This thesis aims to investigate Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in Greater Metro Manila in the light of the double-structured religious system. It is methodologically based on historical descriptive investigation and analysis of Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in Greater Metro Manila. Since their inception in the 1920s, Pentecostal/Charismatic churches have grown rapidly in the context of a double-structured Roman Catholicism: one from official Catholicism, the other from a mixture of folk/popular Catholicism with traditional beliefs and practices. The co-existence of institutionalised Roman Catholicism and folk/popular Catholicism with ancient beliefs and practices urgently demands thoughtful investigation about the religious system, for which the writer introduces the new term "double-structured religious system." Even though much research has been carried out on many aspects, investigation of the complicated religious system in the Philippines has been neglected. The slow growth of Protestantism in the country is ascribed to the double-structured religious system to some extent. On the other hand, the rapid growth of Pentecostal/Charismatic movements is attributed to the "Manila Pentecostal revival" in the 1950s. The revival movement, on which little has been previously written, interacted vividly in the midst of the double-structured religious system in Greater Metro Manila in particular, and in the Philippines in general. For that reason, academic investigations and evaluations on the "Manila Pentecostal revival" and a double- structured religious system were examined in this thesis. To investigate the origins and development of the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches extensive fieldwork was undertaken in order to reveal characteristics of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in Greater Metro Manila.

The rapid growth and development of African-Caribbean Churches in Britain since the Second World War has contributed to the communal life and vitality of British society and the burgeoning plural theological landscape. However, the socio-political contributions of African-Caribbean Pentecostal church leaders at one level remain unacknowledged and at another unknown. As a consequence there is a strong general belief that African-Caribbean church leaders shun worldly political engagement.

This study develops a political theology for Black Pentecostal Churches in Britain. The Black Church as a part of Black Atlantic cultural and political traditions is influenced by a plethora of spiritual, political and social forces. These include histories of oppression and resistance. By taking seriously the traditions of resistance, the Black Church is provided with resources for developing a holistic theology that engages explicitly with the social and political world, that is, what I have called a liberating theological praxis. Such a political theology takes seriously the cultural, theological and political issues raised in African Caribbean resistance. One African Caribbean resistance tradition is the concept of dread in Rastafari. Traditions of resistance are exposed from within Black Pentecostalism by 'imposing' a reformed concept of dread upon aspects of Black Pentecostalism. This conjunction produces a theological paradigm called dread Pen tecostalism. Dread Pentecostalism as a theological system nurtures the theological sensibilities found within liberating theological praxis, that is, emancipation fulfilment. One product of dread Pentecostalism is its hermeneutical focus known as dread hermeneutics. Dreadhermeneutics is the basis for a political re-reading of the Bible from a Black Pentecostal context. This political focus is demonstrated in a reevaluation of Christology in order to construct a dread Christ.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a Pentecostal Charismatic Church (PCC) of Brazilian origin, opened its first branch in South Africa in 1993. Post-apartheid, the church found an enthusiastic following that embraced its promises of miraculous health and wealth. Within ten years the UCKG boasted more than 230 branches. Anthropologists ascribed the phenomenal growth of the UCKG and similar PCCs on the continent to processes of modernisation and to the ways in which these churches helped people to cope with the pressures and demands of modernity. They paid particular attention to PCCs' ability to transform Africans through the mechanism of conversion into individuals better able to opt into the global economic order from which they had been excluded. Anthropologists also emphasised the skill with which PCCs created new or modern forms of sociality that supported and moulded the individual and his/her modern aspirations. My research among UCKG members in Durban showed how problematic these analyses were. I argued that the UCKG's theological and institutional frameworks, which helped it to successfully localise and globalise, was culture-less. As such, the UCKG didn't serve as an institution that transformed its members into hyper-modern individuals but merely offered them technologies to realise their modern desires, or 'blessings'. Indeed, UCKG members were already transformed by the neoliberal conditions into which they were thrust. They utilised the UCKG's technologies in an attempt to counteract neoliberal-induced unemployment, fractured families, insecurities and a lack of health care. Paradoxically for its members, the UCKG's technologies exacerbated their problems. Many stayed on, enthralled by the fantastic testimonies and exorcisms in the church. It is in this context that I discuss the vicious rumours that circulated about the UCKG, not merely as idle gossip but as a means to scrutinise and overturn the invisible working of power.

The British Assemblies of God is a Christian denomination within the wider Pentecostal Movement which had commenced at the beginning of the 20th Century. This thesis traces the origins of the Assemblies of God during its formative years 1920-1925. By means of a sense of exploratory conferences attempts were made to create organisational unity between the Independent Pentecostal assemblies. Initial conferences at Swanwick and Sheffield failed. However a renewed attempt In 1924 led by John Nelson Parr, first at Birmingham and then at London, was successful. The first part of this thesis traces the detail of those discussions and the kind of organisation which emerged. The second part critically examines the reasons behind the formation of the new group. There were three main reasons. First there was the determination to preserve a distinctive Pentecostal testimony, especially relating to glossolalia. Secondly there was a growing need for co-ordination of fellowship and witness as the Independent assemblies expanded or faced challenges from other groups. Lastly there was the need for protection amongst the assemblies from false teaching and fanatical behavior. Some final reflections raise questions for the overall Pentecostal Movement in Britain.

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In this thesis I consider the life and work of William Kelly, a Brethren theologian who was a leader of the Moderate Exclusive Brethren movement. I have analysed his beliefs and his influence amongst the Brethren and the wider Victorian Christian world. In particular, I have used articles, both those by other Brethren writers which Kelly edited, and the many articles he wrote himself as contributions to The Bible Treasury, a published monthly magazine which he edited between 1856 and 1906. I have considered his books of Biblical exegesis and his tracts and pamphlets on other subjects. While Kelly also edited the work of John Nelson Darby (1880-1882), I have contended that Kelly was an independent theologian in his own right and not just an indiscriminate follower of Darby's teaching. I have examined Kelly's lively and scholarly appraisal of the German 'School of Higher Criticism' and its commentary on Anglican and non-conformist theologians of his period with whom he disagreed. Kelly's work is worthy of study because his Biblical exegesis was meticulous and scholarly and demonstrated his understanding of each book within the context of the wider Biblical text. In keeping with the title of my thesis, I propose that Kelly's teaching was nuanced and cannot easily be stereotyped. In describing him as a Biblical literalist, I have chosen to focus on the key topics of 'the Atonement' and 'the After-Life', as these were considered to be controversial topics amongst Victorian theologians and Kelly referred to them throughout his teaching. In defining him partly as a conservative intellectual, I examine his broader understanding of Biblical language and literary form, his assessment of the philosophical foundations of criticism, and his response to German and English trends in Biblical criticism. I also consider his mystic theology with regard to the church and the teaching of the Epistles and the way his own writing encapsulates his interpretation of the Biblical text. Finally, I have come to some overall conclusions about how we can assess William Kelly, the characteristics of his theology and his place within the continuum of Brethren theology and of a broader Christian tradition.

This thesis examines the \(influence\) of music on the development of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee). The dissertation is historically driven, but relies upon an interdisciplinary approach to draw on the insights of ecclesiology, theology, liturgiology, church development, and music. This thesis utilizes a chronological and systematic approach to the relationship between music and the Church of God in the United States during the first 125 years of the denomination’s history, from 1886 – 2011. The study focuses upon eight major themes: historical roots, education, publishing, evangelism, transition, nurturing, liturgiology, and worship, to show that music had a widespread influence on the development of the denomination. The musical underpinnings for these broad themes include: Spirited-singing and exuberant worship; traveling music groups for the purpose of promotion; the shaped-note tradition; technological advancements; the amalgamation of both music and the youth of the Church of God; the establishment of a leadership structure for music; the music styles used in the Church of God; and finally highlighting worship as a lifestyle. For over a century music has been an often-neglected dialogue partner at the table of academic discussion and literature, and this thesis argues for recognition and a proper place in Pentecostal history.

This thesis embodies the first systematic historical research of Black gospel music as a tradition in Britain, calling attention to the serious gap in knowledge so far concerning its growth amongst African Caribbean Pentecostals in Britain. Although it maintains that an underlying theme is the significance of Africa as the original birthplace of African descendants in Britain, the Caribbean and America; it opposes a one-size-fits-all universal historical account of Black gospel music, suggesting that historical knowledge so far is based on historical interpretations of the development of religious music amongst African ancestors in America. It makes the claim that African Caribbean Pentecostalism, in particular its worship practices, nurtured the musical talent of the youth in its congregations who were destined to advance Black gospel music as a tradition in Britain. Using first-hand accounts of African Caribbean Pentecostals of the post-war years in Britain, it identifies three main sources as retainers of “historical facts” representative of objects of the past that can help towards a new approach to history and heritage.

While the immediate origins of 20th century Pentecostalism are in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and in that form of Afro American Christianity which developed during slavery, some of its roots go back to West Africa. What began among a small black Christian group in Los Angeles in 1906 has now become a world-wide phenomenon which has spread to the Caribbean and from there to Britain. Black settlers primarily from rural Jamaica - arrived in urban England to face the racism and rejection, not only of the wider society but also of the white denominations. With them they brought types of Pentecostal ism which are similar to and in some ways quite different from, both the mainstream denominations and white indigenous Pentecostalism. Some of the black Pentecostal congregations established in the Borough of Wolverhampton remain tied to white North American headquarters while others are free from white control or influence with a concomitantly greater emphasis on certain black leitmotive.