving judgement was a complex pastoral challenge.

The author of the Book of James names four exemplars in the course of his work. These serve specific functions within their individual contexts in the composition; Abraham and Rahab as exemplars of a vital active faith, Job as an exemplar of steadfast endurance, and Elijah as an exemplar of effective prayer. This thesis explores the wider stories of the exemplars in the Hebrew Bible, traces their development in elements of early Jewish tradition, and compares the author’s use of the exemplars with that of other New Testament writers. It argues that, the author of the Book of James uses the exemplars collectively as a means to encourage his messianic audience to remain faithful to God in the trials of everyday life until the imminent Parousia of the Lord. The four exemplars share three characteristics that will aid the audience in their daily struggles: they were all tested to the limit, yet demonstrated their whole-hearted commitment to God by remaining faithful to him; they were all outsiders who rejected the wisdom (values) of the world and they all faced their life-defining trials reliant on God rather than on other human beings.

This work seeks to examine traditional Christian doctrines regarding life after death, from a pastoral perspective. The study explores new ways of interpreting the meaning in human identity, dis-innocence and forgiven-ness specifically as relating to the continuing evolution of Humankind, and offers a description of humankind as Homo sanctus. The thesis is built around three individual selected case examples of death and dying together with a constructed narrative of ‘problem dying’, and a group of five persons in a Fellowship of the Dying; it describes the development and praxis of new approaches to ministry in these areas. A number of new terms are introduced to better convey the substance of meanings. The study itself may be considered as offering significant new insight in two respects: 1. It engages with the idea that bio-death has teleological meaning within the evolution of Personhood in resurrection. 2. It offers the experiences of Christian pastoral ministry pro-actively engaging with dying as a pilgrimage into and through bio-death, in which every member of the immediate community of faith is pro-active in pilgrimage with the dying Person. The study draws on extensive cross-cultural and multi-faith experience in Britain and Africa.

This study seeks to develop a more practical and praxis-driven approach to Dalit Theology and its engagement with grassroots Dalit Christians. Dalit Theology is contextual and liberative. It emerged as a counter to Indian Christian theology, which ignored the caste affected life experience of Dalits, who form the majority in the Indian church. It aims to go beyond the merely spiritual in seeking to empower Dalit people and transform society. However, the well reflected and articulated liberational theological themes of Dalit Theology seem to remain mostly within academia and the ecclesia. They have not adequately engaged with grass roots Dalit Christians who face severe discrimination and constant struggle against caste oppression. Therefore, this study is an attempt to analyse the status and potentials of Dalit Theology among grass roots Dalit Christians as a motivational force and to offer a methodological framework to enlarge Dalit Theology as a Practical theology of liberation. The construction of Dalit Theology as a Practical theology of praxis among the grass roots hopes to facilitate the process of bringing about change in their personal life and the formation of a transformed society for both Dalits and non-Dalits to lead a caste-free life.