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The last sixty years have seen the emergence of three particular developments that are currently exerting tremendous effects on the shape, articulation and practice of World Christianity. These are: the demographic shift in Christian adherence from the North to the South; the rapid expansion of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement in various places around the globe, particularly in the South; and the growth of migration from many two-thirds world nations to first world countries. In their interaction, these developments have produced a plethora of new religious expressions within World Christianity – specifically the presence of non-Western Christianity in the North. For as Non-Western immigrants migrate to the West, they bring with them a vibrant religious life which they use to navigate the terrains of the new society. This thesis delineates the experiences of West Indian Pentecostals living in New York City and London as they engage with their host societies. It explores the manner in which several generations of immigrants are constructing and re-negotiating their ethnic and religious identities. The thesis reveals that both the home country and the Diaspora context play a vital role in this process of identification. This is especially notable for the immigrant children who can be seen as constituting the frontline in terms of cultural and social change. This study also highlights the process by which ‘mission’ is being conceptualized and practiced within these Diaspora faith communities. The findings indicate that mission – its conceptualization and practice –is also a product of the West Indian and Diaspora contexts. However, this re-conceptualization is conducted within the framework of a re-definition of the local and global dimensions associated with the term. As a result, the translational process becomes one of dynamism and constant negotiation as the ideas emanating from home and the host societies are able to critique and influence each other. This thesis clearly reveals that Diaspora faith communities occupy a significant position within the lives of their members. They are sites of dynamism, where members access social and cultural capitals; maintain transnational ties; interact with the Diaspora context; and live out their faith. Therefore, this thesis argues that these faith communities function as a bridge connecting the home country and the Diaspora context, enabling their members to retain certain aspects of the ethno-religious identities and the cultures of their homelands, while equally, assisting them to adjust to, and create a place of belonging within the new society.

Christianity has seen phenomenal growth in sub-Saharan Africa and African churches in the West have also grown rapidly in the last few decades. The majority of members in these churches in the West are migrants and their children. In Britain, these migrant churches represent a vibrant form of Christianity with regard to their visibility and prominence. Considering the challenges these migrants’ churches face in their efforts to evangelise the host community, most migrant members use the churches as the platform for their own expression of personhood, faith and mission. Internal strategies are designed and implemented by the churches to assist members to integrate into the wider society. These strategies otherwise referred to as micro-integration strategies concentrate on preparing the members for living in the communities they reside in. It is argued that these internal strategies determine the level of contextualisation of beliefs and praxis in the host communities, thus creating a new identity that is a combination of Ghanaian and British values. The study has explored how the internal integration strategies and the contextualisation of the Ghanaian migrants’ faith determine the extent to which the churches assume a transnational status in their outlook and the expression of their faith.

To what extent is British African Pentecostal Megachurch (BAPMC) a postmodern phenomenon, and has APMC influenced the western Pentecostal worship style in any way? The plethora of literature on Megachurches reveals a gap in knowledge about African Pentecostal Megachurch (APMC) worship and its influences, especially within the UK. Consequently, there is a need to research if the APMC worship concept is a postmodern phenomenon. This study seeks to investigate and determine if there is any influence and to what extent the African Pentecostal Megachurch is a postmodern phenomenon. To determine this, the study examines early African religion, missionary Christianity, African Instituted Churches, African Pentecostalism, transmigration and African immigration, the Black Church, African Diaspora and the Megachurch to give an understanding of African worship concept in comparison to what is obtainable today. A research methodology peculiar to this study was adopted, which involved using four APMCs in London as case studies to generate sufficient data to answer the research question along with existing literature and research projects by Megachurch experts. This study used the western contemporary culture (WCC) as a lens to view how these APMCs worship today compared to the African early worship styles and establishes that a relationship exists between the WCC and the APMCs’ worship concept; that WCC has influenced the APMC worship concept. Likewise, the western Pentecostal worship style has been influenced by African Pentecostal worship features. Throughout this thesis, the phrases ‘postmodernism’ and ‘WCC’ will be used interchangeably.

The Jesus People movement arose in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Achieving its initial strength in California, this unique combination of the hippie counterculture and evangelical Christianity eventually spread to many parts of the country and briefly attracted a great deal of contemporary media and scholarly attention. Fading from the cultural spotlight rather quickly and eventually disappearing in the late 1970s, little attention was paid to the Jesus People in subsequent decades as both scholars of American religion and culture tended to either overlook the movement, or dismiss it entirely. This project argues that a closer re-examination of the entirety of the Jesus People phenomena--and not just its transitory period of 'California-heavy' media popularity--reveals that it was one of the most significant national religious movements of the postwar period. The Jesus People impacted both great numbers of young people in the counterculture as well as many young evangelical church youth who adopted the Jesus People persona and made it their own. Just as the lives of a significant number of 'Baby Boomers' were shaped by the counterculture, so the Jesus People movement was another of the major formative forces among American youth who came of age in the late 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, its influence remained significant within the American evangelical subculture in the decades that followed. Not only did burgeoning new groups such as the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard movements originate in the movement, but the Jesus People paved the way for the huge 'Contemporary Christian Music industry' and signalled a new relaxed relationship between evangelicalism and youth culture. Upon reexamination, it is clear that the Jesus People movement played an important role in the resurgence of American evangelicalism in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries.

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No description available.

The Watch Tower movement was a millennial social movement which was popular in Nyasaland, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, and the Belgian Congo, and in parts of the countries bordering these territories, between the two world wars. It derived its doctrine initially from the writings of Charles Russell, the founder of one of the largest sects of the twentieth century, the Jehovah's Witnesses. The African Watch Tower however was largely independent of the Jehovah's Witnesses, although this body attempted to establish its control in central Africa, and its ideology and organisation changed and developed in accordance with local conditions. While some similarities in the conditions of rapid urbanisation which surrounded the origins of the Jehovah's Witnesses in America, and the Watch Tower in Africa, may be discerned, its political and historical role was a very different one. Spread by labour migrants moving between employment centres and from the village to the urban compound, the Watch Tower contributed to the new forms of association which enabled workers to protest against their conditions of employment, and assisted in spreading a pan-Africanist consciousness which was a significant current in the development of anti-colonial nationalism. It was not only an urban movement, but also selectively influenced the countryside, where external factors and the nature of local social organisations were favourable. It spread rapidly, in a wide variety of forms, and with little formality regarding who was or was not a member, but retained a central core of ideas and an organisational structure, which allows the movement to be treated as a unity.

This thesis examines five religious organisations which existed in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, collectively known as the Maritime Region, between 1880 and 1920. Each of these denominations emphasised holiness theology, albeit in varying degrees. They include, in order of their establishment in the region, the Methodist Church, the Free Christian Baptist Conference, the Salvation Army, the Reformed Baptist Alliance of Canada and the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. This study assesses these religious bodies in a number of ways. First, it examines their theological beliefs, comparing them with one another and tracing any changes which occurred in them between 1880 and 1920. Second, it considers the various associations which each of these denominations developed with the late nineteenth-century American holiness movement. The enquiry devotes particular attention to the response of each religious body to a spiritual encounter, known as ‘entire instantaneous sanctification’, popularised especially during the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the holiness movement in parts of Canada, Great Britain and the United States. Third, a review of the unique strengths and weaknesses of each of the five institutions offers an explanation for the numerical and financial growth of several of these groups early in the twentieth century, as well as the degeneration of others. Fourth, the study discloses much of the opposition which was directed towards Maritime holiness movement sympathisers, offering a number of explanations why some of these individuals left their traditional religious affiliations to join holiness bodies which they perceived to be true advocates of scriptural holiness. Fifth, it appraises the strong leadership which a number of individuals offered to the holiness cause in the Maritime region, taking into account the education, religious training, financial status, gender and ancestral origin of these men and women. Finally, a thorough statistical analysis of each constituency highlights the unique composition of each denomination’s membership. Taken together, these features inform the primary argument of the thesis, which is that significant transformations occurred in some of these religious bodies at the same time as large percentages of constituents became wealthier and more socially acceptable. These changes eventually facilitated the merger of the Methodist Church and the Free Christian Baptist Conference, the two oldest denominations, with national mainline religious bodies. This thesis contends that such unions may not have occurred had these groups not attained public recognition. Furthermore, in realising these achievements both of these denominations relinquished the more radical elements of their heritage, as well as much of the spiritual passion linked with it.

German text / In dieser empirischen Untersuchung wird die Leitungskultur der Brüder-Gemeinden im Bund Evangelisch Freikirchlicher Gemeinden (BEFG) in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (DDR) dargestellt. Dafür wurden Informationen von Brüdern, die damals in Leitungsverantwortung standen, mittels eines schriftlichen Fragebogens eingeholt. Zusätzlich wurde aus diversen schriftlichen Quellen das Leitungsverständnis der Brüderbewegung in Deutschland während verschiedener Epochen eruiert. Anhand der verschiedenen Ergebnisse wird die Leitungskultur in den Brüder-Gemeinden im BEFG in der DDR kritisch bewertet. Diese qualitative und quantitative empirische Forschung will einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der Brüder-Gemeinden in der DDR leisten. Gleichzeitig zeigt sie auf, wie die Leitung einer christlichen Gemeinde in einem antichristlichen Überwachungsstaat funktioniert hat. / This empirical study will show the style of leadership in the Brethren church of the “Bund Evangelisch Freikirchlicher Gemeinden” (BEFG) in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Information was obtained from brothers, who held a managing position during this time, by answering a written questionnaire. Studies of source material as well as thematic analyses were realized as part of this research to show an overall view of the understanding of leading the Brethren Church of BEFG in Germany in different epochs. The style of leadership will be critically evaluated based on the different results. This quantitative and qualitative study will not only contribute to the research of the BEFG in the former GDR but will also show how the leading of a parish in an antichristian surveillance state worked. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)