This thesis is a study of churches built for the Church of England, in the dioceses of Manchester, Birmingham and Coventry, in the years 1945 to 1970, with the intention, of examining, first, the circumstances of their planning and building, and, second, the degree to which those building serve the needs of their respective parishes today. The church buildings described in the study have been visited, clergy or churchwardens interviewed, and archival material, relating both to individual churches, and to the diocese as a whole, consulted where it was available. The study comprises three sections. The first is an introduction, which includes a discussion of significant factors affecting the design of post-war churches, including the Liturgical Movement, the Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture, in Birmingham, and the idealism of the post-war era, both in the nation, and in the Church. The second section comprises examinations of the churches of each of the three dioceses, and a short section on other, significant, buildings, in other dioceses. Each diocesan section includes a description of the diocese in the immediate post-war years, examining the general approach, policies and administrative arrangements established by the respective diocesan authorities to cope with the range of challenges facing it at the time, and then a description of each individual post-war church. The study closes with the third section, the conclusion, which identifies the great changes which took place in the approach to church building within a very short time span, the demographic changes which have subsequently taken place in the majority of areas within which the new churches were built, the advantages and disadvantages displayed by the church buildings and the range of requirements made of their church by parishioners, and, finally, the most important factor, the freedom which the Church finally gave itself to experiment with new forms of worship, new forms of building, and new approaches to the whole work of a parish.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

France experienced a flowering of Catholic thought and culture in the interwar years. The dominant scholarly narratives on this renouveau catholique have focused on the construction of a modern Catholic self-identity and the successes of reconciliation between Catholicism and modernity. This thesis explores instead the tensions and aporias that were experienced in that reconciliation, with a specific focus on the difficult relationship between the 'lived' Catholic life and the world of intellectual discourse. It does so through an exploration of three particular 'voices' of the revival, the philosophers Jacques Maritain and Gabriel Marcel, and the literary critic Charles Ou Bos. The thesis is informed by a particular interpretative framework. The ways in which tensions were identified and managed by Maritain, Ou Bos and Marcel, intellectually and spiritually, and the philosophical, political and cultural issues and debates from which they arose, were characterized by the complex interplay of a conceptual and what is called an aesthetic approach to life. It is organized thematically to highlight the particularities of each voice. First, the problematic role of intelligence in dealing with the tensions between contemplation and commitment, or thought and action is examined, specifically the Thomist attempt at synthesis, and the failures of intelligence in living the Catholic life. Second, the Catholic accommodation of the 'tragic' to manage the contradictions involved in political engagement and the conceptual and aesthetic uses of the tragic in ontological commitments and Catholic sanctity are considered. Third, there is an examination of the specifically Catholic tension in the humanis't debates of the time between the individuality of a person and the soul, especially in terms of a pull between an aesthetic-ethical self and a Catholic self. Fourth, there is consideration of the tension between human temporality and the eternal in relation to the operation of temporality in knowledge, and how the configuration of time and the eternal was inextricably bound up with the possibility of grasping 'being'. In addressing the tensions experienced by Maritain, Marcel and Ou Bos, the thesis explores a new dimension of the interwar Catholic revival. In particular, by tapping into their conceptual and aesthetic management of these tensions, an alternative perspective is provided to those that privilege attempts, or the success of attempts, to combine tradition and modernity.

No description available.

No description available.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the life and work of Jonathan Edwards, the eighteenth-century New England minister of Northampton, Massachusetts, has received increased scholarly attention. Questions of the nature and extent of his influence have informed much of this revival of interest. For two centuries theologians, philosophers and historians have claimed that Jonathan Edwards significantly influenced eighteenth-century Scottish religious thought, and yet little scholarly attention has been invested in this area of Edwards's studies. The central focus of this thesis has been to shed additional light on this neglected but celebrated side of Edwards's life and ministry. This study is an investigation of the formative period of Edwards's Scottish connection. It began with the publication of his A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in Scotland in 1737 and his subsequent connection with the Scottish revival of 1742. The relationship was then further developed through the publication of five other major works of Edwards in Scotland during the years 1742 to 1749, and his correspondence with a coterie of evangelical ministers from the Church of Scotland. At the heart of this connection was the pursuit of true religion that undergird the ministries of Edwards and his Scottish counterparts. More specifically, the influence Edwards exercised on Scottish evangelicalism during this formative period was the result, first, of his articulation of a Reformed, evangelical and enlightened conception of true piety which he used to promote and defend the revivals and, second, the cooperation and support he received from the Scottish ministers he corresponded with. What this study shows is that the cooperative relationship between Edwards and his Scottish counterparts helped usher in a new era of Scottish Calvinism. With their combined abilities, creative vision and enterprising spirit they forged a new evangelical paradigm for Scottish Calvinism. The revival was the catalyst for this new movement and Edwards was its theological architect. Scottish revivalists used Edwards's Faithful Narrative to inspire and promote the revival and his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God to defend and manage it. Edwards's conception of true piety together with the revival helped redefine Scottish evangelical Calvinism by adapting it from its old didactic role within a godly commonwealth to a mission oriented role where the faith of the individual became prominent and the pursuit of sanctification, not salvation, defined the Christian's life. These emphases were further developed among Scottish evangelicals following the revival by the continuing efforts of Edwards and his Scottish friends. Prominent among these efforts were three additional works of Edwards and the international enterprise known as the United Concert for Prayer that was organized and orchestrated by Scottish evangelicals. One of the most far-reaching results was the growth of Scottish overseas missions. Finally, this study indicates that Edwards's revival writings provide an important starting point for understanding the theological and spiritual preoccupations of Scottish evangelicalism in the second half of the eighteenth century; and that Edwards's contribution to Scottish evangelicalism and modern evangelicalism generally cannot be properly understood without an understanding of his relationship to his Scottish correspondents.

No description available.