This thesis studies the identity, context and features of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India as well as the internal and external issues facing Pentecostals. It argues for an indigenous origin of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, as it is a product of local Spirit revivals in the existing churches and the missionary activities of Indian Pentecostals. It also reveals that both the intra-church as well as extra-church issues place Pentecostals in a ‘missio-ethical dilemma.’ The thesis aims to suggest ‘a contextual missiology of the Spirit,’ as a new model of contextual missiology from a Pentecostal perspective, which has emerged from this study. The inherent theological characteristics of Pentecostalism underline the pneumatological foundation of a contextual Pentecostal missiology. As a contextual missiology of the Spirit it has certain contextual features. By dealing with the global-local tension, it can be considered a glocal missiology. It is capable of promoting ecumenicity at various levels, and so it is an ecumenical missiology. By empowering people to engage in spiritual as well as socio-political issues, it aims to be a transformational missiology. As it is concerned with the well-being of the community, it has the potential to become a public missiology.

This thesis examines Oneness Pentecostalism from 1914 to 1931 via its initial interracial vision, the ministry of Garfield Thomas Haywood, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. It attempts to rectify a one dimensional historical perspective which has ignored the significance of race in the restorative framework of the early movement, tracing its interracial fervor to the Azusa revival and its resistance to the Parham influenced U.S.south. Fresh historical detail informs assessment of the 1906 Azusa mission founding of the interracial PAW and Oneness Pentecostalism’s most obscure, yet vital early leaders, J. J. Frazee and E. W. Doak. All key leaders are studied from the perspective of the movement’s major centers, especially the centrality and history of Haywood and Indianapolis as its foremost epicenter. Its interracial authenticity is examined in relationship to its pre-Oneness PAW context, the battle for the Assemblies of God, and the transition of the PAW from Trinitarian to Oneness Pentecostalism. Investigation of the 1924 PAW racial schism, impact, and withdrawing White segment reveals diffusion and the proliferation of separatism and independency. The final analysis summarizes the movement’s region by region development and global spread by 1930 and examines the successes of early Oneness Pentecostal missionaries.

This thesis contains the following elements: A literature review contained in Chapter 2. This concludes there are two different conversations in the UK about transfolk. The first is a response to a perceived threat to marriage and binary gender while second is the search for meaning, identity and pastoral care. A methodological statement contained in Chapter 3 describing how the 13 interviews were conducted, transcribed and analysed using Nvivo 10 software. A discussion of the results contained in Chapter 4. This concludes the lives of transfolk show the search for identity, integrity and meaning can be painful but that it also has the potential to be spiritually transformative. A set of research-based insights that can help inform pastoral care for transfolk and those affected by their gender dysphoria in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, this thesis concludes that the Church has problematized transfolk as a threat to heteronormative marriage and a literal interpretation of Genesis 1:27. By doing this the Church misses out on a rich source for theological reflection and denies transfolk and those affected by their gender dysphoria their rightful place as part of the Body of Christ.

This thesis explores young lay women’s experiences of Communion in the Church of England within a framework of practical feminist theology. After grounding the study in a review of relevant feminist literature on the Eucharist, the use of qualitative research methodology is described. Semi-structured interviews with ten young women revealed three central themes: ways in which women experience and respond to exclusion and alienation from Communion; the importance of relationality and community; and how experience leads women to construct their own understandings about Communion. Ambiguity and difference within women’s experience are key concepts. Some embrace traditional understandings and practices of Communion; others subvert these to claim new and liberating understandings for themselves and their communities. The thesis points to a desire to deconstruct boundaries, creating a vision of inclusive and egalitarian Eucharistic community where loci of power and authority are challenged by the quest for personal autonomy and relationship in community. The research process is shaped by the pastoral cycle method of theological reflection. This leads to the suggestion of a metaphor of birthing as a means of responding to the experiences and needs revealed by the research and a model for developing liberational Eucharistic theology for

The Church of England's approach to urban regeneration has been shaped by government-led regeneration and its own social, political and financial situation, rather than its theology. The encouragement towards partnership working as a means of financing parishes in deprived areas in its 2006 report Faithful Cities is a result of the Church's inability to finance its work in deprived areas using its own resources. This thesis evaluates the impact of Faithful Cities within the dioceses of Worcester and Birmingham. It does this through geographical mapping of deprivation in each parish; review of diocesan policies on urban regeneration; the assessment of resource allocation to parishes with differing degrees of deprivation, and through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (Bishops, Archdeacons, Diocesan Staff, Parish Clergy) in each diocese. Barriers to resourcing parishes in deprived areas through redistribution of internal resources are noted in both dioceses. However, partnership working is found to be impractical for overworked and untrained parish clergy to manage, and volunteers from churches lack the skills and interest to deliver projects which have partnership funding attached. Partnership funding is therefore potentially as problematic as the reallocation of internal resource as a way to fund Church presence in deprived areas.

The coming of charismatic renewal in the 1960s brought Pentecostal experience into the historic denominations of the church. From its beginning, there were those who perceived in the charismatic movement an ecumenical quality. Its ability to root across a wide spectrum of traditions, suggested that it might have a significant contribution to make towards the search for the visible unity of the Christian church. This thesis sets out to explore more precisely the ecumenical dimension of the charismatic movement. It largely focuses on the English Ecumenical scene, where there have been significant ecumenical developments in the last twenty years; but account is also taken of the broader canvas of the World Council of Churches and Koinonia ecclesiology. A special focus is made of the Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal, to see how the movement impacted that church, and was critiqued by its own theologians in the early years of the 1970s. The study looks in some detail at baptism and episcopacy, to see how these traditional ecumenical sticking points could be resolved, when looked at through a charismatic lens. It then moves on to analyse a sample of leaders, who have both experienced charismatic renewal and engaged with it theologically, showing that the personal theological changes are quite significant. Finally the study takes account of where the Charismatic and Ecumenical Movements have reached in their contemporary trajectories; and suggests how the charismatic movement can still make a serious contribution to the search for visible Christian Unity. To do this, attention is still needed in the area of sacramental theology, but in particular to the nature of truth and its revelation through the Spirit. In that connection the thesis includes some samples of fresh biblical exegesis on familiar ecumenically relevant biblical passages. The study concludes that there is indeed an ecumenical dimension of charismatic renewal. However, before that dimension can forward the visible unity of the whole church, something of a largely lost earlier vision needs to be re-captured. When that has been done, there is hope that both the charismatic and ecumenical movements may discover their natural complimentarity and creative engagement.

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.

Having given a fresh historical overview of Pentecostal thought concerning the doctrine of human constitution, and so ascertained the trajectory Pentecostal theology is on concerning this doctrine, this thesis identifies Amos Yong and then Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen as significant voices towards the end and present of the trajectory, with the potential to influence its future direction. The thesis highlights both scholars’ assumption that any dualistic view of human constitution - specifically, understanding the soul as a distinct immaterial (and after death, separable) entity from the body - is theologically and philosophically problematic, and charts their alternative proposal(s) of an emergent monist view of human constitution. Responding to them, the thesis counters their theological and philosophical challenges, and further contends that their emergent monist proposals suffer much greater problems. It then argues for and constructs an enhanced Pentecostal view of human constitution - one more consistent with Pentecostal theological emphases, and also stronger philosophically than Yong’s and Kärkkäinen’s - proposing a new ‘Enspiritable Dualist’ view, by renewing the soul. Through giving it suitable prominence in Pentecostalism’s theology of constitution, and by establishing the centrality of the S/spirit in the new model, the soul is renewed, in turn, redirecting the trajectory’s future.

This thesis represents a qualitative empirical investigation into “What is the contribution of poetry in clergy continuing ministerial education (CME) in the Church of England?” offering a sustained theological reflection on my professional practice as Bishop’s Clergy CME Adviser. Taking an ethnographic approach within a practical theological framework, I studied four facilitated clergy groups reading pre-selected poems and reflecting on personal experience of ministry in response. Research reflexivity was ensured through multiple methods, including auto-ethnographic poetry. The research shows that the affective character of poetic form and language stimulates emotional response in the critical appreciation of practice, sustaining diverse interpretations simultaneously, benefiting collegial clergy reflective practice through corporate construction of meaning. The effectiveness of appropriate ground-rules for small groups is recognised. The impact of historical-critical approaches in clergy hermeneutical strategies for reading privileged texts is acknowledged. I conclude that in facilitated group settings selected poetry offers clergy a generative space for reflection on ministry, suggesting poetry as a trans-disciplinary resource in reflective practice requiring refinement of pedagogy to take account of literary characteristics and participant hermeneutical approaches, developing a more critical approach to the use of poetry in clergy CME and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) more generally.

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.