This thesis presents an edition of Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God, a late Middle English devotional prose text for which no critical edition is currently available. I have transcribed and collated the text from all sixteen extant manuscripts and the 1506 printed edition. An investigation of the errors and variants according to the classical method of textual criticism has yielded little in the way of conclusive results, and it has therefore not proved possible to construct a stemma of manuscripts from the corpus of evidence as it now exists. My edition therefore uses one manuscript (Maidstone MS Museum 6) as a base; I emend the text of Maidstone where necessary, and cite variants from all the other witnesses to show all differences of substance. A full critical apparatus is provided, comprising: the text with variants, textual notes and glossary. The introduction includes a full description of all the manuscripts and the two early printed editions, an outline of the methods of textual criticism applied and their results, and an explanation of the choice of base manuscript; information about the language of the Maidstone manuscript and the date of the text are also provided, as is an outline of my editorial principles. The thesis also contains two appendices. The first of these deals briefly with the twenty-two instances where individual chapters of Contemplations appear in other manuscript compilations; the second discusses the English and Latin prayers which follow the full text in some manuscripts.

The thesis consists of a detailed examination of the contents of Oxford, Trinity College, MS 86, (Trinity), with particular attention being given to several lengthy English confessional items which it contains. This is complemented by a more general consideration of late Middle English prose forms of confession and the manuscripts in which they occur. Part One consists of a survey of all surviving independent prose forms of confession preserved in late Middle English manuscripts. I divide the texts into groups according to their probable audience and readership, assessed from both internal and external evidence. This is preceded by a brief introductory section on the background to late Middle English guides to preparation for confession. In three appendices, I provide: a full description of London, British Library, MS Sloane 1584, with transcriptions of three confessional texts; a transcription of a form of confession from London, British Library, MS Harley 2383, with variants from all known manuscripts; a transcription of a form of confession from Yale, University Library, MS Beinecke 317. Part Two consists of a close study of Trinity: a full description of the manuscript, supplementing existing catalogues; editions of four confessional texts from the manuscript, accompanied by detailed discussions of their form and probable function; an analysis of a series of short devotional texts which, taken together, constitute an elementary manual of religious instruction. I include full critical editions, with variants from all known manuscripts, of two of these texts, The Sixteen Conditions of Charity and The Eight Blessings of God, both of which originate in passages extracted from the Wycliffite Bible, and which survive, in varying versions, in thirty-four and nine manuscripts respectively. The thesis concludes with a summary of the probable origin and function of this manuscript collection.

This thesis links theological developments in two eras and contexts of Christian history by exploring how the question of Christian identity is dealt with by a number of Christian writers who are chosen for their representative significance in the two contexts. By this approach, the two eras concerned, early Hellenistic Christianity and modern African Christianity, are treated as belonging together within the one entity of Christian history. In a brief Introduction I attempt to establish the case for the methodological principle stated, and also to indicate its importance for understanding modern African theology in particular. Chapter One examines the intellectual and ideological background against which early Hellenistic Christian self-definition was to develop. The attempt is made to show that it was in response to the intellectual and spiritual forces that operated in the Graeco-Roman world, particularly as these affected the "Pagan" perception of Christianity, that the emergent Christian thought developed. The rest of Part One (Chapters Two to Five) examines the viewpoints and achievements of Tatian, Tartullian, Justin and Clement of Alexandria. The emphasis throughout is on how the career and thought of each writer witnesses and responds to the existence of a Christian identity problem. It was in the process of the clarification of Christian identity that theological concerns were also shaped and defined. Part Two deals with the modern African Christian story. Chapter Six examines the legacy of the modern missionary enterprise from Europe and North America as the background to the issues that have gained prominence on the African theological agenda in the post-missionary Church. The rest of Part Two (Chapters Seven to Ten) examines the contributions of four writers - E. Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti, Mulago gwa Cikala Musharhamina and Byang Kato - towards the definition of African responses to the encounter of the Christian Gospel with African tradition, and towards the development of an African theology. The Conclusion (Chapter Eleven) attempts to use the achievement of the patristic period studied in Part One to clarify some of the areas of theological concern which may yet need to receive attention from African theologians. The presence of an intellectual anti-Christian polemic in Africa, as in the earlier period, is noted as one indication of the need for African theologians to take even more seriously the question of Christian identity in the modern African context. It is as this is done, that the uniquely African contribution to Christian theology will be made.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1992. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-232).

Univ., Diss.--Princeton. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 278-296) and indexes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1933. / At head of title: The Catholic University of America. Bibliography: p. 85-89.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1994. / English text; Dutch and English summaries. Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-229) and index.

Thesis (M.A.)--Université catholique de Louvain, 1950. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [763]-850).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1927.