Mahatma Gandhi’s religious thought and pluralism have received attention from scholars and activists. This thesis provides an original contribution by addressing underexplored areas which reveal shifting boundaries in his pluralism. It explores Gandhi’s relationship with atheists, in particular his Indian friend Gora; the relationship between Quakers and Gandhi, in particular Marjorie Sykes and Horace Alexander; and Gandhi’s approach to inter-religious marriage in an Indian context, exploring both religious and societal dimensions. Throughout the thesis religious pluralism is addressed both in its philosophical or theoretical dimension and in the practical dimension of how one relates to people of other faiths. I provide a critique of the breadth of Gandhi’s pluralism in dealing with atheists in an inclusivist fashion and in his early opposition to inter-religious marriage. I also draw out its strengths in placing religious/ethical life above beliefs. This provides a framework for strong friendships with Quakers and atheists, and a positive approach to inter-religious marriage (in his later years) by allowing individual interpretations of religious life as opposed to community belonging. Gandhi’s theology and friendships offer a critique to theories of dialogue emphasising commitment to a particular tradition. They open a way to include marginalised groups in dialogue and respect the whole person rather than treating religion as a compartment of a person’s life.

Serious academic considerations of magic, beyond its merely social, cultural or psychopathological contexts are few. As one of them, this thesis claims that a coherent function of Dion Fortune’s The Cosmic Doctrine, according to demonstrable textual intention, is as a participative magical process. Fortune’s text consists, primarily, of an extended, incomprehensible metaphor: the movement of infinite space. It claims to be designed to train the mind of the reader rather than inform it. The abstruseness of the text, wherein subjective and objective referents are treated simultaneously, prompts an interpretive tool; this thesis presents a tripartite hermeneutic as such a tool. An exploration of emanationism, according to Fortune’s understanding of Qabalah, presents the conceptual matrix of The Cosmic Doctrine. An implicit dialogue with the philosopher Henri Bergson provides a basis for discussing process thought as integral to Fortune’s emanationist cosmology. The literary theory of manuduction embraces intuitive cognition of reality as process and the spiritual practice of reciprocity between human and divine activity inherent within Fortune’s emergent emanationism. The resulting hermeneutic serves to provide a practical, participative approach to The Cosmic Doctrine whereby reading the text functions as a psycho-cosmological magical experience in accordance with its author’s definition of such.

It is widely accepted among secularisation theorists (Wilson 1966,1982; Dobbelaere, 1981; Berger 1981; Bruce, 1999,2002) that the more modern a society becomes, the more likely it is to secularise - i.e. the social and political significance of religion will most likely diminish. At the opposite end of the theoretical debate, scholarly work seeking to explain the recent phenomenon of the re-affirmation of religious values argues that the consequence of modernisation is not secularisation but rather the resurgence of religion (Huntington, 1996; Kepel, 1994; Juergensmeyer, 1993, 2000). With religion gaining salience in some societies but losing ground in others, this ongoing debate appears more critical than ever. The cases of Ireland and Greece are pertinent examples: The Republic of Ireland is experiencing secularising tendencies and the legitimacy of the Church is being increasingly challenged, while in Greece the role of religion remains strong, if not strengthened in recent years, and the legitimacy of the Church is maintained. For secularisation theorists, failure to secularise is likely in instances where there is an explicit link between religion and nationalism-'Cultural defence' or the 'nationalist pattern' (Martin, 1978). But while both cases constitute instances of cultural defence, Ireland is now secularising. This is precisely the puzzle this thesis is concerned with: where traditionally religion, culture and politics are linked, under what circumstances does religion cease to play a politicised and mobilising role, and under what circumstances is this role retained or even strengthened? This thesis argues that the answer can be found precisely in the nature of the nationalist pattern. Rather than being a monolithic model, there are significant variations within the pattern itself: religious based national identities, like all national identities, are fluid, not static. The dynamics of national identity change are dependent on two interlinked variables:(a) the degree to which a Church obstructs modernisation, and (b) external threat perceptions. This thesis will attempt to illustrate the inter-relationship between the above dynamics through a thematic comparison between Greece and Ireland. This model may be used to explain not only what accounts for the variations between the Greek and Irish cases, but also more generally to identify the conditions under which religion may remain or cease to be politically active and legitimate in societies where secularisation has been inhibited given a strong identification of religion with the nation.

This thesis on Calvinist subjectivity within the work of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) explores how the dialectic of word and image, and subsequently the Word, Logos, and word as rhetoric constructs conceptions of selfhood necessarily associated with and bound by the rhetoric of sinfulness. In contrast to studies that synthesize Edwardsian, and, in turn, Calvinist schemas of sin and selfhood within religious doctrine and treatises, this project examines the experiential nature of sinfulness as expressed through language or poetics. Given such examination, this work posits three things. First, in general terms, it contends that, during the Reformation, the displacement of icons led the Word to acquire the positive and negative functions of religious imagery that it meant to displace: to lead persons to God and to lead them away from him. Second, the project finds that the work of Edwards, which emphasizes feeling and personal spiritual experience, signals another shift in the Calvinist dialectic of word and image, and, then heralds the possibility of a type of ecstatic or ‘sweet’ communion with God outside of sin and language itself. Third, and more particularly, this text argues that despite Edwards’ rhetoric of ‘sweetness’, the geography of sinfulness that both pervades and varies within Edwards’ language, creates a Calvinist subjectivity, as it filters through the word/image dialectic, that becomes trapped within Edwardsian rhetoric, and, in turn, encounters difficulty experiencing the salvation to which it portends. In the end, then, this project both challenges and expands the corpus of Edwards’ scholarship in two ways. First, it demonstrates that, although valuable, sole attention to historical and theological exegesis of Edwards’ texts does not adequately account for the paradoxical tensions and meaning of Calvinist selfhood posed by the Puritan’s work and evidenced by the word/image dialectic. Second, and most importantly, the project indicates that, in actuality, apart from what the majority of Edwardsian, particularly Evangelical, scholarship contends, the ‘sweetness’ and spiritual sensations Edwards speaks of selfhood only partially open to the divine and salvific assurance. True, Edwards can still be celebrated as the Father of American Evangelical thought and practice. This project, however, questions if Edwards’ interpreters have ignored the signposts of his language and created an icon(s) of himself, and, subsequently, of a type of Calvinist selfhood that figures the narrative of their own story. In the end, then, this thesis finds itself back at its beginning as it confronts the nature and work of icons and the possibilities and variances of language—as icon and idol itself—that lay in their wake.

As an exercise in hermeneutics this study explores the relation between various concepts of evil and their associated forms of salvation. A definition of salvation is offered in terms of that aspect of the sociology of knowledge which might be called plausibility theory. The major academic traditions of history, sociology, phenomenology, and anthropology of religion are shown to have been concerned with the question of 'meaning' and it is proposed that a general paradigm of meaning has now replaced the nineteenth century evolutionary paradigm. This approach eliminates the necessity of having to adopt theological terms from one religious tradition when studying other traditions. To show that the distinction between world religions and primitive religions is misleading some comparative study and analysis of some African tribal religions, the Sikh, and Mormon religions is presented in terms of the paradigm of meaning. A philosophical consideration of the nature of man is employed throughout the argument to suggest the appropriate level of analysis that each discipline should adopt, and to evaluate the methodological issue of reductionism.

In the context of earlier studies of Sikhs in the British diaspora and of the nurture of children in their parents' faith tradition, this thesis reports an ethnographic study of the nurture of eight to thirteen year old Sikhs in Coventry. The study develops earlier anthropological insights, notably using the interpretive approach of Clifford Geertz. For the purpose of analysis nurture is classified as informal (unplanned and family based) and formal (supplementary classes in mother tongue and devotional music). Both provided evidence of diversity within the Panth (Sikh community), signalled for example by iconography and dietary norms. They also suggested processes of change, as details of Sikh and non-Sikh cultural practice interacted. The celebration of birthdays and of the Vaisalchi festival serve as exemplars of the complex interactions involved, for which Baumann provides analytical tools. Examination of the data in association with the presentation of the religious worlds of young Sikhs in religious education curriculum books revealed some divergence. This is explored with particular reference to subjects' use of the word 'God', their experience of amrit (holy water) and their understanding of the word 'Sikh', especially in relation to the five Ks. On the basis of these observations of change, diversity and the discrepancy between curriculum book presentation and the ethnographic data, chapter twelve identifies processes at work in the Panth. Fox's dynamic concept of culture 'in the making' strengthens the contention that the Sikh tradition is shaped at the level of individual decisions (eg over language use) by children and their elders. Further it is argued that ethnographic findings have implications for the portrayal of the religious lives of young Sikhs in curriculum books.

Essay I suggests that the context in which the enquiry concerning kerygma is being made is dominated by the rise of the historical-critical method. The hypothesis that theological language is an insoluble compound of historical and eschatological language is explored, then rejected in favour of the hypothesis that historical language is paradoxically identical with theological language. Essay II explores what it means to speak historically of the resurrection, finds it necessary to define God, to assert that the past is present and that my acts and words, like the acts and words of Jesus, are the acts and words of God, though these former are qualified by sin. Essay III assumes that the words of Jesus and the words of the early church were the words of God; that, if the words of the early church were kerygma, so too then were the words of Jesus kerygma. What differentiates kerygma from other language-games that deal with history is not that what they speak of remains past, lvhereas the kerygma makes present, but that in the kerygma he is present whose acts and words were, without the qualification of sin, God's acts and words. Essay IV summarises the position so far, with a parenthesis on the inseparable relation of narration and proclamation; suggests that the New Testament includes not one kerygma, but many, some of which"merely differ from one another, some of which contradict one another. It is further suggested that kerygma is created by men, or theologically speaking, by the Spirit, at the point where tradition and the present situation interact. As this interaction should be creating something new, it is not possible to test whether a new kerygma is true or false, as traditional norms cannot entirely measure what has gone beyond tradition. Essay V outlines the presuppositions that have been accumulating throughout the essays and suggests that they, or something like them, are necessary for' a comprehensive and consistent explanation of what kerygma is.

A fresh engagement with the formative work of Anthony C. Thiselton demonstrates that this work constitutes a source of insights of great value for a programmatic construction towards a unified hermeneutical theory. Such a construction provides powerful keys for unlocking six contemporary problems in hermeneutics. First, it brings organisation to a disorganised discipline by identifying three distinct spheres or strata of hermeneutical reflection. Second, it brings clarification to a complex discipline by identifying seven distinct hermeneutical 'conversations' centred on 'dialogue', 'history', 'epistemology', 'language', (Western) 'culture', the human 'self', and 'understanding' (including the hermeneutical task). Third, it tackles the problem of abstraction in hermeneutics by bridging the gap between hermeneutical theory and practice. Fourth, it addresses the problem of disunity in hermeneutical theory on three levels: philosophical subtext, the removal of perennial philosophical and theological 'dualisms' or 'dichotomies', and the relative ontological priorities of 'history' and 'language'. Fifth, it addresses inter-disciplinary polarisation in hermeneutics by clarifying the relationship between theological and philosophical hermeneutics. Sixth, it strikes at the heart of irresponsibility in interpretation by answering the question of what constitutes 'responsible interpretation'. However, despite these six potential advances and Thiselton's world-ranking stature, no thorough engagement with Thiselton's work yet exists in the literature. What little engagement there has been manifests serious misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Thiselton's thinking. Conversely, the criticisms emerging that can legitimately be made of Thiselton are relatively minor. His critical stance towards the Continental hermeneutical tradition necessitates a clearer highlighting of the grammatical changes implicit in his continued use of Continental terminology. Thiselton also needs to dialogue further with epistemological traditions, with philosophies and models of selfhood, with major 'postmodern' thinkers, with pastoral theology and with theological anthropology. Finally, a more sophisticated hermeneutic of fallen human relationships is required to provide a better understanding of historical conditioning

The study of religious dimensions of visitor experiences in public museums is an under-researched area, partly because of assumptions of the secular nature of the museum space, the dominant assumptions and methods of museum evaluation studies and the relative lack of study of material religion in public spaces not intended to be devotional. This project addresses this by examining the processes through which visitors experience sacred presences in the museum. This research employed Actor Network Theory (Latour 2004) in order to decentre the more prominent components within visitor studies and evaluations (such as the visitor). Using ANT, this study conceives religious interactions as networks that combine objects, people and divine/supernatural presences, all of which have the capacity to affect the network. This network approach was then used to explore and analyse interactions at two religious-themed exhibitions at the British Museum, and the religious tour groups that visit its permanent galleries. The study found that the sacred was evoked in a number of ways in the museum; through embodied interactions with artefacts, as memories, and through engagements with scripture. Each encounter had to negotiate an array of actors that were both present and absent within the museum space. These actors, which had the ability to facilitate and inhibit visitors' religious experiences, included elements often overlooked by museum professionals and within visitor studies (such as overheard comments and glass display cases). The findings also revealed how perceptions of the museum as secular shaped visitor norms and thereby influenced whether the museum became a site of conflict or opportunity for sacred encounters. Furthermore, the research demonstrated the limited capacity of museum staff to influence visitors’ interactions as, irrespective of the museum’s intentions, the commingling of certain objects, spaces and visitors can facilitate experiences of the divine.

This thesis is a critical comparison of the accounts of religious belief proposed by William James and Søren Kierkegaard. Both James and Kierkegaard greatly emphasize the subjective aspects of religious belief. In view of this fact, surprisingly little comparative work has been done in this area. I contribute to this literature in two ways. Firstly, I make a brief assessment of what James knew of Kierkegaard’s work. Secondly, I draw four comparisons between Kierkegaard and James. In Chapter One I examine the claim that Kierkegaard proposes a pragmatist account of faith of the kind that James sets out in his essay The Will To Believe. I argue that this claim rests on a misunderstanding of Kierkegaard’s argument that to have faith is to take a risk. In the following chapter I discuss James’s and Kierkegaard’s views on formal proofs for the existence of God. Both philosophers reject the notion that faith can be based on such proofs. I distinguish between their positions, and argue in favour of Kierkegaard’s. In the third chapter I compare Kierkegaard’s and James’s accounts of religious experience. James views religious experiences as a special kind of evidence for the existence of God. For Kierkegaard it is a mistake to view religious experiences as evidence. Such experiences should be understood in relation to the concept of religious authority. In the final chapter I examine Kierkegaard’s conception of faith as a life-view. I argue that for Kierkegaard a life-view is a fundamental perspective on one’s existence. I compare this conception with James’s concept of philosophical temperament and in relation to his discussion of the sick soul.