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The substance of this study of Bishop Gilbert Burnet's conception of the ministry, in the first place, sets out the multifarious aspects of the development of his thought and his educational environment. At this juncture, the major biographical source dealing with Burnet's life, offers few insights beyond the description that Burnet himself wrote. This work brings into focus the Scottish and English influences on Burnet's thought. A discussion of the training of a Scottish divine in the mid-seventeenth century reveals the character of the ministerial office in a specific instance. A study of Burnet's participation in the second episcopate in Scotland suggests the inter-relationships of bishop, presbytery, and local kirk judicatory. Session and presbytery records appertaining to this facet of Burnet's ministry provide primary evidence of the nature of the pastoral care in Scotland. In contradistinction to biographers Clarke and Foxcroft, it Is shown that Burnet was not, in this nascent period of development, a Calvinist. urthermore, the strong, but moderate, episcopacy tradition of the continuing legacy of the Aberdeen Doctors and the Aberdeen environment as a whole had a significant effect on Burnet. The work demonstrates that Burnet's academic experience, although occurring during the interregnum, did: not lack important episcopal influences. Burnet's professorship at the University of Glasgow is examined, lointed out also, is the fact that the products of his classroom, insofar as records for his students exist, were unanimously loyal to episcopacy, even after the settlement of presbyterianism in Scotland. The doctrinal method of Burnet's thought is illustrated in the context of the Natural and Revealed Theology on which his doctrine is contingent. This discourse aims to elucidate the prominent place in Burnet's delineation of thought that is held by the Cambridge Platonists, as well as pointing out the synthesis Burnet attempted to make between faith and reason. His doctrinal statements, including his explication of a doctrine of the ministry,are examined and compared to those sources he used. Manuscript sources and primary diocesan records,particularly those relatin to the consistory courts, offer material for the study of Burnet's ministry as a bishop. His diocesan ministry is an important illustration of episcopal rule in the post- Revolutionary period of the Anglican church. Some examples of his practices in episcopal administration, in public service, in relationships with the clergy, and in situations where there existed an extreme polarity of political opinions, are considered.

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Christian Perfection is most often dismissed or defended on the basis, declared or assumed, that it is 'perfect sanctification' or 'sinless perfection'. For those who dismiss the concept not least in their considerations is John Wesley's own insistence in retaining the word 'perfection' and his apparent ambivalence with regard to 'sinlessness'. In the case of those who defend the idea there continues to be, underlying all of the qualifications, an acceptance that Christian Perfection is indeed 'perfect sanctification', albeit an imperfect 'perfect sanctification'. It is the contention of this study that Christian Perfection defined in such terms as 'perfect sanctification', imperfect or otherwise, is an inadequate definition of the idea and does a serious injustice to what Wesley intended. Bringing together Wesley and his first interpreter, John Fletcher , the first two chapters of the study seek to present how both men perceived their understanding of the concept, based on what they considered to be the definitive documents on Christian Perfection. With regard to Wesley's understanding of the concept the dissertation maintains that not enough attention has been paid to Wesley's final summary in the <I>Plain Account</I> where he describes Christian perfection in its 'native' form. On the foundation of the first two chapters, the third chapter attempts to compare the two men's understanding in relation to the similarities, differences and the countering of criticisms. It concludes that Wesley and Fletcher saw themselves as basically in agreement and that after Fletcher's own adjustment, his emphasis on the Spirit, whatever the subsequent interpretation of history, should be seen as complimenting and not contradicting Wesley. With chapter 4 the major problems of Christian perfection in terms of definition, time and experience are examined in the light of biblical and theological perspectives. In the penultimate chapter it is argued that the key to understanding Christian Perfection is to see it, not in terms of sanctification, instantaneous or progressive, but as the Wesley/Fletcher 'category of interpretation' for the wholeness of vibrant Christian living. As such this holds together the pastoral need for 'actualisation' with the ongoing dynamic of life in the Spirit. The final chapter seeks to work out some of the implications of such an understanding paying particular attention to the religio-political dimensions of the current situation in Northern Ireland.

This thesis seeks to explore the possibilities of endorsing the church's authentic political presence and action in the public sphere. Against the background of modernity, characterised as the age of critical reason, the exploration will focus on the programmatic theological responses to this background offered by Charles Davis's critical theology and Stanley Hauerwas's ecclesial ethics. For Davis's critical theology, authentic politics is a process of communication among fully individual subjects in freedom. For Hauerwas's ecclesial ethnics, authentic politics demands that the church should not <I>have</I> a social ethic, rather its task is to <I>be</I> a social ethic. These theological responses to the contemporary social and cultural context broadly represent an appeal to critical reason, in critical theology, as opposed to an appeal to tradition, in ecclesial ethics. While the former position runs the risk of surrendering the distinctive voice and action of the church to the desert, the latter risks trapping the church in a sectarian ghetto. To this extent, critical theology and ecclesial ethics represent two theological sides of the so-called liberal-communitarian debate to be found in secular moral philosophical discourse. As such, Davis and Hauerwas have philosophical antecedents in Jürgen Habermas's discourse ethics and Alasdair MacIntyre's virtue or communitarian ethics. The thesis will argue, further, that to understand fully the implications of critical theology and ecclesial ethics for the political presence and activity of the church, they must be compared and contrasted. Firstly, this is because for discourse based critical theology like Davis's to be at all credible it must be able to meet the kind of challenges posed by MacIntyre and Hauerwas. Likewise, a 'communitarian' theology, such as Hauerwas's, must be able to answer the challenges of a dialogically reformulated, universalist, ethical theory of the sort envisioned by Habermas and Davis. Secondly, in exploring these challenges, with respect to Davis and Hauerwas, it will become clear that their respective positions actually generate compatible visions of integrity in the church's ministry and mission.

It is common knowledge that Calvin grounds and describes the forensic and renovative aspects of salvation in terms of what he deemed the more basic soteriological reality of union with Christ. This thesis moves beyond this generally accepted description of Calvin’s framework to explore how the idea of saving union with Christ actually operates or <i>functions</i> in the emphases of his soteriology. Attention is focused throughout upon issues and questions that prevailed in the sixteenth-century climate of theological, exegetical, and polemical discourse. To facilitate this investigation, two introductory chapters serve (1) to introduce the interpretive problems posed by the large body of existing literature, and (2) to approach Calvin’s soteriological construct from an historical perspective, providing a taxonomy of union with Christ as it was understood in the spiritual and academic strands of late medieval theology, in Luther’s theology, and in the work of others in Calvin’s day. After these introductory chapters, three case studies explore the function of union with Christ in Calvin’s exposition of the <i>duplex gratia</i>. In the first case study, Calvin’s defense of the necessary presence of good works in the lives of those justified <i>sola fide</i> is examined. The focus in this case study is, textually, on Calvin’s <i>Commentary on Romans</i> in its 1540, 1551, and 1556 editions in relation to his <i>Institutes</i>. Theologically, the focus is upon Calvin’s handling of the problematic “conditional” passages in Romans, in which eternal life is promised as a result of good works. To clarify Calvin’s largely but not entirely distinctive perspective, his approach to the problem is compared with Melanchthon’s handling of the same, showing how two different soteriological frameworks are at work. Specifically, it is argued that union with Christ functions for Calvin in terms of a principle of “replication” which serves to defend both the uniquely meritorious nature of Christ’s work and the real necessity of Christian obedience for the reception of eternal life. In the second case study, the relationship between soteric and sacramental union with Christ is examined.

The central thesis of this work is that John Lafayette Girardeau’s commitment to the religious instruction of the slaves of Charleston was not most consistent volitional response to the theological views of his denomination. At the most critical period in history for the Southern Presbyterian Church to demonstrate that their actions among the slaves were consistent with their collective ideology to evangelize and minister to them, Girardeau acted virtually alone in his attempt to make their religious and spiritual well-being a priority even above his own race. Perhaps the most tragic feature that will be disclosed in this study of Girardeau is the extent to which the Southern Presbyterian Church failed to mirror the efforts of the one whom they so quickly praised. Girardeau’s life provides a picture of a true nineteenth-century Southern Presbyterian Evangelical by highlighting what was missing among his colleagues. Girardeau’s multifaceted ministry to the South Carolina slaves, Charleston elite, Confederate soldiers, and seminary students is presented in a biographical study, chronologically examining the pivotal stages of his life. This biography traces the intellectual, social, cultural, emotional, volitional, and spiritual development of Girardeau, incorporating historical context throughout the thesis to present a more balanced work. An examination of a significant portion of the primary material, including articles, essays, reports, eulogies, and editorials written by colleagues, friends, reporters, close friends, students, and Presbyterian ministers and churchmen suggests that Girardeau is portrayed as a symbol of southern righteousness. His popularity tends to accentuate the inclination of many of those affiliated with the Southern Presbyterian Church to live vicariously through the ‘success’ of one of their own. Further, the emphasis that is given to Girardeau’s exemplary work among the seaboard slaves tends to underscore the collective failure of the Southern Presbyterian Church to do the same.

'The blood of the Christians is the seed'. This aphorism regarding the 'seed' of the Church is probably Tertullian's most memorable assertion regarding death. However, it would be misleading, indeed dangerously simplistic to confine his reflections on death to the theme of 'bearing witness'. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the complexity of Tertullian's reflections on death. Taking as its point of departure the physical phenomenon itself, the thesis explores, in turn, the six most prominent themes within the Tertullianic understanding of death. The said themes are death as a physical phenomenon, death as the imitation of Christ, death as a teaching medium, death as the culmination of man's conflict with the powers of evil, death as the ultimate sacrifice and death as the gateway to the hereafter. Did Tertullian regard death as 'natural'? Did he formulate a 'scientific' theory of death and putrefaction? Can a vision of discipleship which primarily focusses upon the motifs of 'indebtedness' and 'enslavement' be characterised as a genuine expression of 'imitatio Christi'? Did Tertullian regard the shedding of blood as a symbol of 'life' given over to death or did he simply regard it as a symbol of 'death' and 'violence'? Was his concept of martyrdom modified by his memories of the sacrificial demands of the Romano-Punic deities, Ba'al Hammon/Saturn and Tanit/Caelestis? These are but a few of the questions addressed by the thesis.

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