The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the biographies and theologies of non-normative Christians. Prioritising the importance of sharing life stories as a source for theology, this thesis mobilises self-produced narratives from three individuals. By exploring the lives of the protagonists, we see how biographies and beliefs are revisited and revised throughout individual life courses. Mobilising resistance and rupture as characteristics of queer theory, I engage in a process which breaks free from traditional research paradigms. Thus, the secondary aim of this work became the development of an 'undoing' methodology, which liberates the researcher and allows me to approach and analyse the life stories using intuitive, reflective and creative methods. My critical insights on these participant stories reveal that all theologies are fluid, thereby exposing the temporal nature, but not significance, of all theology. Theologising from the basis of experience is always subject to revision. The process of 'undoing' theology points to a belief system based on experience which can never be rigidly fixed. The thesis reveals how 'undoing' theology is characterised by contingency, temporality, fluidity, becoming and unbecoming as its key indicators.

This thesis studies the ecclesiological development of Romanian Pentecostalism from its inception until after the fall of communism as well as analysing the contemporary situation and practice of the Romanian Pentecostal churches in context, both to diagnose the most important problems and to draw attention to and explain promising experiments and signs of hope. It reveals that due to external factors such as socio-political and economic constraints and internal factors such as lack of resources, lack of vision, past traditional theological inheritances, Romanian Pentecostal Churches have not always been able to engage with their context in a missionary way, and their missiological praxis has not always been contextual. The thesis aims to suggest that Romanian Pentecostal Churches produce a contextual theology that, in addition to being rooted in the Scriptures, is sensitive to the needs, struggles, and aspirations of the churches and the peoples of Romania today. The thesis concludes by affirming that the churches need to be themselves missionary alternative communities embodying the values of God's Kingdom in their essence, structures and outlook.

The status of Christian–Muslim relations (CMR), which are difficult to assess, has been ambiguous in contemporary Lebanon. Analysts, as well as individuals within Lebanese communities in Lebanon and within the diaspora have made conflicting claims. One major claim has been that CMR are better now than before the Lebanese Civil War because the civil war ended in 1991 and a reoccurrence has never materialized. Furthermore, the Ţā’if agreement, a working document aimed at ending the civil war and promoting solid CMR, was signed by most of the major communities of Lebanon in 1991. For these reasons and more, Lebanese CMR were believed to have improved post-civil war. Nevertheless, this writer explored the veracity of this proposition. Through comprehensive quantitative and qualitative research, the poor state of CMR in contemporary Lebanon was revealed. In face-to-face interviews in Lebanon, field experts reflected on the weakened condition of CMR and the reasons for the same. University students participated in a survey to ascertain their feelings concerning CMR and the possible causes of problems within CMR. Focus was also placed on the role identity has had in CMR. These causes of CMR conflict and, at times, consensus were reviewed and compared for a clear understanding of the state of present-day CMR. Finally, based on an understanding of these factors, recommendations for improvement, further study, and the future of CMR were given.

The aim of this thesis is to propose transformational leadership a new pastoral model for South Korean churches. It is argued that authoritarian charismatic leadership has contributed to church growth but, as Korea is changing into a pluralistic society, it has not respond to properly the needs of Koran Christians. So transformational leadership being characterized as both charismatic (visionary) and democratic (participant) is considered as a new alternative since it can meet their new demands for the leadership, which is both effectiveness in evangelism and appropriateness for new changed socio-cultural milieu. Main focus of attention of this thesis is on disclosing the way in which the nature of leadership has to do with Korean religion, culture, and theology. To deal with them the salient features of transformational leadership is first examined in the three dimensions: culture (Confucianism), philosophy (philosophy of life of Koreans), and theology (theology of Korean churches). Then its implication in biblical theology is discussed, which is followed by case studies empirically. In the process it is revealed that transformational leadership can be applicable to Korean churches which, in turn, can give rise to continual church growth and respond to the needs of the times properly.

This thesis will argue that by applying a hermeneutic of performance to biblical narratives, religious dramatic texts and Anglican liturgies we are able to encounter the divine as an immanent and transcendent presence in theatrical performance. Performance, and theatricality, create realities beyond our quotidian experience and provide a context for such encounters. To explore these encounters I consider biblical texts, where God is present and active in a narrative, dramatic texts where God is a character on stage and Christian liturgies where God is active as first person of the trinity, passive as object of worship, or supremely in the Eucharist, present as Jesus. All will be examined through the twin lenses of performance as an end and theatricality as the means to such an end. Theatrical performance is conditional upon multiple dynamics of action and reaction, feedback and response between both actors and audience which constantly modulate its process. Although capable of repetition, a performance remains unique and possessed of its own truth – however interpreted, Hamlet remains Hamlet. In performance actors become characters, each working with audiences to create and participate in different realities. This is the single most important application of theatricality. In performance, all characters and audience are of equal value and within the framework of a performance can shape and change what happens. ‘Upstaging’ of any character, by any character is always possible. This means that outcomes may be expected but can never be guaranteed. God viewed as a character must be subject to the same constraints as other characters. This raises theological problems. In the biblical narrative of Moses, God is upstaged by Aaron casting the Golden Calf, and by Moses’ post hoc rejection of divine forgiveness. Once God appears on stage his divinity is at risk by being, or perceived as being a human playing at being God, so finite and idolatrous. In liturgical texts God is the object of worship, but when worship includes elements of performance and theatricality, God, Jesus and congregations are all potential performers raising the theological spectre of authentic ‘liturgical celebration’ becoming theatrical ‘imaginative representation’. However, the different realities afforded by performance and theatricality allow mutual liminalities as God and humanity cross thresholds into each others’ presence sharing and shaping events. In all the texts examined there are events where transgression and conflict render them susceptible to becoming tragedies. As a character in their performance God’s impassibility is threatened and he must bear responsibility for their outcomes with their apparent loss of redemptive hope. As God becomes a character in human stories (Moses, cycle plays) his immanence affects their outcomes, but as humans become characters in divine stories (the Eucharist) they enter moments of transcendence. In their mutuality, realities created by performance and theatricality offer transformative experiences of truth and redemptive hope unique in themselves but unitive in their repetition.

Orientador: Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito / Orientador: Loïc Grasland / Banca: Laurent Vidal / Banca: Ester Limonad / Banca: Eda Maria Góes / Banca: Moriconi-Ebrard / Resumo: A passagem do século XX para o XXI faz-se acompanhar de transformações socioespaciais intensas, as quais têm colocado em xeque o futuro da cidade. De um lado, registra-se a ampliação dos processos de individualização e segmentação social, que combinados produzem ou reiteram desigualdades. De outro, dialeticamente articulado, verifica-se a produção de tecidos urbanos cada vez mais dispersos, caracterizados por descontinuidade territorial e densidades alternantes do centro à periferia. No bojo desses processos, a urbanização torna-se mundialmente difusa, afetando todos os espaços e articulando diferentes escalas, de forma a produzir o urbano para além das cidades. No Brasil, especialmente a partir dos anos 1970, as transformações socioespaciais supramencionadas também ocorreram, atreladas a processos nacionais de modernização. As metrópoles de Curitiba e de Brasília desenvolveram-se nesse período, cada uma a seu modo, marcadas por desigualdade e dispersão urbana, mais acentuadas na segunda que na primeira. Dois objetivos orientam, portanto, a discussão proposta nesta tese: examinar as correlações entre dispersão urbana e fragmentação socioespacial; e explicar como esses processos se realizam em Brasília e Curitiba... / Abstract: The passage from the 20th to the 21st centuries has accompanied intense sociospatial transformations, which have questioned the future of city. On one side, processes of individualisation and social segmentation grow and combine or reiterate inequalities. On the other side and in dialectical way, the production of increasingly dispersed urban tissues is confirmed, i.e., they are characterised by territorial discontinuity and alternating densities from centre to periphery. In this context, urbanisation becomes globally diffused, affects all spaces and articulates different scales in order to produce the urban beyond the cities. In Brazil, especially from the 1970s, the mentioned socio-spatial transformations have occurred and connected to national processes of modernisation. The metropolises of Curitiba and Brasilia developed in this period by different ways. Both of them have been marked by inequalities and urban dispersion, but Brasilia experienced it overwhelmingly... / Résumé: Le passage du XXe au XXIe siècle a été accompagné d'intenses transformations sociospatiales, qui mettent en échec l'avenir de la ville. D'un côté, des processus d'individualisation et de segmentation sociale s'accroissent et articulément produisent ou réitèrent les inégalités. D'autre côté et de façon dialectique, la production de tissus urbains de plus en plus dispersés se confirme, caractérisée par des discontinuités territoriales et des densités variables du centre vers la périphérie. Dans ce contexte, l'urbanisation se diffuse mondialement, affecte tous les espaces et articule des différentes échelles, de façon à produire l'urbain au-delà des villes. Au Brésil, spécialement à partir des années 1970, les transformations sociospatiales mentionnées ci-dessus se sont liées à des processus de modernisation nationaux. Les métropoles de Curitiba et de Brasilia se sont développées dans cette période, chacune à sa manière, mais de façon plus accentuée à Brasilia. Toutes deux ont néanmoins été marquées par des inégalités et par la dispersion urbaine. / Doutor

This thesis aims to investigate how evangelical Christians and their Protestant forebears, labeled early orthodox Protestants, have dealt with the classic puzzle of New Testament criticism known as the Synoptic Problem. The particular theories considered are the Independence Hypothesis, the Augustinian Hypothesis, the Two-Gospel Hypothesis, the Two-Source Hypothesis, and the Farrer Hypothesis. Starting with John Calvin and continuing to modern-day, consideration is given to the various hypotheses provided by early orthodox Protestant and evangelical biblical scholars throughout the centuries. Special attention is given to major evangelical contributors to the subject since 1950. In addition, a chapter is devoted to the role ecclesiology has played in evangelical consideration of the synoptic problem. After considering the opinions offered over almost half a millennium, the thesis notes how arguments have changed, and how they have remained the same.

The large numbers of Africans that have come to live in Britain in the last few decades have necessitated a better understanding of African Christianity. Focusing on Pneumatology, this study sets out to achieve such understanding by first undertaking a research of a church in London with a congregation made up of mostly Africans. This fieldwork yielded twelve concrete statements or “pattern-theories” on what the church members believe about the Holy Spirit. At that point, a review of existing literature was used to understand these “pattern-theories” more deeply. A second fieldwork was then carried out whereby two of these twelve “pattern-theories” were tested on a larger number of Africans drawn from four different Christian denominations. The second phase enabled the study to achieve a wider understanding based on a more diverse population of Africans. These two phases of fieldwork constituted the empirical cycle. Following the analysis of the findings the study advances five factors which determine African Pneumatology. These are their day to day experience of life, the Bible, their African worldview, the African traditional concept of God and the worldwide Pentecostal movement. The study also suggests that the Doctrine of the Trinity is a key factor determining African Pneumatology.

Recent studies of early Islamic Palestine have stressed the minimal impact of the Arab conquest on the Christian communities of the region. None, however, have sought to trace the trajectories of these communities beyond the eighth century. This thesis provides the first long-term study of the impact of the Arab conquest on monasticism and pilgrimage between 614 and 950. The study explores the changes to the physical landscape of monasteries and Christian cult sites, in terms of site abandonment and continuity, and situates these processes in the broader political and economic context of the Palestinian region between the seventh and tenth centuries. This thesis offers a systematic critique of current theories which view Palestinian monasticism and Christian pilgrimage as social entities dependent upon patronage from Byzantium and the early medieval west. Rather, it stresses the need for a more nuanced recognition of monastic communities and Christian cult sites as places closely interlinked with localised developments and the high degree of variation between communities in terms of patron economies and social transactions. This study demonstrates that these variances often provide the key to understanding the highly varied response of Palestinian monastic communities and Christian cult sites to early Muslim rule.

This thesis is centred on the second chapter of the second book of Heinrich Suso's Horologium Sapientiae, the chapter entitled De Scientie Utilissima Homini Mortali quae est Scire Mori, in its three Middle English translations. Two of these are here edited for the first time: the first, here entitled The Lichfield Translation, from Lichfield Cathedral MS 16, and the second, To Kunne Deie; from Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodleian 789 and Glasgow University Library, Hunter 496. Suso's life and works are briefly described together with the date of the entry of the Horologiun Sapientiae into England and the production of the three Middle English translations drawing on this work, one of which is a re-working of the Horologium incorporating the Scire Mori. chapter, the other two (those here edited) translations of this chapter alone. The circulation and ownership in England of the Horologium Sapientiae and of the three translations are also outlined. There follows a detailed examination of the Scire Mori chapter in its three Middle English forms, which endeavours to demonstrate how the text recommends meditation upon death as an efficacious method by which to promote repentance. This argument is further extended by a consideration of the manuscript context in which the three translations appear. The liturgical rites surrounding death as they appear in the Sarum Manuale are also examined in order to shed further light on the way in which the experience and spectacle of death were conceptualised in medieval spirituality. Finally, the conclusions reached in the course of these considerations are examined in the light of recent critical works on medieval attitudes towards death. Detailed descriptions of the eighteen manuscripts containing Middle English translations of Suso's Horologium Sapientiae form one Appendix to the thesis; a second comprises brief descriptions of manuscripts written in England containing the work in Latin.