This thesis examines the relationship between the leaders of the Anglican Church, centring on Alexander Alfred Boddy (1854-1930), considered the father of British Pentecostalism, and the young Pentecostals in the process of formation of the three major Pentecostal denominations, namely, the Apostolic Faith Church, the Assemblies of God and the Elim Church. Although there were not many Anglican participants in British Pentecostalism and most Pentecostals came from Nonconformist backgrounds, Boddy dominated the leadership from the beginning. As a result, most of the British Pentecostals who were actively involved in the forming of Pentecostal denominations were either directly or indirectly influenced by him. However, as Pentecostalism grew, disagreement and conflict appeared over certain issues and intensified during the period when the Pentecostal denominations were taking shape. Finally, with the departure of the Anglican leaders from Pentecostalism, the Anglican influence disappeared. Although there is no doubt that Boddy’s contribution to the history of British Pentecostalism was considerable, there were huge gaps between his teachings and those of the men who became the denominational leaders of the Pentecostals.

This thesis investigates practices and beliefs of an African diaspora migrant church. The question this thesis seeks to answer is why are some of the second-generation members frustrated while others are leaving the church. The Church of Pentecost is a migrant church with its foundations in Ghana. In the UK, the Church of Pentecost appears to be flourishing, however, there seems to be a growing number of young people who claim to be frustrated whilst others are leaving the church. Subsequently, the focus of this thesis is to trace the contours of transition in the church and, ultimately, to find out why some of the second-generation members are disengaged and why others are leaving the church. As a Pentecostal church, one of the key areas of doctrine and practice is matters concerning spirits and the Holy Spirit. The study therefore used Ghanaian cosmology as well as Pentecostal practices and emphasis on Holy Spirit as a framework in its investigations. The thesis showed that although other significant factors contribute to some of the second-generation members’ frustration within the church, the first generation’s emphasis on spirits has played a vital role in the second generation’s approach to church.

This thesis is an ethnographic study into 'Experiment with Light', a reflexive spiritual practice within contemporary British Quakerism, based on seventeenth century Quaker writings. This is the first academic study of British Quakers to focus on religious experience. It demonstrates how Experimenters' religious experience and transformation supports them in changing the wider group's behaviour. I interweave heterotopia, reflexivity, religious experience, religious transformation and examination of internal Quaker conflict handling to argue that the Experiment is a heterotopian process leading Experimenters to find heterotopic places within themselves and that they sit in a heterotopic position vis-à-vis British Quakers generally. I extend Foucault's concept of heterotopia to show how (heterotopian) process interacts with (heterotopic) site to reveal heterotopia's multi-dimensionality and its potential to change its context, thus demonstrating that applying an analytic concept in an empirical study can reveal new aspects of that concept. I also show how using heterotopia as an analytical lens reveals how power plays out amongst British Quakers and thus how heterotopia is particularly useful for the nuanced sociological analysis of groups generally. This thesis is the first study in the sociology of religion to apply heterotopia to the experience, practice and structure of a religious group.

This thesis is a sociological study of the current generation of adolescent Quakers. It examines and analyses their beliefs and values; individual and group practice and how the group functions. The research demonstrates that for the adolescent Quaker group belief is unimportant and non-definitional; values are broad and open to individual interpretation, although key shared values have an optional influence on behaviour. Involvement in Quaker activity is extensive, corporate worship is central and internal discipline is strong. I argue that the adolescent Quaker group represents a ‘Community of Intimacy’, a collective grouping which places emphasis on belonging, inter-personal networks secured by friendships, shared values, expression though individual and corporate behaviour, and the separateness of the group from other Quakers and other adolescents. This concept can be related to other groups and represents an original contribution to existing scholarship, providing a new way of describing groups and explaining how they function. The research illustrates that while both the adult and adolescent Quaker groups have sect-like characteristics the sectarian nature of the groups is differently configured. I argue that the failure of the adult group to acknowledge the adolescent group as separate and different results in its cultural, institutional and theological marginalisation.

Despite Open Theism’s claims for a robust ‘Social’ Trinitarianism, there exists significant inconsistencies in how it is portrayed and subsequently applied within its wider theology. This sympathetic, yet critical, evaluation arises from the Pneumatological lacuna which exists not only in the conception of God as Trinity, but the subsequent treatment of divine providence, soteriology and eschatology. In overcoming this significant lacuna, the thesis adopts Francis Clooney’s comparative methodology as a means of initiating a comparative dialogue with Pentecostalism, to glean important insights concerning its Pneumatology. By engaging in the comparative dialogue between to the two communities, the novel insights regarding the Spirit are then incorporated into a provisional and experimental model of Open Theism entitled Realizing Eschatology. This understanding of Open Theism emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work within a broader Trinitarian framework and suggests how the co-creation of reality between God and humanity possesses a significant Pneumatological component.

The role of Anglican army chaplains in inter-war church and society will be examined and judgements made on the extent to which their ideas and actions were influenced by their war- time experiences, leading to an impact on the inter-war Anglican Church and British society. The extent to which the intervention of the Church of England in social and industrial issues in the inter-war years was shaped by the activities and opinions of former chaplains will be examined using examples such as as in the work of the Industrial Christian Fellowship and Toc H. The significance of former chaplains in rituals of remembrance and the development of pacifism will be assessed and their contribution to discussions on ecclesiastical controversies such as Prayer Book revision and unity will be analysed. Similarly their views on marriage, divorce, contraception and the proper uses of the new media will be judged in the light of their impact of their thoughts on wider opinion. The conclusion will make a judgement on the practical and ideological impact of their ideas and actions. It It will be argued that they were a significant minority who became the catalyst for change.

The thesis studies the Quaker thought of Robert Barclay (1648-90), focusing upon his theological views on the relationship between self and others, from his soteriology to peace testimony. The thesis has two main objects; the first is to raise the question about the modern view of Barclay. His theology has long been negatively treated as an exterior or foreign factor by the present Liberal Quakers’ self-affirmative theology. The second is to explore another possibility of understanding Quakerism and its practical applications in pacifism, from a different viewpoint than the empirical, individualistic one today. The whole research is conducted by using the concept of self as the central axis for analysis. By analysing Barclay’s theology and his peace testimony, and placing them within the contexts of traditional Christianity, the thesis indicates the other-absent character of Liberal Quakerism, and it shows an old-new Christian task that Quakers take on as a testimony to God and to Christ’s openness towards others. The specific themes are (1): ‘self-denial’ in Barclay’s theology as a counter-faith against self-reductive orthodox Calvinism and Arminianism, (2): Peculiarity of Liberal Quakerism and their historiography endorsed by an unexamined premise of self-affirmation, and the re-estimation of Barclay from that viewpoint, (3): Liberals’ self-centred orientation in pacifism in their simple belief in the calculability and reducibility of others, (4): The double-stance, or the possibility and impossibility, in Barclay’s view on perfection and the Kingdom, which is the reflection of self-other relations, as well described in Barclay’s theoretical connection of perfection to Christ’s command to ‘love one’s enemies,’ (5): the Church as a place to embody the Kingdom, and its practical extension to the entire world in pacifism, for the realisation of the Godly rule beyond the self-contained logic.

This thesis examines the history of Anglican and the Methodist churches’ collaboration in Western Nigeria during the era of the missionaries and after. The intention is to establish the approach that the early foreign missionaries bequeathed to the mission-oriented churches has been a particular problem, which has inhibited the emergence of a truly African or Nigerian form of unity particularly between the Anglican and the Methodist churches. A critical evaluation of the churches’ collaboration in Nigeria would suggest that what obtains is institutional and doctrinal unity introduced by the missionaries. While this study appreciates and commends the efforts of the early missionaries for laying these collaborative and ecumenical foundations, the study holds that it does not go far enough especially in attaining its potential to positively affect the sociocultural, religious and political challenges facing contemporary Nigeria society. Such an effective collaborative spirit is achievable only when it is contextualized, employing local and indigenous approaches including indigenous theological education. This thesis does not condemn western contributions because there are aspects of western culture that are still relevant in the context of global collaboration. However, it stresses the need for the understanding of ecumenical collaboration from different cultures particularly in Yoruba speaking region of Nigeria, so that, instead of looking up too much to the West for leadership in ecumenism, it should grow in the Nigerian climate and culture

This thesis outlines the history of the distinctive diaconate within the Church of England, and the understanding of the diaconate contained with the Ordinal. It explores the experience of distinctive deacons within the Church of England today. It does so through interviews with a respondent cohort of sixteen distinctive deacons in active ministry. Secondly, this thesis explores the reasons why the distinctive diaconate has failed to grow and flourish. It does so by drawing attention to the ways in which the distinctive diaconate has been misused, and the inability of the Church hierarchy to act upon the recommendations of various reports that is has commissioned. It also explores the effect that collegial relationships, stipendiary status, and methods of deployment have had on this ministry. In its conclusion, this thesis presents an argument for the retention and development of the distinctive diaconate in the ministry of the Church of England.

This thesis explores the place of the natural world in the spiritual and intellectual lives of British and Irish Quakers (Friends) from the earliest evidence in 1647 up to the rise of evangelical Quakerism around 1830. Whilst Quakers agreed that God had made and continued to uphold the creation, responses to the natural world were, after the Restoration, essentially individualistic, giving rise to diverse views of its place in theology. Overall, it is shown that there was a shift away from the unity of the first Quakers’ experience that both God and the creation could be truly known only through divine revelation, towards support for the scientific study of the material world, and forms of natural theology. It is argued that this was the result of personal experience, not of synergies between empiricism and orthodox Quaker theology. Although reservations about its status continued, for an increasing number of Quakers, nature was a resource in a divinely-inspired search for order and truth. Although the subject is almost absent from contemporary official records of the Society of Friends, the natural world became a significant part of the wider Quaker culture of the 19th century.