This thesis examines the religious/political relationship between George W. Bush (the 43rd President of the United States) and conservative Catholics. Served by the over-lapping ideology of conservatism it presents a unique insight into the pragmatic, strategic and functionary role each played in the political service of the other. Unlike other studies this work argues that conservative Catholics, not Evangelicals, were at the vanguard of Bush’s political drive. Although a transitory arrangement – centred around a select set of characters - the religious, ideological and political dynamic surrounding Bush was purposefully informed by careful, empirical analysis. Apprised by decades of examples: of challenges and changes, mistakes and opportunities, we see certain individuals move beyond ideas and analysis into coordinated organisation. The narrative of this transition, its players and outcomes argues that faith and politics deliberately negotiated with one another to strategically gain a moment for political traction. This negotiation was not, as has been frequently argued, a negotiation with religion or theology singularly in mind; but politics and policy. Mutual ideology, political affiliation and core aspects of their particular religious creeds facilitated this.

Focusing where possible on folk and early popular music as historical documents, this thesis investigates how successive waves of culturally alien Irish immigrants were able to overcome hostility and eventually integrate into the population of New York City. It establishes that legacies of Protestant reformation, British domination and Catholic deprivation carried from Ireland and Great Britain combined in New York City with economic and political competition to invigorate latent anti-Catholic and anti-Irish hostility. This process was greatly aggravated by the huge and incessant scope of immigration; and the unsuitability of a poorly-educated, rural people for settlement in an increasingly urbanised commercial industrial environment. Irish Catholics refused assimilation because it required the rejection of their heritage. Instead, they opted to integrate en masse through the acquisition of political power, a far longer process marked by ebbs and flows of fortune and opposition. Employing lyrics and the wider culture of folk and popular song, as well as period newspaper reportage and modern scholarship, the thesis traces the chronology of Catholic Irish integration beginning with the establishment of state and national sovereignty in late 1783. The Introduction provides broader thesis overview and definitions. Chapter One establishes that by 1700 official British colonial policy purposefully discouraged Catholic settlement in New York. Chapter Two shows conservative Federalist opposition to providing equal religious and political rights. Chapter Three examines the dual impact of Ireland's Great Hunger and America's Second Great Awakening. Chapter Four investigates the opportunity and challenge presented by the American Civil War, and the catastrophic Draft Riots of 1863. Chapter Five sees the Catholic Irish banish Orangeism, gain control of Tammany Hall and then the mayor's office. Throughout, songs illuminate the Catholic Irish path towards integration.

This Practical Theological thesis examines the uses, understandings, and attitudes toward the rite of Christian Initiation (variously known as 'baptism' or 'christening') in the Church of England, contrasting the experiences of churchgoers and clergy with non-regular churchgoers and demonstrating its pivotal role in ecclesiastical boundary drawing. It develops a critical conversation between ecclesiology, theology, and the assumptions of ordinary people, revealed in their language when discussing the rite. Corpus based methods are used to explore naturally-occurring language in various corpora from a variety of genres, from 1500 to the present day. It concludes that there are significant linguistic differences between clergy/regular churchgoers and non-regular churchgoers and that the roots of this split go back to before Reformation times. Non-regular churchgoers’ use of language to describe this rite is more varied than that of churchgoers, who rarely used the word 'christening' nor figurative uses of these words. Non-regular churchgoers attached great social importance to the rite, but this was little understood by clergy and regular churchgoers. The Church would benefit from understanding and appreciating these different perspectives, both to enrich their own experience of Christian Initiation, and to allow more sympathetic pastoral care for those requesting the rite for their children.

This study offers a critical insight into the practice of theology and pedagogy with marginalised members of society with regards to what liberative praxis may mean as part of everyday living. Its characteristic feature is that it adopts a womanist approach to the process of constructing a new theological pedagogy in collaboration with British African-Caribbean women. In a manner suitable for the British context it centres the educational experiences and connected knowing of marginalised British Christian African-Caribbean women, as a resource for addressing complex issues in society. Accordingly, the experiences and wisdom of these Black women passionate about justice, freedom, spiritual development and relationships provide the raw material for this articulation of a liberative Spirit-led pedagogy. A process described as ‘womanistization’. The result is a broad and inclusive approach to research and biblical hermeneutics. The researcher and researched engage in dialogue as open and honest ‘candid participants’ employing their experiential imagination and wisdom to re-read scripture and translate their renewed faith into liberative action.

This study considers the development and evolution of Byzantine diplomacy through a crucial and previously overlooked period of the empire’s history. Current scholarship has neglected the analysis of Byzantine diplomacy from 1204, when the capital of Constantinople was seized by the Fourth Crusade, to 1261, when the city was returned to Byzantine control. During these years the institutions of the Byzantine state were preserved at Nicaea, which continued the complex relationship between Greeks and Latins and adapted the tested methods of diplomacy to meet new challenges. Of central concern is the frequency of church-union negotiation, or disputatio, during the period in question. Attempts to heal the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches were a frequently used tool of Byzantine diplomacy even before 1204, but the sources, problems and implications surrounding this aspect of foreign relations, although taken up by those pursuing theological analysis, have been neglected by historians. The emperors in Nicaea repeatedly opened talks with the papacy to end the schism before 1261, most notably in 1234, a meeting which carried profound implications for Byzantine foreign policy. By placing the disputatio in the context of Byzantine-Latin relations after 1204, we gain a more complete understanding of Byzantine diplomacy.

This research is praxiological in nature, arising out of committed action and leading to more informed urban ecclesiological practice in Scotland. It acknowledges the current haemorrhaging of membership and influence facing the Church of Scotland - felt most acutely in the poorest parts of the country - and seeks to plot a practical urban ecclesiology which takes seriously both the urban context and also the gospel priority towards the poorest and most marginalised. Chapter One provides an autobiographical backcloth to the research and highlights the three core principles underlying it: a preferential option for the poor; an understanding of knowledge as situated; and a commitment to an abductive research process. Chapter Two outlines the research methodology and, in particular, justifies the use of Case Studies, with Focus Groups and semi-structured Interviews, as an appropriate research model. Chapter Three focuses on the nature of the post-industrial city. It highlights globalisation, environmentalism and the collapse of western-style democracy as three of the key issues in the current urban context. It considers post-war urban regeneration, highlighting the failings of a model substantially dominated by buildings and a top-down strategy. Chapter Four is concerned with the nature of poverty in Scotland today, including how such poverty can be defined and measured. The causes of poverty are understood structurally and a particular critique of New Labour's social inclusion policies is offered, based on an analysis of their underlying political philosophy of communitarianism and the Third Way. Chapter Five draws on the different theological and ecclesiological responses to the urban and to poverty and, in particular, upon Latin American Liberation Theology and Urban Theology in Britain since 1985. Through an exploration of Pentecostalism, it highlights the need to develop appropriate ecclesiological models which take the nature of rooted hybrid spirituality more seriously. In Chapter Six the focus of the research narrows down to look at Glasgow, giving consideration to both the effectiveness of the city's place-marketing strategy and also some of the patterns of church life in the city. Chapter Seven focuses upon four Case Studies. These affirm and inform the conclusions reached in previous chapters, highlighting the failure of urban policy to adequately address poverty and the need of the Church to move beyond a 'project-based' response. The research also highlights the importance of church buildings as places of sanctuary and of the 'cultural sectarianism' which continues to pervade the culture of west central Scotland. Chapter Eight represents an attempt to return to informed practice, highlighting how some of the key concepts and findings within the research are informing the developing strategy and practice of the Church of Scotland's Priority Areas Committee.

Crusading and the military orders have, at their roots, a strong focus on place, namely the Holy Land and the shrines associated with the life of Christ on Earth. Both concepts spread to other frontiers in Europe (notably Spain and the Baltic) in a very quick fashion. Therefore, this thesis investigates the ways that this focus on place and landscape changed over time, when crusading and the military orders emerged in the Baltic region, a land with no Christian holy places. Taking this fact as a point of departure, the following thesis focuses on the crusades to the Baltic Sea Region during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It considers the role of the military orders in the region (primarily the Order of the Teutonic Knights), and how their participation in the conversion-led crusading missions there helped to shape a distinct perception of the Baltic region as a new sacred (i.e. Christian) landscape. Structured around four chapters, the thesis discusses the emergence of a new sacred landscape thematically. Following an overview of the military orders and the role of sacred landscpaes in their ideology, and an overview of the historiographical debates on the Baltic crusades, it addresses the paganism of the landscape in the written sources predating the crusades, in addition to the narrative, legal, and visual evidence of the crusade period (Chapter 1). It then proceeds to a chapter-by-chapter analysis considering specific sacralising elements expressed in the sources, which structure the definition of sacred landscape used in this thesis (outlined in the Introduction). Chapter 2 considers the role martyrdom in sacralising the landscape, followed by a discussion of the role played by relics (Chapter 3), ritualization, and sacred space (Chapter 4). By incorporating Geographical Information Systems (GIS) into the analysis of the texts, a new spatial map of the Baltic campaigns emerges from the present study, providing a fresh approach to studying contemporary views of holy war in a region with no holy (i.e. Christian) shrines.

What are the relational dynamics between Taiwanese Christian daughters-in-law (D-Ls) and their non-Christian mothers-in-law (M-Ls)? How does Christian faith influence their intergenerational relations? How best can a caregiver offer appropriate pastoral support and assist Christian women in dealing with their non-Christian M-Ls? These issues and problems have been largely ignored in the relative literature and have arisen from of my pastoral work and personal experience. As a female pastor and D-L, set out this study seeking to integrate professional and academic knowledge in order to answer these questions. This study focuses on women’s experiences, attempting to reveal those relationship issues, and determine any problems underscoring the daily interactions of D-L—M-L in Taiwanese society. In order to meet these aims, the thesis engages with feminist pastoral theology, social science methodology, psychological analysis, and cultural studies. The first part of this study explores literature relevant to the topic, and the living context of Taiwanese D-Ls, as well as feminist pastoral theology. It is concerned with how traditional Chinese and Western cultures define roles and construct intergenerational relationships. Social transition, tension between tradition and modernity, and the struggles and challenges in relation to these intergenerational relationships are examined. The traditional male-centred theological paradigms, in which gender is interpreted and which must be reinterpreted and reconstructed for developing feminist theology, is also discussed. The second part of this study describes its feminist research methodology. It sets out a framework for collecting data to aid in developing an understanding of Taiwanese Christian women’s experience. Focus group discussions were used to explore the collective voice of the D-Ls. The last part of this study involves the presentation of research findings, discussions, and suggestions for further thought and action. It illustrates key findings from analysis of the focus group discussions, and describes the daily interaction and cultural ideology they present, along with the roles husbands, fathers-in-law (F-L), children, and other family members play in the web of relationships. The findings reveal that D-Ls face the challenges of an androcentric and hierarchical family culture, a close-knit family web, and unequal power relations. Different religious practices impact upon the D-L－M-L relationship and this can be a source of tension or conflict. Christian teachings also convey potentially androcentric messages for women that can affect their self-image and cause other harmful consequences. However, many participating women indicated that Christian beliefs provide them with a spiritual strength which has transformed their lives, and led to relational restoration. The Bible, teachings and church groups provide religious resources that support them in the face of relational challenges. I end with self-reflection, noting the need for further theological construction, and propose an alternative model of Triune love, based upon feminist interpretation, as a foundation for family renewal and women’s emancipation. This theological model has implications for new forms of pastoral care which can promote gender equality and non-hierarchical, intergenerational relationships.

This research focuses on domestic religion: those activities through which everyday devotion and the worship of God were performed. It encompasses both the daily communal practices of family religion (prayer, psalm singing, catechising and sermon repetition) and the personal devotions of individuals (prayer, mediation and self-examination) in domestic space. It also considers the extraordinary religious practices of preparation for communion, days of fasting and humiliation, and the experience of sickness and death. The textuality of domestic religion is highlighted in a chapter on reading and writing. The published prescriptive advice is related to the reality of lived experience as revealed through the archives of seventeenth century families, most significantly those of the Harleys of Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire. Domestic religion was a highly complex contiguous cycle of enmeshed interrelated practices. The links were not only between domestic practices but also with public worship. A related theme challenges the supposed interiority of Protestant, and more particularly Puritan, piety, as it highlights the sociable nature of domestic religion. Domestic religion provides a useful lens throughout to explore consensus and division in seventeenth century religious politics and culture. The domestic religion was vital in the construction and projection of family identity.

Taking the use of the logos in Ratzinger's Regensburg Lecture as its starting point, the thesis expands three horizons in Ratzinger studies. Firstly, it extends the understanding of Ratzinger as the author of a logos theology. Secondly, it shows how the Regensburg theme of the full breadth of reason, represented by the logos, is applied by Ratzinger in a critique of secular modernity. Thirdly, it claims that the logos theology of Joseph Ratzinger can provide a repair of the culture of human rights. The thesis argues that if human rights are set exclusively within the framework of secular modernity, they fall sick and fail to meet the criterion of inclusivity and universality. Set within the framework of a Ratzingerian logos theology, their power is strengthened and their promise of inclusivity and universality restored. The thesis calls for a mutually reparative dialogue about human rights, based on the full breadth of reason, between the three constituencies of Christianity, the religions and secular modernity. The thesis concludes that the Regensburg Lecture, far from damaging the dialogue with Islam, and with secular modernity, opens up a new intercultural bridge based on a mutually enriching engagement with a logos-based culture of human rights.