Myanmar has undergone a political upheaval since colonial times. The country suffers in every aspects of life due to the political situation. Religious teachings, social and cultural traditions prolong these difficulties. Therefore words such as authority, power and submission have gained important in Myanmar. Those in power employ these to reinforce their rule and control people. In this context, a question that arises is what is the role of Christianity in Myanmar? Therefore the specific question for Christianity is to address how the teachings of the New Testament contribute or hinder the pursuit of freedom by the powerless and how we apply the concepts of authority, power and submission focused in some New Testament letters. This work looks at some New Testament texts which demand the authority, power and submission in people’s social, political and religious life. The postcolonial feminist uses imperial studies, decolonising, depatriarchalising, decoding, and de-moding as tools to analyse how these texts came into being with the influences of Greaco-Roman patriarchal, colonial and imperial systems. It also looks at how these texts were exegeted by mainstream scholarship, missionaries, Asian liberation theologians and Feminists and specifically by Myanmar Christians. This is in order to scrutinise if these interpretations reinforce or resist the authority and power. The postcolonial feminist resistant reading examines the texts from a Myanmar Buddhist context. It challenges all the colonial/imperial and patriarchal mentalities not only in the texts but also in parallel Buddhist teachings and Myanmar cultural traditions and tries to find out the unheard voices and hidden resistant materials respectively. This reading focuses on balancing power and submission. This work is a weapon to challenge the power, a voice to represent and a remedy for empowering ‘the others’ or the marginalised.

This thesis presents an analysis of glyptic motifs of a religious nature attested on the Greek mainland in the Late Helladic period and on Crete post Late Minoan IB. Its purpose is to ascertain to what extent such an analysis can, firstly, expand our knowledge of religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, and, secondly, elucidate the nature of the relationship between Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece. This was achieved through the classification and analysis of five glyptic themes generally regarded as possessing religious significance in scholarship. These are anthropomorphic figures and non-anthropomorphic elements flanked by animals, seated women, figures with architecture, and animal sacrifice. This contention was critically appraised by developing a widely applicable methodology that demonstrated that many possessed religious aspects. The comparative analysis between the glyptic iconography of the Cretan Neopalatial Period and that of the Greek mainland and post-Late Minoan IB Crete identified specific changes that occurred from \(circa\) 1470 BCE onwards and established which of these originated on the mainland. As a result, I have defined a group of iconographic representations that provide specific information regarding religious practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and clarified the relationship between religious iconography and reality.

The aim of the thesis is to provide a tradition-specific 'Pentecostal rationality.' To do this it will first analyse and evaluate some of the main contemporary Pentecostal rationalities and' epistemologies (chapter 1), before proposing that Alasdair Macintyre's tradition-focused and historically-minded narrative approach is conducive in providing a more tradition-constituted Pentecostal rationality (chapter 2). Utilising the methodological insight of Macintyre, the thesis will then provide a philosophically informed historical narrative of a Pentecostal tradition, namely, the Elim Pentecostal Church, by exploring its underlying context and roots as a classical British Pentecostal movement (chapter 3), its emergence as a religious tradition (chapter 4), and its two major 'epistemological crises' (chapters 5 & 6). Based on this historical narration, the thesis will argue that Elim's tacit Pentecostal rationality is best defined as Pentecostal Biblical Pragmatism in a Foursquare Gospel framework. This form of rationality will then be developed vis-a-vis Elim's Pentecostal concept of truth (chapter 7), biblical hermeneutics (chapter 8), and pragmatic epistemic justification in dialogue with William Alston (chapter 9).

This thesis examines conflict within a UK Black Majority Church. It uses personal observation and journals, with the work of academic historians of the Black churches, to establish that Black Majority Churches have a tendency to conflict that is usually unacknowledged yet often pervasive and damaging. The thesis locates this within a Black cultural history (almost entirely untold in the academy until after the present author’s schooling ended) that involves deep-seated past causes for present conflict among post-colonial Christians. The thesis then proposes a model for the pastoral analysis, practical management, and spiritual resolution of conflict. The key methods for this (drawing on psychology and counselling as well as theology) are autoethnography, transpersonal analysis and pastoral journal records. The final stage of the pastoral model is resolution by scriptural teaching and active faith in the Holy Spirit; key passages of scripture show that conflict has been crucible for making Christianity, and has often been integral to the discovery and transmission of God’s word. Finally, the thesis offers a training plan for Pastors in the CoGoP – a plan combining the practicalities of work in that church with the historical and theological conclusions drawn from the present academic research.

This thesis aims to investigate the growth of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea, which has grown to be the largest single church in the world, and has attracted the attention of many scholars. Accordingly, much work has been done to find the reasons for its growth. However, most of them are one-sided in investigating the institutional factors of the church. These are limited and inadequate in terms of methodological appropriateness. This thesis grasps the intrinsic reasons for the growth of the church by overcoming such methodological problems. This study considers Han, the Korean people’s distinctive feeling, as the contextual factor and the Pentecostal experience of the Yoido Full Gospel Church as the institutional factor. This study investigates the growth of the church through these two factors. It shows that Han is associated with specific church growth concepts through the Pentecostal experience of the church. It also reveals that there are significant factors and processes by which Han is associated with church growth. As a result, as new findings this thesis shows how pentecostalism, a particular sect of Christianity, adapts concretely to the Korean context. It suggests some practical methods and strategies of mission for Korean Protestantism and beyond.

Since the late 20th century information technology has changed the lives of individuals and relationships at local, nation and even global levels. In particular the internet is used by many religious groups for theological and spiritual purposes. Some parts of Christianity have confronted the issue of how to deal with the use of internet. As a result, an internet church has emerged, offering Eucharistic services online across the globe. Even though the numbers of internet churches/Eucharistic groups have sharply increased in the last two decades, the attitude of the established churches does not appear to have taken account of this change yet. To achieve this it is necessary for such initiatives to be guided by certain theological norms or church regulations. This may relate to the definition of church, Eucharistic theology, or how to deal with emerging cultures. However, no public theological agreement about the development of a cyberspace Eucharist ecumenically, or even within single denominations such as the Methodist church, has yet been achieved. This thesis sets out to explore the possibility of developing of an internet Eucharist within the context of John Wesley’s Eucharistic theology, practice and fervor for communion. Wesley’s Eucharistic theology and practice were not simply his own idea or preference. Rather he derived them from various resources from the early Christian to the period of his own life. He also understood the Eucharist in relation to his own engagement with the changing society of his own time. In this context he developed his Methodist Societies as Eucharistic communities within the understanding of the means of grace: instituted and prudential. This study will not only give justification for the online Eucharist, but will also try to investigate how Wesley’s theology and practice can inform the practice and theology of the online Eucharist.

From the 1970s the emergence of religion and spirituality in psychoanalysis is a unique development, given its traditional pathologizing stance. This research examines how and why ‘sacred psychoanalysis’ came about and whether this represents a new analytic movement with definable features or a diffuse phenomena within psychoanalysis that parallels developments elsewhere. After identifying the research context, a discussion of definitions and qualitative reflexive methodology follows. An account of religious and spiritual engagement in psychoanalysis in the UK and the USA provides a narrative of key people and texts, with a focus on the theoretical foundations established by Winnicott and Bion. This leads to a detailed examination of the literary narratives of religious and spiritual engagement understood from: Christian; Natural; Maternal; Jewish; Buddhist; Hindu; Muslim; Mystical; and Intersubjective perspectives, synthesized into an interpretative framework of sacred psychoanalysis. Qualitative interviews were then undertaken with leading experts focusing on the lived experience of contemporary psychoanalysts. From a larger sample, eleven interviews were selected for a thematic narrative analysis and from within this sample, six interviews were then the focus of a reflexive intersubjective analysis, utilizing psychoanalytic techniques. This research concludes that three forms of sacred psychoanalysis can be identified embracing a generic framework for theoretical and clinical understanding; a framework for intersubjective presence; and a framework for spiritual/sacred encounter.

The focus of this study is the portrayal of the Strange Woman and the unnamed mothers and wives of Proverbs arguing for a realistic portrayal of these women within the book. Informed by a feminist approach it considers the impact of male-oriented reading strategies upon existing interpretation and attends to the way in which poetic parallelism and variant repetition create proverbial clusters which offer an alternative context for the interpretation of proverbs. The findings show, firstly, that current interpretations of women in Proverbs are unduly influenced by the portrayal of Wisdom, the Strange Woman and the Woman of Worth in the framework of chapters 1-9 and 31, rather than by the text itself. Secondly, women’s voices provide a possible source for material in the lectures of Proverbs 1-9 (along with the father), the poems of Proverbs 31, and as the narrator of the encounter with the Strange Woman in Proverbs 7. Thirdly, where mothers and wives are in focus, alternative interpretations can be offered which do not assess the character or behaviour of the woman, but rather focus on the son’s character and behaviour and its subsequent impact upon relationships with his parents, his wife and his own offspring.

This thesis examines the religion and spirituality of black African churchgoing teenagers in England. The study is situated within the existing literature on the religion and spirituality of children and teenagers in the field of religious studies, not as a repeat of any existing study, but as a unique investigation. It is important given the limited research that exists on the subject matter, despite the enormous population of black teenagers in the United Kingdom. The study argues that a qualitative methodology is most suitable because of the nature of the enquiry. The interview method is adopted because it allows for interaction between the researcher and the participants, which is crucial to the aims of this study. The participants of the study comprised 27 black churchgoing teenagers, ages 13 to 15, who are members of the RCCG, an African-led denomination. The results show that even though religion and spirituality influence the lives of the participants, other factors affect the extent of this influence. The factors discussed in this study include the influence of society (societal values, social media and music) and social contexts (home, school and church) on the religion and spirituality of the participants. The perceptions and the beliefs that the participants expressed on religion and spirituality were also discussed. This information forms the basis of the main research. In addition, the influence of fashion - tattoos and body piercing - was discussed, although it was not covered by the original interview questions, as it was unexpectedly brought up during the course of the interviews. This study contributes to the ongoing debates about the religion and spirituality of teenagers from a specific cultural background, providing a balanced comparison between the existing literature on the religion and the spirituality of teenagers from a British background and teenagers with African origins who are living in Britain. It also provides a unique understanding and knowledge for research boards in education, black majority church leaders and teachers on the way African teenagers, particularly the participants of this study, perceive religion and spirituality, thereby helping the church leaders and the teachers to support them.

This research explores the different forms of religious practice within a mosque in north London. It was built by one migrant group, the Guyanese, but the congregation includes those from different Muslim communities now living in the vicinity. These different communities have brought with them their own religious traditions. The ritual of Friday prayer brings this diverse group together as a congregation but the mosque is also a space for the communal life of the Guyanese and those who share their way of being Muslim, while globalised currents of thinking are apparent in the work of a Guyanese preacher who teaches an explicitly text based Islam in classes and lectures. My research examines the different ways in which Islam is present within these three domains and the relationship between them within the context of the mosque. The research contributes to the idea of ‘mundane Islam’ and ‘everyday religion’ through an exploration of the implicit, unsystematic way of being Muslim lived by the Guyanese and the everyday relational concerns and ethical commitments it carries. Though the classes offered the very different view of Islam to which the teacher was committed, one purified of cultural traditions, the women who attended them brought the complexity and ambiguity of the mundane back into the process of religious transmission.