The aim of this research was to find ways that would help reconcile contested ethical and pedagogic issues raised by the phenomenon of Teaching English as a Missionary Language (TEML): that is, the evangelical Christian use of English Language Teaching (ELT) as a means for achieving religious ends. Four aspects of ELT were examined as a way to identify factors that could contribute to an improved understanding between evangelical Christians and opponents of the appropriation of ELT for religious ends. These were cultural and linguistic hegemony, teacher authority, ethical accountability and teacher identity. This was done by using a combination of qualitative research methods and theological reflection to analyse the data from four case studies about why and how evangelical Christians taught English to speakers of other languages. A revised evangelical identity was used to create an original theological theory of action that describes the characteristics of an evangelical practice of ELT in a way that addresses criticisms made by ELT professionals. The new theory describes how the integration of knowledge drawn from human experience, theology and the social sciences can contribute to the mediation of the Christian faith in modern society. It incorporates a Christocentric understanding of mission as missio Dei, moral transparency regarding evangelical Christian motivation for teaching English and the pursuit of pedagogic excellence. The contribution to the understanding and practice of ELT by evangelical Christians that this research makes is that, by a embracing a Christocentric paradigm of mission as missio Dei and adopting a dialogic collaborative pedagogy, evangelical Christians can make a unique contribution on the basis of their faith towards a redemptive and harmonious relationship with their students and the wider community of ELT professionals.

This thesis investigates the use to which William Langland puts the Glossa Ordinaria to authorise his vision of ethical, social and ecclesiastical reform in Piers Plowman. There was much in late fourteenth-century England to arouse the ire of the reformer and satirist and among Langland's targets was glossing the Bible. Yet the Bible was only available in glossed editions; so why and how did he differentiate between the Glossa Ordinaria and contemporary glossing? The answer seems to lie in the exploitative and dishonest use to which glossing was often put. Langland sees beyond that, however, recognising the ethical perils of linguistic diversity and more serious still, the lack of ethical content in, and even the antinomian tendencies of conventional (mostly Augustinian) understandings of some major Christian doctrines, such as predestination and free will, original sin, grace, the image of God in man, the Incarnation of Christ, and the relationship between wisdom, knowledge and love. This thesis examines the extent to which Langland deviates from these conventional understandings and revisits older understandings with more ethical productivity and a greater motivation for the laity to live ethically. He finds in the Gloss a source of such understandings.