This is a critically constructive study of the systematic thought of two ’Reformational’ philosophers Dirk H.Th. Vollenhoven (1892-1978) and Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977) within the contours of the Reformational vision which they both inherited from the founder of the modern Reformational tradition, Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920). While exploratory work has been done in this area, a full systematic comparison is undertaken here for the first time. Elements in the thought of the two philosophers which may seem to be at variance will be shown to be complementary or at least capable of correction by the thought of the other. This will be done by returning to the trinitarian basis of the Kuyperian vision, and more specifically, the notion of ’perichoresis’ which affirms at once the distinctiveness of the work of each of the triune Persons and the harmony of their joint achievement. It will be argued that this trinitarian grounding and ’perichoretic’ reconstruction of the thought of the two philosophers provides a more fully-rounded Reformational account - one with a greater overall coherence than the work of either provides on its own - resulting in a philosophy true to the vision which they together inherited, offering a systematic framework serviceable alike for inter-disciplinary work in the contemporary academy, and for Christian engagement in the public square.

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To date, little academic research has been done on the theological influences undergirding the resurgence of contemporary church arts patronage practice, particularly within Scotland. This project is concerned to uncover not only how theological rationales of the arts inform church patronage but also how churches acting as patrons theologically articulate the reasons for their activity. Can theological rationales for the arts be discerned in contemporary church arts patronage practice? If so, what is their influence? If not, what is influencing church practice? After a brief history of Western church arts patronage and definition of terms, Chapter One discusses the practical theology methodologies used, specifically the Critical Faithfulness model and the Four Voices method. Chapter Two analyses how theological rationales for the arts support and limit church patronage practice with focus on the Catholic, Evangelical Protestant and Reformed traditions. In the first of two case study chapters, Chapter Three explores the patronage practice of Langside Parish Church, Glasgow, a Reformed Church of Scotland, and St Paul's and St George's, Edinburgh, an Evangelical Protestant church. Chapter Four considers the patronage of St Andrews Roman Catholic Cathedral, Glasgow and Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, a church within the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Chapter Five draws from the practice and theology to propose a theological model for best patronage practice, allowing for different definitions of ‘faithful' church practice as defined by theological tradition. ‘Best practice' leads to the flourishing of patron, artist, and congregation. After presenting the model, the discussion narrows to consider the nature of the relationship between artist and patron as found in theology and practice. It is argued that key to flourishing in church arts patronage is a dialogical, collaborative relationship between an artistically-inclined patron and a spiritually-sensitive artist with each participating from their strengths while aware of their weaknesses.

This thesis takes as its starting point recent variations on the old narrative that seeks to make the Reformation, and Calvinism in particular, the catalyst for generating modern liberal politics. Using David VanDrunen’s Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms as an example, I show how these narratives often involve attempting to accomplish a “transfer” from the realm of spiritual liberty to that of civil liberty, a transfer against which John Calvin warns in his famous discussion of Christian liberty. In making such a transfer, such narratives are often insufficiently attentive to the theological complexities of the Reformation doctrine of Christian liberty, and the tensions that could lie concealed in various appeals to the doctrine. Accordingly, adopting as a lens John Perry’s concept of the “clash of loyalties,” (the conflict of religious and civil commitments which helped give rise to liberalism), I attempt to trace how different understandings of Christian liberty, and its accompanying concept of “things indifferent,” served both to mitigate and to exacerbate the clash of loyalties in the sixteenth century. This narrative culminates in the attempt of English puritans in the reign of Elizabeth to resolve the conflict by subjecting all ecclesiastical, political, and moral matters to the bar of Scriptural law, thus undermining earlier understandings of what Christian liberty entailed. Against this backdrop, I survey the work of Richard Hooker as an attempt to recover and clarify the doctrine of Christian liberty. This involves a careful distinction of individual and institutional liberty, and different senses of the concept “things indifferent,” a rehabilitation of the role of reason in moral determinations, and a harmonization of the believer’s loyalties by clarifying the relation of divine and human law. The result is a vision of a Christian commonwealth free to render corporate obedience to Christ while at the same time enabling the freedom of its citizens.

Are there vestiges or elements of African traditional cultural beliefs and practices that affect the psychological and spiritual well-being of African Christian students in Tangaza University College (TUC)? If there are, how best can pastoral carers work with the affected students to help them deal with the issues and regain congruence? These questions, arising out of our practice in the Student Life Ministry in TUC, are the puzzles I set out this study to try to resolve. Our experience was that some of the students were presenting issues in counselling and spiritual direction emanating from unresolved conflict between their African backgrounds and the Christian faith. Observation was that the issues did not surface easily and when they did the carers were not sure how best to help the clients. I thus felt a need to find out what cultural issues affect the students, how the issues manifest in their lives and how best the pastoral care team could work with those affected to help the issues surface and be resolved. This is an original research designed as an inductive case study and to collect data, a multi-dimensional approach including focus discussion groups with students and members of the SLM, depth interviews with SLM members, selection of some vignettes of counselling and spiritual direction and practitioner observation - were used. The main finding is that there indeed are elements of African beliefs and practices that impinge on the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of some of the African Christian students in TUC. However, not all the students experience such dissonance as some have developed a synthesis between their two world views. Those who have not are embarrassed about and reticent in disclosing the issues thus the need for the pastoral carers to help them to integrate their traditional culture with their Christian faith. Clinical experience has shown that by combining two counselling models – the Rogerian Person-centred and Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, underpinned in a dialogical, theological paradigm, counsellors and spiritual guides can help the affected students not only to talk about the issues but also to work through them to re-gain equilibrium and enjoy greater fullness of life.

This thesis investigates how English Christian leaders and churches use the internet for personal and corporate communication, and looks for evidence of challenges to traditional understandings of authority arising from online communication. Early studies in this area suggested that online religion would cause enormous change but more recent studies reflect less polarised opinions. Religious people tend to use the internet to augment rather than replace practice of their faith, holding true for different religions globally. Leaders use the internet for a wide variety of religious information tasks. The project uses a longitudinal website census, quantitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews. 400 churches in four English denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and Catholic) were surveyed over a three year period to establish if they published a website. 147 churches from the same four denominations, located in an area equivalent to Chelmsford Diocese, were assessed on 75 categories of information and their hyperlinks analysed. Interviews with church leaders and interested parties helped foster understanding of why and how sites were created, and explored the leaders personal use of the internet. The percentage of churches with a website increased over the survey period for all denominations. Content analysis showed that currency, extent and accessibility of information on websites varied, with some being out of date, others showing no contact details and few having specific information for newcomers to church. Interview findings revealed perceptions of email overload, varying degrees of governance and control of websites by church leaders, and leaders own use of the internet and social media. Interactivity was rare on church websites. Different levels of expertise are mooted as reasons why control and governance varies between leaders. Perceptions of the internet may be influenced by moral panic. The influence of the age of congregations on adoption of social media, and the impact of volunteer webmasters are examined. Recommendations for churches planning to revisit or review their sites are included, limitations are noted and suggestions for further research made

La pacification de l’Afrique des Grands Lacs mise à feu et à sang au cours de ces deux dernières décennies est le but ultime de cette thèse. Face au revers qu’ont connu plusieurs initiatives visant à mettre fin aux violences dans cette région, notre préoccupation a été de chercher dans le kantisme une nouvelle raison d’espérer. Ainsi, ce travail tente de montrer comment l’héritage philosophique de Kant peut contribuer au rétablissement de la paix et au développement au Rwanda, au Burundi et en République Démocratique du Congo, trois pays de cette région, meurtris par des guerres. Notre démarche a été d’examiner la pensée morale et politique de Kant dans laquelle nous avons trouvé les fondements de son modèle, élaboré dans un contexte de guerres en Europe. La discussion sur sa réception et la montée du nationalisme stigmatisant le cosmopolitisme kantien, nous a conduit à établir un lien entre la promotion, par le régime nazi, de la race aryenne supposée être supérieure à d’autres et considérée comme modèle d’organisation sociale, et la propagation des préjugés similaires par l’administration coloniale en Afrique des Grands Lacs postulant la suprématie des Tutsi « faits pour régner » sur les Hutu et les Twa, simples nègres voués à la servitude. Instrumentalisé par les politiques soucieux de conquérir le pouvoir, ce « jugement raciste », sans fondement, sera une des causes de l’hécatombe génocidaire dans laquelle seront engouffrés le Rwanda et le Burundi avant d’étendre ses effets sur le Congo où les conflits prendront une dimension économique et impliqueront plusieurs pays africains et d’autres acteurs non africains. Cependant, capitalisant la réémergence du cosmopolitisme reprise par les fondateurs de la SDN et ceux de l’ONU, nous avons souligné la pertinence de la coopération et l’articulation des différences comme préalable à une paix durable. Avec Ricœur et Arendt, deux post-kantiens, nous avons lancé les jalons de réconciliation dans les trois pays, en nous référant à l’expérience franco-allemande et sud-africaine. Nous avons souligné l’importance de la réforme des institutions onusiennes et celles des États de la région pour qu’à travers le républicanisme naisse l’état de droit. L’hospitalité exprimée par le cosmopolitisme et le commerce international dans la pensée kantienne, se traduirait par la coopération interétatique et la fusion des organisations régionales en une union économique et monétaire qui poserait les bases d’une fédération d’États africains et garantirait une paix durable sur le continent et dans la région des Grands Lacs. / The pacification of the African Great Lakes plagued by violence during these last two decades is the ultimate goal of this thesis. After the failure of several initiatives to end violence in the region, our concern was to look in the Kantism a new reason to hope. Thus, this work attempts to show how the philosophical legacy of Kant can contribute to peace and development in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, three countries of the region ravaged by wars. Our approach has been to consider the moral and political thought of Kant in which we found the foundations of this theory of peace developed in the context of wars in Europe. The discussion of its receipt and the rise of nationalism stigmatizing the Kantian cosmopolitanism, has led us to establish a connection between the promotion by the Nazi regime of the aryan race supposed to be superior than others and considered as a model of the social organization, with the spread of similar prejudices by the colonial administration in the African Great Lakes applicant Tutsi supremacy "created to rule " the Hutu and Twa, simple doomed to slavery negroes. Exploited by politicians anxious to gain power, this "racist judgment," unfounded, will be one of the causes of the genocidal massacre in which will be engulfed Rwanda and Burundi before extending its effects on the Congo, where conflicts will take an economic dimension and involve a number of African countries and other non-African actors. However, capitalizing the reemergence of cosmopolitanism recovery by the founders of the League of Nations and those of the UN, we have stressed the relevance of cooperation and articulation of differences as a precondition for lasting peace. With Ricœur and Arendt, two post-Kantians, we launched the foundation for reconciliation in the three countries, referring to the Franco-German and South African experience. We stressed the importance of the reform of the UN institutions and states of the region so that through the republicanism the state of law should be promoted. The hospitality expressed by cosmopolitanism and international trade in the kantian thought, would result states’ cooperation and the gathering of regional organizations in an economic and monetary union which would lay the foundation of a federation of African states and ensure a lasting peace on the continent and in the Great Lakes region.

L’homme contemporain présente une méfiance à l’égard de la parole. Il lui est difficile de trouver en elle, un outil pour établir un dialogue et se lancer vers la rencontre de l’Autre. Dans notre travail, nous abordons cette question sous l’angle d’une double triade qui articule d’un côté, Dieu - Monde - Homme et de l’autre, Création - Révelation - Rédemption. Cette double articulation est exposée dans la Nouvelle Pensée de Franz Rosenzweig, dans le Principe Dialogique de Martin Buber et dans l’appel du visage d’Emmanuel Levinas. Chacun, à sa façon, donne les implications de la parole et du dialogue dans la construction de l’altérité. En elle, la séparation des rôles, voire la pronominalité, est une condition indispensable. C’est en l’assumant que nous pourrons prendre en main un engagement éthique que soit libre de tout calcul ou de commerce de réciprocité. / Modern man has a distrust of speech. It is difficult to find in it, a tool for dialogue to engage oneself to meet the Other. In our work, we address this issue in terms of a double - triad that articulates on the one hand : God - World - Man and and on the other hand, Creation - Revelation - Redemption. This double articulation is exposed in the New Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, in the Principle Dialogic by Martin Buber and the face - to - face of Emmanuel Levinas. Each one, in his own way, gives the implications of speech and dialogue in the construction of "otherness". In it, the separation of roles, even primarily, is a prerequisite. It is by assuming that we can take over an ethical commitment that is free of any calculation or trade reciprocity.