This thesis enters a territory infrequently visited by English archaeologists – the early modern period. I have chosen a research area encompassing fifty neighbouring parish churches along the border of East Hampshire and West Sussex and studied what survives of their post-medieval material culture. Though these medieval churches have generally been altered in the 19th century many of them still retain material, architectural, landscape and documentary clues which reveal important aspects of their early modern condition and the religious experiences of their parishioners in life and death. A major aim has been to show that far from being stripped of imagery and cultural artefacts, other materials were introduced, designed to communicate new forms of Protestant ritual to parishioners who may frequently have been bewildered by the rapid religious changes of the 16th and 17th centuries. Having described the area and visited its historical biography in Part One and in order to capture a sense of what it was like to participate in parish religion, I concentrate on four themes emanating from my studies of these churches: space, sensory experience, the performance of memory and gender. Thus Part Two deals with the spatial qualities of new architectural innovations and the effects of the reorganisation of church furniture and is followed by an account of the sensory experiences which religious participation evoked. These discussions centre on the lives of parishioners. Part Three turns to parishioners’ encounters with death and their understandings of the ways in which the church and churchyard framed and enabled the performance of social memory. The final discussion chapter is a series of case studies centred on tombs commissioned by individual gentlewomen for their families and themselves and their nuanced interpretations of mortuary imagery. A major element of this study lies in the way it develops contemporary methodological frameworks within early modern social archaeology. This allows a wider synthesis to be achieved using thematic regional approaches which run alongside the contextual exploration of the sample’s locales over this long transitional period. My approach is also informed by theoretical issues emanating from a number of associated disciplines such as history, art history and anthropology. This is an unusual standpoint which aims to provide a particularly multilayered exploration of an area and time rich in archaeological material which builds on and develops current scholarly thinking in this particular realm of social archaeology.

This thesis explores collective phenomena, specifically mass visions of the Virgin Mary and examines the case of Marian apparitions in Zeitoun, Egypt. A review of the literature points to a prevailing socio-political approach to examining visions of the Virgin Mary while a psychoanalytical approach is generally lacking. The former approach suggests that Marian apparitions can be interpreted as a backlash against modernity, secularization, and political ideology. I argue that an important gap remains in this interpretation, as the socio-political approach does not address the psychological aspect of the apparitions, but rather research is stressed on social and political implications surrounding them. In particular, a Jungian perspective seems to be particularly suited for the objective of filling in this gap, thanks to Jung’s interest in investigating collective visions. This thesis draws from Jung’s compensation theoretical model in Flying Saucers with the aim of merging depth-psychology and historical material from the Zeitoun case. Weaknesses to Jung’s theoretical approach are discussed, and this is addressed through the employment of qualitative and quantitative empirical work in the form of survey, eyewitness testimonial case studies, and photographic material. Common themes and symbols are extracted and interpreted from the empirical material and analyzed along with Egyptian social and political data. This study concludes with a discussion on how depth psychological principles grounded in empirical and historical material could be applied in order to explicate cases of mass visions.

This thesis studied transfonnational experiences of 'spiritual awakening' from a psychological perspective, using a phenomenological qualitative approach (specifically, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis). The aim was to study the phenomenology of individuals who claim to have had this experience. Purposive sampling was used to find a group of individuals who felt that they had undergone the experience of 'spiritual awakening.' Twenty-five participants made contact, primarily through the author's website, which focuses on issues relating to psychology and spirituality. Given this approach, the sample represented a subset of those who may have experienced spiritual awakening in broader contexts. The participants were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The transcripts were coded, then the main themes of the twenty-five interviews were elicited. Twenty-five major codes were identified. These were ranked in tenns of the number of participants who shared them. All twenty-five participants reported a shift into a new psychological state, with a new sense of identity, new modes of cognition and perception, a new relationship to their surroundings and to other human beings (including increased authenticity and compassion) and new values (including a less materialistic attitude and increased altruism, in some cases leading to a change in career). In this respect, the study found that much of the phenomenology of their experiences was similar to the characteristics of 'spiritual awakening' as expressed by spiritual traditions and also by transpersonal psychologists. However, a significant number of participants also reported initial and ongoing difficulties and fluctuations in their state, including psychological disturbances, cognitive problems, difficulty dealing with practical and organisational tasks, confusion, and physical problems such as sleeplessness and ongoing pain. In this sense, the study confirmed the close relationship between spiritual experience and psychopathology, as noted by Grof (2000), Clark (2010), Lucas (2011) and others. The study discussed possible causes of the different aspects of the participants' experiences, and also the possibility that the phenomenology of their experiences may have been at least in part the result of narrative construction (especially in the aftermath of intensely traumatic experiences), in relation to the need to reconstruct their identity and establish a conceptual framework to make sense of their experiences. Although it was beyond the scope of this thesis to offer firm conclusions on this matter, further research which may be productive in this area was suggested. This study found that it may be misleading to conceive of the psychological shift interpreted by the participants as 'spiritual awakening' as a purely positive state, without attendant difficulties. It is perhaps more accurate to think in terms of a 'spiritual opening' - a psychological shift which can bring a more intense and expanded awareness, but which can create instability and disturbance.

The distinction between explicit and implicit psychological performance is held to arise as a consequence of differences in self-related processing. In the former, outputs from sensory and memory activity gain ready access to a model of self, referred to here as 'I'. Implicit performance comes about when activity is isolated from 'I' for pathological, or other, reasons. Under normal, explicit circumstances the model of 'I' constructed at a given time is stored in association with representations of concurrent thoughts or percepts. This memory model of' I' is referred to as an 'T'-tag, and is hypothesised to function in subsequent recall. Evidence for the above is drawn from neuropsychological data relating to the implicit/explicit distinction in terms of differential brain systems, and from introspective data concerning the characteristics of conscious processes. Studies of a variety of brain-damaged patients suggest a distinction between decrements in direct stimulus- or motor-related processing and compromised availability of material to consciousness. It is argued here that the latter are consequent on problems in the interpretations of direct processing, specifically those normally involving 'I' as the putative receiver of impressions, controller of memory recollection, and instigator of actions. The Buddhist philosophy of mind analyses the nature of self and details the stages operating in processes of thought and perception. In particular, the notion of'l' implied in the foregoing description is stated to be illusory. The alternative view, that'!' arises as a conditioned association and is without substantive continuity, is supportive of the 'I'-tag concept. The 'I'-tag theory is further developed through an analysis of the stages of perception as detailed in Buddhist thought. Finally, the theory is employed to advance a possible psychological interpretation of a strand of Jewish mysticism in which an artificial anthropoid the golem-was said to be created through linguistic techniques.

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The field of academic theology is presently maintaining the following about the critical thought of the Scottish thinker John Baillie (1886-1960): (1) Baillie’s so-called "mediating theology" does not have a concept to contribute to contemporary Christian thought; (2) Baillie's concept of "mediated immediacy" is important primarily for Baillie's thought in his Our Knowledge of God (1939); (3) mediated immediacy’s logic about knowledge of God is severely convoluted. Received positions which support the field's marginalization of mediated immediacy's contemporary relevance in particular, they come with a concession: (4) the field's confusion about mediated immediacy's meaning—this, as evidenced in over 75 years' worth of competing interpretations about mediated immediacy’s logic, in particular. This thesis centers primarily on Baillie's concept of mediated immediacy, taking as its primary aim the resolution of research issues (1-4). In doing so, it demonstrates that previous research has underestimated: the staying power of Baillie's mediating theology in general, mediated immediacy’s importance for Baillie’s mediating theology in particular, and mediated immediacy’s potential as a contribution to contemporary Christian thought. Along the way, it resolves several research issues which have been occasioned by perennial confusion about the logic of mediated immediacy's normative epistemology and descriptive epistemology in particular. Research contributions about the logic of mediated immediacy's epistemology per se, these derive from three additional research contributions: a diachronic trace of the development of Baillie's mediating theology (Baillie research has sought a comprehensive and cogent ordering of Baillie's non-systematically articulated critical thought; this thesis provides it, by identifying Baillie's espistemic and apologetic preoccupations across his critical thought's roughly 35-year development); a modeling of mediated immediacy's logic (previously absent in a research corpus whose literature ahs been replete with confusion), that logic's expression in what is found to be, contrary to the thrust of previous research, a concept of mediated immediacy that serves at least four functions for Baillie's mediating theology; and, a comprehensive and rigorous critical evaluation of mediated immediacy’s epistemology (also previously absent in Baillie research literature), a multi-disciplinary evaluation of it's logic (from contemporary philosophical-epistemological, empiricalpsychological and theological-epistemological perspectives), included. An evaluation warranted by the multi-disciplinary scope of Baillie's mediating theology, as well as by Baillie's employment of his rather versatile concept of mediated immediacy, this evaluation considers mediated immediacy's now robustly evaluated logic's consequences for core aspects of Baillie's mediating theology, including Baillie’s ideas of knowledge of God, divine action, divine revelation and religious experience. The definitive work on John Baillie's concept of mediated immediacy, this thesis is essential for those with an interest in John Baillie's critical thought. Amongst other things, the thesis challenges positions widely held by John Baillie research. For example, it demonstrates that a nascent form of mediated immediacy existed in Baillie's thought before the concept's first explicit mention in the mediating theologian's 1939 publication Our Knowledge of God. Here is a novel interpretation in the research. Furthermore, whereas previous research has rightly observed that Baillie’s critical thought gravitates toward the problems of revelation and knowledge of God in general, this thesis demonstrates that Baillie’s mediating theology focuses on one problem in particular— across the roughly 35-year span of its development: the problem of the epistemological relationship between direct knowledge and indirect knowledge for knowledge of God. In addition, this thesis demonstrates that Baillie’s latter mediating theology (post-1939) provides a stronger doctrine of the Holy Spirit than that found in Baillie's earlier critical thought. This thesis may also be of value to persons with broader interests, including the epistemic interplay between aspects of philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and empirically-based interpretations of the phenomena of religious experience.

The central aim of my thesis is to examine the processes by which individuals from a Western background enter the International Society for Krishna Consciousnes (ISKCON), a transnational religious movement with its roots in Chaitanya Vaishnavism, a Hindu tradition originating in India. The central argument of my research is that extant models of conversion do not do justice to the process by which individuals enter ISKCON and assimilate its values, beliefs, and practices. This thesis thus critically examines conversion models/theories and seeks to refine our understanding of conversion, especially in relation to groups in which everyday ritual practice plays a central role. My research is based on the analysis of in-depth interviews with ISKCON entrants and engagement with theories on ritual and literature on conversion. The tradition’s essential practices involve chanting God’s holy names: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare and making food offerings to the Hindu deity Krishna (these are referred to as prasadam rites). Ritual is both a doorway for coming in contact with ISKCON and a crucial practice for entrants to make progress from the status of neophyte to novice and to qualify for successive initiation rituals. I draw mainly upon Catherine Bell’s theory of ritualisation to explore entry into ISKCON in relation to ritual practices. Ritualisation, in the ISKCON context, is a strategy that facilitates the internalisation of ISKCON’s central values and worldviews. This is made possible through the entrant’s initial exposure to its rituals, his/her search for the meaning behind these rituals, gradual acceptance of ISKCON’s 5 schemes of ritualisation, and, over the long-term, acquisition of ritual mastery. From a sociological perspective, entry into ISKCON is a three-staged process involving separation, transition, and incorporation. The stage of separation is a phase of accepting sets of oppositions concerned with polarities of purity and pollution, causing alienation from previous social circles and encouraging group-integration within ISKCON. The transitional stage is characterized by the internalisation of beliefs, worldviews and values. The stage of incorporation is marked by successive stages of seekership (searching for, and finding, meaning using ISKCON frameworks) and commitment (not just to ISKCON’s values and ritual practices, but also to its missionary agenda). To determine how ritual practice constructs power relationships and creates boundaries for the development of active agency and passivity, I look at four dimensions of ritualisation. These are (following Bell): (1) the effects of ritual practice on socialisation and vice versa; (2) the role of ritual specialists; (3) the forms of misrecognition and blindness resulting from ritual practice; and (4) the influence of ritualisation on the agency of entrants. My work demonstrates that “conversion” in the ISKCON context is marked by three crucial features. First, it is a process of gradual “drifting” into ISKCON’s fold, not a sudden change. Second, conversion to ISKCON’s belief system is facilitated by the adoption of the ritual practices central to ISKCON. Hence belief and practice are closely intertwined in the conversion process, with ritual practice serving, in most cases, as the entry point. And finally, my work demonstrates that this “conversion” does not entail a radical break with previously held religious beliefs and values. Instead, “converts” to ISKCON continue to profess their former faith, but now filter this through the lens of ISKCON’s Vaishnava devotionalism.

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