This study investigates the Native Baptists and the dynamics between their Biblical hermeneutic and the 1865 Native Baptist War. This work outlines, for the first time, the origin, structure and development of the Native Baptists. This study also discerns the main themes of the Native Baptists as equality and justice and their Biblical hermeneutic as a hermeneutic of liberation. The main thesis is that the Native Baptists' interpretation of Scriptures and Scripture -related sources influenced the nature and scope of the 1865 Native Baptist War. To achieve the goals of this study, this writer relied heavily on archival and contemporary documents. One of the major features of this study is that, for the first time, it provides an in-depth analysis of a major original source, which the first Native Baptists wrote about themselves. Another unique feature is the meticulous analysis of Paul Bogle's marked hymns, letter and speech and George William Gordon' s speeches in the House of Assembly. In order to examine and outline the origin, structure and development of the Native Baptists, this writer was informed by the social history of religion approach. And to reflect on their themes and Biblical hermeneutic this writer attributed the use of the Reader -Response approach to the Native Baptists. Using these approaches, this writer discovered, contrary to the dominant position in scholarly writings on Native Baptists, that the Native Baptists were orthodox, well organized, engaged in marches for justice and desired the liberation of the oppressed and the oppressors. This work gives a more accurate picture of who the Native Baptists were and how their interpretation of the Bible and sacred literature contributed to the way things happened in the 1865 Native Baptist War. A further study of the Native Baptists needs to determine if there is a co-relationship between the demise of the Native Baptists' institutional structures and the seeming retreat of present-day Baptists from political activism.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the task of Christian theology by exploring how accounts of the atonement might embrace all nature, human and non-human. Since Jürgen Moltmann's work has been ecologically oriented and has offered substantial discussion within the theological tradition, the heart of the study lies in its analysis of his underlying redemptive schema, which is tested for its adequacy as a model of atonement. The contribution of the study is fourfold. (i) It seeks to articulate what Moltmann has done in terms of the language and logic of atonement theory. (ii) It proposes that, although Moltmann himself does not make this clear, the key aspect of his underlying schema is the construal of a suffering God that functions as a working atonement metaphor, which he reiterates in other ways by analogous correspondence. (iii) It shows that he has neglected a necessary aspect of soteriological theory, namely, the atonement metaphor of sacrifice, and that a fundamental misunderstanding of sacrifice accounts for this. (iv) It proposes how this deficiency might be remedied, within his own theological framework, by developing a Christology of the cosmic suffering servant that is able to express the atonement metaphor of sacrifice in the context of the redemption of nature. The sequence of the argument is as follows. The first chapter sets out the broad context for this study within a Christian soteriological tradition where the non-human creation has not been a focus. It discusses a range of ways in which modern theology has responded to the ecological crisis, itself a part of the crisis of secularism, concluding that Moltmann's work is potentially helpful as a way forward. Chapter 2 narrows the context to an analysis of the language and logic of atonement theory, with particular application to their relation to the redemption of nature. The need for an objective account of atonement is shown and Moltmann provides again a helpful example. Chapter 3 depicts Moltmann's theologising as a whole as a response to secular modernity and indicates how his ecological theology grounds his soteriology and his call for a cosmic Christ. An exploration of the accounts of atonement within Moltmann's theology is provided in Chapter 4, which also establishes that he operates with an atonement metaphor of suffering related through categories of analogous correspondence to non-human nature. The final chapter highlights the deficiency of his redemptive schema in its neglect of the key atonement metaphor of sacrifice and proposes, as a further development of analogous correspondence, the atonement metaphor of sacrifice as expressed through the cosmic suffering servant.

The theologians of the early church sought to interpret the Christian gospel in the categories of `Mediterranean antiquity. ' The classical two-nature model of Christology has a Greek philosophical underpinning that shapes the ontological construction of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ. Logos Christology is primarily a reflection on the hypostatic union of the Logos with the human reality of Jesus that leaves little place for a consideration of Jesus' relation to the Holy Spirit. In the light of such a limitation in classical Christology, a study of the relationship between Christology and pneumatology becomes very significant. In this regard, the recent resurgence of Spirit Christology in the West adds a new dimension to contemporary Christological reflection. The theologians who are engaged in this pursuit are of the view that Christological reflection is incomplete without reflecting upon pneumatology and vice versa. This study identifies in particular at least three approaches in the contemporary European Spirit Christologies, namely, reconstruction, replacement and complementary approaches. Norman Hook attempts to reconstruct Christ, Spirit and the Trinity from the perspective of the Hebrew understanding of the Spirit. G. W. H. Lampe, by using the symbol God as Spirit replaces Logos Christology with a Spirit Christology. Jürgen Moltmann, John D. Zizioulas and David Coffey seek ways to complement Logos Christology with Spirit Christology. While not denying the contributions of reconstruction and replacement approaches, this study adopts the complementary approach and shows that Spirit Christology not only enriches systematic theology but also is relevant to an Indian context. This is done by bringing the insights of two Indian theologians Pandipeddi Chenchiah and Swami Abhishiktänanda, who emphasise the centrality of the Spirit, in interaction with the strengths of Spirit Christology. The study ends in offering a chapter on `understanding Jesus Christ in India' using the Hindu concepts of Spirit that are expressed in the terms such as atman, antaryämin, Sakti and änanda. Drawing on some of the resources of Spirit Christology, it is argued that these concepts can explicate, illuminate and evoke some latent aspects of Christology.

This thesis will argue that the authority and power of a ‘sermonic text’ is found in its fictive qualities. The term ‘sermonic text’ is chosen in preference to ‘sermon’ to indicate the distinction between the singular occasion of a preached sermon, and the consignment of this singularity to the permanent condition of a written text, that may be read on many occasions by readers separated by time and space. A sermonic text functions in the manner of a work of fiction and creates an event and space that forces a decision upon the reader. Within the text the reader is in a place where the Kingdom of God is about to happen and is happening. Consequently, the reader is forced to make a decision. Will he or she, “Go and do likewise,” or reject the Kingdom of God? This is possible because the sermonic text has what I describe as ‘fictive qualities.’ These qualities include setting the context in which the sermon is proclaimed which in turn creates a space and event for various ‘worlds’ to meet. Necessarily, a sermon, whether historical or in fiction, must be ‘preached’ in a particular place and at a particular time – e.g. Capernaum, the Rolls Chapel in London or the Whaleman’s Chapel in Moby-Dick. At the same time, the ‘sermonic text’ opens up a ‘space of literature’, which is universal, and of no specific time or place, but entertains the various worlds of the reader, the biblical narrative (e.g. the Jonah narrative in Father Mapple’s sermon) as well as the historical setting. Other fictive qualities include a dialogical relationship between the reader and the text and the capacity of time and place to be both specific and universal, temporal and eternal. Finally, the voice of the sermonic text has authority and authenticity because it is at once familiar in the human experience and, at the same time, set apart and distinct through a particular relationship with the divine.

This thesis examines the céli Dé, individual ecclesiastics who constituted the intellectual and spiritual elite in the early medieval Irish church. The period covered by the thesis is restricted in A.D. 700-900 and focusses most fully on the late eighth and early ninth centuries. A distinction is drawn between those individuals referred to as céli Dé during this period under study and those ‘communities within communities’, concerned for the welfare of the sick and the poor, to whom the name is later attested. The thesis examines the primary source material, considers past and present theories regarding these ecclesiastics and refutes the consensus of opinion that the céli Dé were a reform movement who emerged in reaction to a degenerate clergy in a church under secular influence. It discusses what was intended by the designation céli Dé and proffers the opinion that the céli Dé were instead concerned with advancing all aspects of the duties and responsibilities of the church. Particular developments in ecclesiastical organisation during the period under study are discussed and the extent of the role of individual céli Dé in these are examined, but will conclude that it should not be assumed that these developments, or concern for their introduction, was wholly restricted to the céli Dé. There was a change in the basis of the source of royal authority from popular to divine sanction, during the course of the eighth century, and the political repercussions of this more abstract concept of kingship would ultimately culminate in the emergence of Irish national identity. The potential extent of céli Dé involvement in the promulgation of ecclesiastical law, a contributory factor in establishing centralised ecclesiastical authority, is discussed and an examination of attempts by kings of Tara to control the appointment of the abbots of Armagh is provided in an effort to indicate how they sought to establish a centralised secular authority on the basis of the acknowledged authority of Armagh.

Though Dante never read Plato's dialogues on love, when examining the texts of Dante one notes the presence of Platonic thought and influence particularly concerning the notion of love. This thesis will focus upon the Platonic notion of eros and how it changes over time, ultimately being integrated into the Christian notion of love as understood by Dante, and how this Platonic influence is instantiated within Dante's poetry. The inherent ambiguity of the concept of love, evident historically through frequent debates concerning its value whether positive, negative or in-between, makes any investigation into the nature of love problematic, often aporetic. One aim of this thesis is to help overcome some of the aporiai of knowledge concerning love through focusing upon one form of love, eros or passionate desire, which we shall use in order to understand love more generally through exploring its points of intersection and overlapping with certain other types of love, each of which emphasizes different aspects of love's character differentiated through culture and period. Significantly eros, as perhaps the most ambiguous type of love, is often characterized negatively. Taking into account Nygren's negative view of eros which he sees as being wholly acquisitive and self-seeking as opposed to the thoroughly selfless Christian agape, we shall consider whether this view tells the full truth about eros. In this endeavour we shall explore the interrelationship of eros and understanding understood as a dialectic directed towards the pursuit of truth, which in both the Platonic and Christian traditions involves the permanent possession of the good, beautiful and true; these converge in Neo-Platonic tradition, forming a unity which in Christianity is identified with God. We shall also explore how various strands of eros relate to and articulate the notion of love of the individual. These explorations cast light on the transformation of Platonic eros by Christian agape into the Latin concept of caritas. In terms of procedure, we shall examine the notion of Platonic eros as presented in the Symposium and the Phaedrus and how this conception is reinterpreted in Dante's Commedia, these texts together acting as a lens which -will enable us better to comprehend the significance of Bros, and of love more generally, through the transformation of eros over time.

This thesis inhabits the space between the art of poetry and the conditions of faith. Its concern is threefold: women, Church, poetics. It undertakes a journey from institutional Church into more radical and textual spaces, beginning with an examination of the state of the Roman Catholic Church today as revealed in Tina Beattie’s critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar, whose disturbing theology has contributed to a misogyny she argues has poisoned the body of the Church. Beattie’s critique is a point of departure into a potentially transformative poetics that she hints at but never fully pursues. I attempt to articulate such a poetics through multiple, spiraling approaches that are interdisciplinary, invitatory, performative and creative. In my reading and writing practices, I seek to trace the contours of this poetics through the delineation of a series of alternative poetic ‘ecclesiological’ spaces. These spaces will be shaped mainly by engaging the work of five poet/thinkers, a seemingly disparate group of authors, who, whether strictly poets or not, exhibit qualities of ‘poetic being’: Ignatius of Loyola, Gaston Bachelard, Yves Bonnefoy, Dennis Potter, and Hélène Cixous. The latter will further assist me in defining this poetic geography through her philosophical and fictive investigations of the interrelationships of gender, writing and spirituality. The readings I undertake are relational, conversations in which reading is a careful listening to texts and writing becomes an organic outcome of that listening. I ask essentially what happens when we, man/woman, stand in the clearing with Heidegger to share his wonder at being? With the help of my poet-companions, I respond that we are transformed after a full engagement of poetic thinking itself. I conclude that we are brought by this engagement to a sacred space of poetic dwelling.

The pentecostal tradition began as an eschatologically-driven pneumatological missionary movement whose identity was shaped by the empowering experience of Spirit baptism. Although characterised by an impulse towards biblically-rooted doctrine as well as an affinity for narrative, the movement has been founded largely on a truncated narrative of ‘Calvary, Pentecost and Parousia’. Previous models of Spirit baptism have not been sufficiently narrative, nor have they engaged with the larger canonical perspective. This study addresses the deficiency by constructing a theodramatic model of the pentecostal doctrine of Spirit baptism, locating it in the context of a canonically-shaped theodrama that is organised around the imago Dei motif. It sets the stage for the drama by developing the Spirit-constituted imago Dei role using the covenantal structure of sonship, shaping and sending, which corresponds to the pentecostal concern for relationship, sanctification and mission, evidenced in the three-stage ordo salutis of Holiness Pentecostalism. The thesis proceeds to trace the plot from creation to the church with attention to the anthropological, Christological and ecclesiological manifestations of the image. Using this dramatic framework, it argues that Spirit baptism is the initiation of God’s new covenant people that recreates them through union with Christ as the Spirit-bearing imago Dei.

This thesis develops a pentecostal ecclesiology using the structure of networks that leads to a fresh approach to contextualisation. It addresses the neglect in pentecostal scholarship of church structures beyond the congregation and of critical approaches to contextualisation. The pentecostal systematic methodology of Amos Yong is utilized, based on the synthesis of discerned experience (Spirit), biblical studies (Word) and the traditions of systematic and mission theology (Community). A trinitarian understanding of networks is developed and linked with an approach to the catholicity of the church that has a common essence and mission movement. This is shaped by the missionary nature of pentecostalism and rooted in an understanding of a church marked by Spirit baptism. The character of networks is defined in terms of partnership, a term with a rich mission understanding and seen also in the pentecostal tradition. A three-fold approach to contextualisation arises from the overlap between networks within and outside the church which is based on hospitality. Significantly, this thesis is the first in pentecostal ecclesiology to utilise a pentecostal methodology, to focus on structural and contextual issues and to develop a trinitarian network ecclesiology. It provides a fresh approach to catholicity, Spirit baptism, partnership and contextualisation.

Cecil Polhill (1860-1938) remains unfamiliar to the vast majority of Pentecostals, yet he was one of the founding fathers of the tradition in Britain, and his impact and legacy stretch far beyond Britain. Research into his life has been slow and patchy, and what little research there is tends to skim over his pre-pentecostal years (1860-1908). This thesis is the first serious step towards rectifying widespread ignorance about Polhill by taking a more systematic, thorough and chronological approach to analysing and evaluating his life. This is the first to attempt to comprehensively connect Polhill's early life and former experiences with his time as a Pentecostal. This thesis addresses the question of how it is that such a well-established Anglican, senior missionary of the China Inland Mission, dedicated to mission to Tibet, became so involved in the pentecostal movement. What has become evident is that between 1888-1907, his attempts to evangelise Tibet were met with numerous difficulties, but crucially he lacked the long-term support of the China Inland Mission executive. This forced Polhill to look for a new source of missionaries that would be entirely under his direction, and the pentecostal movement became the perfect solution. By providing Polhill with missionaries, the pentecostal movement benefited from his resources and loyalty. For pentecostal history, Polhill is one of the “great persons” through whom the lives of many other Pentecostals can be contextualised and understood.