This thesis explores Basil’s Ad Adolescentes as the composition of a highly educated bishop who was well grounded in classical paideia, but also deeply influenced by the thoughts and writings of his Christian predecessors. Despite the long-running debate about the appropriateness of a classical education for a Christian, the reality of the Fourth Century meant that officials and clerics alike had been trained by means of traditional literature. In a world where Christianity was no bar to public office, the common educational experience became important since a mutual appreciation of paideia enabled magistrates, bishops and orators to relate to one another regardless of their religious convictions. Consequently, the sons of Christians attended school fully aware of potential career opportunities in the secular sphere, since faith and office appeared no longer at odds. It was in this climate that Basil composed Ad Adolescentes, addressing himself to Christian youths embarking on higher education with a range of possibilities before them. In this thesis Basil’s text is analysed and discussed by a combination of thematic introduction and commentary: the thematic chapters consider the subject, purposes and specific and broader contexts of the Ad Adolescentes and the previous scholarship on the work in this regard; the commentary explicates relevant details in the text and offers close analysis which supports interpretations offered in the introduction. Chapters 1 and 2 consider the views of previous scholars on the text and the educational context relevant to Basil’s audience. The subsequent two chapters address the question of literary influence and the traditional methods employed in the interpretation of classical texts by both Christian and pagan educationalists. The final introductory chapter explores the propaedeutic nature of the text and identifies the manner in which Basil sought to synthesise lessons from traditional literature with homiletic themes, in anticipation of the secular and Christian responsibilities available to his audience.

This thesis considers the peak and decline of Sunday Schools in the twentieth century and the emergence of Christian youth work over recent decades. Bringing together historical and contemporary research allows patterns and shifts within the discourses of young people and Christianity over time to emerge. The historical research was informed by the records of the Sunday School Unions for 1900-1910 and 1955-1972. For the contemporary study, young people and youth workers from across the Christian denominations in Birmingham were interviewed. When the Sunday School pioneers saw a need in their communities in the late eighteenth century, their response provoked a 200 year movement. These early Sunday Schools met a clear social need; that for basic education. By the twentieth century, Sunday Schools were highly-structured, centralised and attached to churches and Unions, with their original purpose made redundant by the growth of mainstream education. They faced rapid decline in the 1960s; a rigid institution amidst societal change. Over recent decades, Christian youth work has emerged as a response to further youth decline within churches. Many youth workers engage with young people’s self-identifiable needs by delivering open access youth provision in their local communities alongside more specifically-Christian activities. Tensions emerge over whether the youth worker’s role is to serve community or church needs, with churches often emphasising the desire to see young people in services. This echoes the discourse of Sunday Schooling where religious education and church membership became prioritised at the expense of social need. In bringing together the historical and contemporary research patterns of struggle between social need and institutionalisation emerge. By focusing on factors internal to Sunday Schools and churches, the thesis asserts the role that churches have in their own fate and challenges the popular discourse of them as passive victims of secularisation.

This thesis is a philosophical, theological and educational exploration of the theme of ontology and otherness. It is intended to provide a theoretical ground for the possibility of Christian religious education in Christian schools, with particularly reference to school religious education in South Korea. For this purpose it investigates a philosophical ground of education, particularly religious education, in terms of ontology and otherness. The recent ontological turn in both education and religious education shows that they take critical realism (CR henceforth) as the pivotal philosophical ground. In reception of this approach the thesis argues, after reading of the originator of CR, Roy Bhaskar, that there is a characteristic feature in the philosophy, viz. the agential centred form of explanation of reality which results in the production of a lacuna of the dimension of otherness in CR. In response to the problem, the thesis attempt to integrate the dimension of otherness into CR through the exploration of Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of otherness which provides an account of the non-agential moment and ethical subjectivity as what that fills the lacuna and the point of the integration with CR, and incorporate Bhaskarian dialectical agent with ethical subjectivity. However, in doing so, it is revealed that there is a radical diverting point between Bhaskar’s notion of alethia and otherness which makes a prominent difference in accounting of ultimate reality as shown between Bhaskar ’s meta-Reality and Christian understanding of Trinitarian God. Drawing from the philosophical and theological account of ontology and otherness, the thesis finally attends Wright’s approach from the frame of otology and otherness, and argues for the use of Wright’s approach for the possibility of paving a way for Christian religious education in Christian schools.

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The basic questions addressed by the thesis are concerned with the nature of the ordained ministry of the Church of England as it approaches the twenty first century and what educational provisions are required to prepare and sustain that ministry. Following an introduction, which outlines in detail the methodology of the thesis and the specific terms of reference for the study, the various strands which suggest the constants of ministerial being and function are traced from the New Testament evidence through Church History. The exploration identifies the influences which shaped the ordained ministry and provided it with variable roles and identity within its changing historical context. The specific terms of its being and the functions of oversight, pastoralia and teaching were retained as traditional constants within ministerial formation. The New Testament evidence gives attention to the relationship between discipleship and the Rabbinical teaching tradition as the basis for Apostolic ministry. The emerging structure of ministerial forms is identified by comparing the earliest with the latest of the New Testament documents. The investigation into Church History isolates three periods which are considered to be germane to the study. The first is the rise of Christianity within the multi-racial, cultural and religious Roman world. The second period looks at the medieval Church in England and how it educationally managed its resources in terms of its personnel and parochial provision. Thirdly, the study looks at the Victorian Church as an example of how ministerial change was organised and as the Church which left the present Church of England its immediate legacy. The thesis then examines the current provision of theological preparation for the ordained ministry which is offered in the residential theological colleges and non-residential training courses. A critique of this provision is offered along with an analysis of the educational features which can be found within it. The investigation continues with an examination of post-ordination training and continuing ministerial education. In the concluding chapter, a summary is provided about the main findings of the thesis and the principles of educational reform are identified. This leads to the construction of a new pattern of educational training for and within ministry based upon a continuum principle and one that is related closely to the changing parochial context.

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