My research looks at the question of what life in heaven will be like for people with disabilities, and in particular for those with learning disabilities. I am examining the ideas of Augustine, and of L’Arche in the writings of Jean Vanier and Henri Nouwen, looking to see where they correspond and where they differ. One reason for this research is to answer the question of continuity of identity for people in the next life. Will someone be recognisable as themselves if their disability is removed in heaven? Another is to consider how eschatology impinges on pastoral practice for people with disabilities. In spite of the great differences in approach between the L’Arche voices and the voice of Augustine, there are some areas where they can speak to each other. One of these relates to community since for both Augustine and L’Arche, community is a key feature of human life. Another area is one we can call illumination or vision. Augustine’s ideas of vision, and in particular of what he calls intellectual vision relate to the L’Arche belief that people with learning disabilities have a positive and beneficial influence on the people around them. This is relevant to the responsibility Church communities have not only to welcome people with learning disabilities into their midst, but also to appreciate the gifts that those people bring. Such gifts can enable the whole community to gain enlightenment and a sense of the divine presence in the here-and-now, as a foretaste of the joys of heaven. People with learning disabilities can thus become prophets who help others to come closer to God, and to have a vision of what their heavenly home might be like.

This research investigated ministries exercised by older people in the church and what empowers them in their ministries. Existing research into collaborative ministry has paid limited attention to age and research into older people in the church has focused more on their ministry needs, than the ministries they exercise. Therefore, there was a dual gap in knowledge at a time when the church is facing a contemporary issue of ageing population and congregations. In addition to examining theoretical perspectives behind collaborative ministry, age and empowerment, original research was conducted in a parish where older people were visibly exercising ministry in three distinct ministry projects. Two methodologies were used: autoethnography and case study, using interview, observation, and documentary analysis. These were chosen to give scope for the voices of experiences of older people to be heard. The research found older people were working together in ministries and identified some of the influences on their undertaking and continuing in ministry. It uncovered an unexpected level of contentment which led to some additional research in a second parish, where experiences were less positive. In both contexts, evidence emerged of the importance of power, leadership roles and understanding how ministries can be affected by age and life-transitions. The research concluded older people do exercise a wide range of ministries in the church and are equipped with gifts for them. However, they can face challenges of ageism and transitions which can disempower them. Issues of empowerment were considered with the conclusion that the key to empowerment of older people in ministry lies not so much in any particular structure or pattern of ministry, but in the extent to which they are connected to the organic whole body of the church. Some steps to consider for their empowerment were identified.

In contemporary Britain, cohabitation has become normative as a lifestyle. It perpetuates a long history of informal marriage-like relationships, but does not necessarily seek to be part of marriage. National statistics are used to show how the steady increase in cohabitation since the 1960s is predicted to continue. Furthermore, cohabitation increasingly resembles marriage in that it has also become a family issue. As a lifestyle, cohabitation has remained outside the Christian marriage tradition and largely beyond the pastoral outreach of the church. The aims of this thesis are to explore how the church may address cohabitation alongside marriage within its pastoral and liturgical roles and encourage greater stability and faithfulness in all marriage-like relationships.The development of the church's theology of marriage is explored to show how cohabitation and marriage may share similar ethics, intentions, and expectations. Contemporary attitudes to cohabitation and marriage are evaluated through two interdenominational surveys of clergy and congregations in the Harrogate area. Amongst the clergy, few now reject outright the notion of couples cohabiting though Christian marriage remains the ideal. Congregations are more amenable and ready to accept the right for couples to cohabit, but within the church family, remain largely defensive of the marriage tradition. The social impact of cohabitation in contemporary Britain is demonstrated through socio-structural models that show that by denying many of the traditional roles for marriage, society begins to lose its cohesive structure. Attitudes that characterise cohabitation are found to have parallels within Enlightenment philosophies that emerged as a reaction against many of the perceived abuses and inequalities associated with marriage, particularly as they affected women. In addition to its sociology, cohabitation may be understood within Christian theology of relationships through interpretations of key passages in Genesis that focus on the nature of the relationship bond. Cohabitation and marriage are brought into a universal framework for relationships based on friendship: a 'Friendship Mapping' chart, a time-line diagram, incorporating love and commitment, is developed to illustrate the ways in which relationships may evolve from an encounter to cohabitation and marriage. The outcome of this research is a call for an expansion in the teaching of the Christian ethics of marriage. Suggested ways to accomplish this are through marriage education, reaching out to couples getting married outside the church. For couples seeking to bring their relationship before God, there is support for the reintroduction of betrothal. There are two new proposals, for Committed Relationship and Celebrated Relationship. Committed' Relationship, celebrated in either a religious or civil environment, is an extended form of betrothal that would give a cohabiting couple security and status in the public domain and, more importantly, confirmation of their commitment in return for certain legal protections. Celebrated Relationship would be a low-key, 'modern' church wedding, an alternative to a civil marriage ceremony, intended to help encourage more couples to marry in church.From the researches carried out, two newly emerging lifestyle relationships have been identified that should be of concern to the church. The first is cohabiting singleness, where the rising age for marriage is encouraging casual and short-term relationships. The second is that of single parent families where one parent, usually the father, is deliberately excluded from the outset. Both are shown to have the potential to move the family structure even further from the Biblical norm than does cohabitation and are highlighted as areas for further study

Unmanageable personal debt creates a situation that is commonly described as “over-indebtedness.” Over-indebtedness has caused millions of people across the UK to seek advice for their situations which they feel powerless to resolve themselves. This thesis examines the work of one particular debt advice service, Christians Against Poverty (CAP) and its work through a local church, The Helpful Church. CAP provides its debt advice service through local churches so clients can experience the love of God through face to face long term advice and help. The Helpful CAP Centre (HCC) is a local CAP Centre in Derbyshire, England and is staffed by volunteers from The Helpful Church. The Helpful Church wants people to have an opportunity to experience and understand the good news (the Gospel) of the love of God which is expressed through Jesus and His Kingdom and found within the narrative of the Bible. The CAP project provides people with such an opportunity. Within the framework of Practical Theology, this thesis looks particularly at the communication of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God through the work of The Helpful CAP Centre’s debt advice service. Through empirical research methods of questionnaire and interview the impact on and response of the CAP clients to this service has been sought and evaluated. Patterns identified in the data can be used to improve delivery of debt advice through the local centre. A key recommendation is the design and use of bespoke literature which uses terminology the clients have come to understand – debt and rescue. Literature of this type could provide more opportunity for clients to understand the Gospel, thus fulfilling The Helpful Church’s aim in running the CAP project.

'Our Wounds are not for Healing’ is a journey into a question that is both deeply personal and theo-therapeutic in its seeking connections of the personal with culture and cosmology; can an applied theology rooted in the living ‘tradition’ of feminist and queer theology begin to question classical definitions of the ‘sane’ and ‘insane’? Indeed, does the very process of theological thinking stand as a contemporary and alternative perspective to many psychiatric and psychological models of sanity and insanity still entrenched in the bio-medical, itself embedded in Victorian concepts of fixed diagnostic procedures? May there indeed be a transgressive theology of healing based on radical feminist Christological understanding which speaks as much of anger, chaos, and resistance as it does of peace or reconciliation; may, indeed, these be inclusive of one another rather than dualistic opposites? What is the theological nature of healing for those labelled with having a ‘severe and enduring’ mental illness? Too frequently, theology has addressed issues of mental health from a largely pastoral and detached observational perspective. I would like to ask whether the model of an embodied and experiential theology of disability championed by theologians such as Nancy Eiesland and others can more powerfully and insightfully apply to those who are described as suffering from sever and enduring mental health problems and whether ‘mad’ theologies are waiting to be revealed and told and honoured: theologies which seek a new perspective on the divine/human encounter. Do certain contemporary theological models of chaos, in creation and cosmology, offer a valorised place for those who psycho-chaos ultimately deems to be of little value in western capitalist economies except as the recipients of ‘compassion’?

This study aimed to explore the experience of patients and nurses with respect to spiritual care in order to enhance the latter. A review of the literature revealed that nurses tend to either overlook this domain of their practice or poorly identify and meet patients' spiritual needs. Only one study, employing ethnography within a hospice, examined the actual process of care delivery from both nurses' and patients' perspectives. Spiritual care giving was generally found to be a myth, as the nurses, despite understanding that they should engage with patients at a deeper level, chose to cheer patients up rather than deal with their distressing emotions. A narrative approach was adopted in order to capture the process of spiritual care giving more holistically. The researcher worked as an unqualified nurse in each of two settings, a hospice and a general medical ward, one day weekly over nine months. Data, written as stories, were generally entered in a field journal later each day. The most meaningful stories in answering the study's aim were then reflected upon and re-written to comprise the final thesis. It was found that through suffering, there is hope and the potential for transformation. However despite an expectation that spiritual care, generally associated with dying, might be superior in a hospice, it was found to be barely evident although not necessarily nonexistent in both settings. Nurses experienced tremendous difficulty accessing their sacred space such that they might engage with patients at a deeper, spiritual level. Their working environment and educational preparation, influenced by the manner in which nursing has adopted evidence-based practice, appeared to further hamper this process. The insights gained from the study suggest that if spiritual care giving is to become more of a reality, considerable changes in these areas and within the profession itself are required.

This thesis undertakes a study of human addictions, particularly drug and alcohol dependency, from the disciplines of psychology and theology, working towards an integrated study. In the first instance it sets out to understand the aetiology of addictive behaviour, as an important stage in the process of helping addicted people to overcome their substance dependency. Secondly, it aims to provide a well-researched and robust framework for the pastoral care of people who are addicted as part of the Christian Churches’ response to serious social problems both for individuals and families. It is argued that confusion about the aetiology of addiction, and how best to treat addicted people, contributes to the failure of many treatment modalities to provide effective long term relief. A new model for understanding addiction is proposed. This model begins in a different place: it argues that we would have a better understanding of addiction and how to treat it if we began by investigating human desires and aspirations, before attempting to understand why for some people desire for drugs becomes excessive or distorted. It is suggested in the final section of the thesis that, in line with Augustinian thought, all human longing has its roots in desire for God, even though people may not be aware that the ultimate goal of their quest is an experience of the divine. In the concluding discussion and conclusion, we suggest that this model has important contributions to make as a discrete element in the clinical care of addicts and in the area of pastoral and spiritual care whether in parishes or other institutions where pastoral care is provided. The new model is then related to existing models of pastoral care, and examples are given of how the model is currently being presented in training programmes for pastoral ministry.

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Dementia is a degenerative disease which appears to take away personhood and identity and calls into question how we understand what it means to be a person. My argument is that how people with dementia are seen and imagined is key both to the understanding of their value and the care that is offered. The aim of this study is to determine how the Christian ethos of Methodist Homes (MHA) influences the care of people with dementia in order to develop a general theology of care from within practical theology. The thesis explores the ways in which the Methodist emphases of social justice and prevenient grace offer a basis for dementia care, and how MHA has drawn on its origins within the Methodist Church to develop an ethos of care that places respect for the person with dementia at the centre. This concern for those with dementia is then surveyed and the themes of respect and relationality emerge offering the potential for human becoming. Within MHA the care offered is based on a person-centred model. In order to discover how the Christian ethos of the organisation influences care this thesis explores patterns of delivering care in three homes of each of three types; well-established, recently-acquired and new-build. In each home the views of the staff were surveyed. Three in-depth interviews were conducted when questions were asked in order to understand their perception of the person with dementia. The interviews uncovered what carers regarded as good care and when care did not meet the needs, and why they believed that happened. Browning’s ‘strategic practical theology’ was used to evaluate these findings from within a Christian context to examine the influence of MHA’s ethos on the care offered. The core value chosen as the most important for care was ‘respect’; and while the care offered across all types was ‘person-centred’ the way it was delivered varied. The culture of MHA that gave rise to the values is investigated, along with the challenge of retaining ‘mutuality’ as an ideal as the needs of older people changed. The themes that emerged were those around quality of life and the things that enable the change in thinking from basic ‘caring’ to ‘caring for the person’ as the person is seen in a different way. Dementia is sometimes called the ‘theological disease’, and this understanding of dementia and the person is explored to discern what can be offered from theology to the best ideals of care in order to provide true person-centred care that is respectful of the person. I argue from within practical theology that a new way of seeing the person with dementia is needed in order to anticipate the possibility for human flourishing that is possible in a person, even in dementia. And that, offered with respect, good person-centred dementia-care can be a sign of the Kingdom. Part 1 of the D.Prof. comprises four sections in which I explore dementia from within practical theology; how it impacts on personhood, how I, as a practitioner within Methodist Homes (MHA), could enable others to offer care of the whole person; and how the carers’ understanding of the person makes a difference. In the first section, the literature was surveyed in order to discover the historical development of the term dementia. Until the middle of the twentieth century, there was little care as the condition was not named. But then drugs were discovered that could control unsocial behaviour, and the medical model of care developed. However, a new culture of care developed (person-centred care), because of the better understanding of the social nature of the disease. From within the context of theology, I explored how personhood can be understood within dementia and how, even in dementia, it might be possible to grow into the fullness of Christ as spirituality is enhanced. The second section was in the form of a publishable article which explored how it might be possible to evaluate spiritual care within a dementia-care setting. This took the form of a case study in which I worked with staff in a home that had difficulty evidencing spiritual care. It raised issues about the nature of care and assessment of spiritual care, as well as the rationale behind, and the delivery of, that care. What developed used the biblical concept of ‘fruits of the spirit’ as a way of recognising spiritual dis-ease as it is these qualities which enable inspiration, reverence, awe, meaning and purpose even in those who have no religious beliefs. The model used to offer this care was through the 3 R’s of reflection, relationship and restoration. Section three, reflective-practice section, emerged out of my practice as a chaplaincy adviser for MHA, in which I reflected critically on the contexts and understanding of the manager and chaplain, and how a chaplaincy manual was developed. The ability of the chaplain to work effectively and enable good spiritual care in the home, depended on the relationship between the manager and chaplain. By exploring the culture of both manager and chaplain, a way to enable good communication was discovered. The role of pastoral care and how it is seen within an organisation, that must have a professional management, was investigated and ways suggested for mutual understanding using the chaplaincy manual. The last section examined whether the Christian ethos of MHA encouraged a model of person-centred care. I suggested that a way of making sense of the data is by using types to describe personhood and how that can be made visible by their care. Considering the way that therapeutic interventions (reminiscence therapy, reality orientation, validation therapy, drug therapy) were used offered a way to enable the ethos of the home to be seen more clearly. Central to theological anthropology is the concept of the person which includes an ethical dimension. MHA has the strap line, ‘care informed by Christian concern’, so the study investigated whether this Christian ethos is lived out in the care offered. These aspects of study have led me to begin this thesis to research how care is delivered and what carers understand to be appropriate care. An appreciation of the context in which this care takes place also highlighted a need to conduct a theological exploration of the nature of the person with dementia.