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This study aims to investigate the reactions of a group of Anglican clergy who visited the Holy land on pilgrimage in January 1995. The academic discipline is anthropological. The study employs qualitative methods of a multiple nature. Participant observation is the basis of the fieldwork. A symbolic interactionist approach forms the basis of the data analysis. A pilot study with a similar group twelve months previously laid the methodological basis for the multi-method enquiry. This was based further on my own experience over several years in leading pilgrimage parties to the Holy Land and other European pilgrimage sites. Particularly I had for twelve years led clergy parties of the sort which I accompanied in 1995. Participant observation and in-depth interviews with six main informants formed the basis of the study. Informal interviews provided further valuable data material. Further interviews afterwards at home with the main informants enabled me to gauge the ongoing impact of the pilgrimage on their lives and ministries. I review the anthropological literature on tourism, where relevant, and fully on pilgrimage. The seminal works of Victor Turner and his theories of communitas form a core discussion as the particular liminal/liminoid status of the clergy has special significance in relation to Turner's understanding of structure and anti-structure. The work of John Eade and Michael Sallnow is also central to the discussion of this thesis in their triad notion of person, place and text as underpinning the potency of the pilgrimage experience These ideas of communitas and the triad of person, place and text form substantive themes which are emically tested in the data analysis. Other themes in the data were mostly generated from the actual perceptions of the clergy pilgrims. The originality of this research is twofold. There is no previous methodological template for an ethnographic study of a group of pilgrims in any setting. As far as the Holy Land is concerned this is the first study of the impact of a pilgrimage tour there on individuals, and of clergy in particular. It also breaks new ground in being an ethnographic study of any aspect of clergy life.

This thesis proposes that Augustine introduces into the title – word Confessions a new dimension that has implication for the Donatists; the right of the pastoral bishop to speak and to be heard. It argues the claim that the Confessions is an innovative didactic document, intentionally constructed by a pastoral bishop, the guardian of souls. The Confessions is examined from the standpoint that Augustine is addressing a contemporary pastoral problem which has particular application to the Donatist controversy. That Augustine relates the Donatist inspired division in the Church to human presumption is a key concern. Through a process of close reading the thesis explores the themes that reflect and area relevant to the issues raised by the dispute. It draws on the literary devices of analogy, exemplar, allusion, inference, the pointed metaphor and biblical imagery. It takes into account the rhetorical skill and art of Augustine, and that central to Augustine’s dealings with the Donatists is the Word of Scripture, Christian humility and charity. A definite literary structure is found in the Confessions. Themes outlined in Book one are developed in the course of the Confessions and culminate in the pastoral concerns of Book thirteen. The themes illuminate the pastoral problems directory related in Augustine’s mind and heart to the unity of the Church. The thesis argues that the distinctive literary form of the Confessions, with its focus on the ambiguity of human speech, the significance of human silence, and the dispositions of the human ‘heart’ as the locus of both good an sinful thoughts, enables the pastoral bishop to communicate with is Donatist audience. This thesis is intended to contribute to the scholarly debate on the literary unity and purpose of the Confessions. It reasons that the bishop’s plea for the Church unity is made manifest in the unrest that permeates the Confessions and in his striving to be at one with God and in the peace of communion with others. Through a process of self-examination Augustine is able to draw an analogy between the turmoil in his own heart and the turmoil at the heart of the Church, notably reflected in the ecclesial disruption fuelled by Donatist opposition.

It has been over 50 years since the last doctoral dissertation on the Gospel of John in the Greek lectionary tradition. The present dissertation on the pericopae of the Gospel of John in the Synaxarion section of the Greek Gospel lectionary hopes to ignite an interest in the lectionary tradition within the discipline of New Testament Textual Criticism. The pages of this dissertation are the groundwork for the lectionary phase of the International Greek New Testament Project and its major critical edition of John. During the Middle Byzantine period (8th-11th century) the Gospel lectionary emerges as a liturgical codex of the Byzantine Church. One hundred and twenty-six Greek Gospel lectionaries from this period are examined at forty-four carefully selected test passages in John. One places the manuscripts in their Byzantine context, studies the lectionary evidence as documents, highlights the textual and paratextual variation in the lectionary tradition, discusses genealogical issues, explores the method of lectionary construction, and investigates the relationship between the lectionary tradition and the continuous text manuscript tradition.

This study explores the healing praxis of Bill Johnson as it is outworked in the context of Bethel Church, California. Engaging in practical theology, this study uses the pastoral research cycle to examine and analyse this healing praxis. Drawing on primary source material and empirical research findings, it identifies the central tenets of Johnson’s healing praxis by teasing out the espoused and operant theology. The research findings are brought into dialogue with Randall Collins’ interaction ritual chains theory, as well as with others who have developed Collins’ theory. This thesis critiques Johnson’s theology and recommends that he engage more intentionally with academic theology particularly in relation to Christology, soteriology and eschatology. This thesis seeks to modify Johnson’s Christological position through a dialogue with academic kenotic theology. It proposes that Johnson account for the elements of mystery, suffering and disappointment often neglected in his theology. Additionally, this study offers a means of conceptualizing the local and global significance of Bill Johnson and Bethel Church in relation to the healing praxis. It is the first academic study focusing on these subjects and as such provides insight into the local and global phenomenon stemming from Johnson and the Bethel Church community.

This thesis is an investigation into the scribal habits of Papyrus 46, attempting to enrich further the information database about the sociology of ancient book production and to explore how these habits might have affected the transmission of the texts of the New Testament in general and the corpus Paulinum in particular. Given this end, this thesis challenges the traditional methods of locating the “scribal habits” of a particular manuscript, specifically methods that are text-focused. Crucial to developing a viable methodology is articulating how the conceptual category of “scribal habits” is to be understood before we can sufficiently isolate them. Using an integrative approach (i.e., the composite employment of papyrology, codicology, palaeography, and textual criticism), this thesis proposes that “scribal habits” are to be found in everything that a particular scribe recurrently did and did not do in the manuscript, encompassing all the stages of its production and its eventual use. In regard to papyrus 46, this thesis finds the scribe in the same league with other ancient scribes as well as idiosyncratic in the ways he used his codex, copied the text of his exemplar, and employed existing systems and devices practised within the scribal profession. These scribal characteristics emphasise the “human” face of textual transmission of a “divine” book.

This study is the most extensive treatment of Danish Pentecostal history to date. It is also the first case study of early European Pentecostalism focused on describing the hindrances to Pentecostal growth in this part of the world and the ways the movement responded to these. The otherwise successful Anglo-Norwegian preacher T.B. Barratt attempted but failed to make Copenhagen a hub of the fledgling Pentecostal movement from 1907, though the movement managed to penetrate a wide range of socio-economic strata there. The movement was hampered by a relative lack of existing minority denominations, along with rejection by Evangelical and Holiness leaders within the state church. Many Danish Pentecostals themselves undermined the movement's survival, by resisting any departure from its original, ecumenical, spontaneous state. They often pursued interdenominational, itinerant strategies- or travelled abroad as missionaries - rather than forming Pentecostal congregations as in contexts where the movement was more successful. When the inevitable institutionalisation happened, it was accompanied by a few years of dynamic growth, but ended in a debilitating schism. The difficulties imposed by the combination of aggressive secularisation and a monopolistic state church should not be underestimated. These may also help us understand contemporary religious minorities.

This thesis is the first scholarly attempt to examine the veneration that Mary’s parents – and her mother Anna in particular – enjoyed in Byzantium. The four pillars upon which this examination will be based are topography, texts, relics and iconography. The topography of Constantinople is examined in relation to that of Jerusalem in order to bring to the surface new ideas on the development of Constantinopolitan topography. I also look at the motives behind the construction of the first church dedicated to St Anna in Constantinople and its relation to the topography of the Holy Land. In terms of textual production, I show that until the eighth century Mary’s parents and their story recounted in the second-century apocryphal Protevangelion of James, were intentionally ‘ignored’ because of the non-canonical nature of the text. But from the eighth century onwards the situation dramatically changes with the emergence of Byzantine homilies and Ι will explore the reasons that triggered this change as well as the way Mary’s parents are presented in this genre. Finally, I discuss the problematic around Anna’s relics, her association with iconophilia, demonstration of Orthodoxy, healing and protection of childbirth. Last but not least, the examination of iconographical evidence will uncover the visual impact of Anna’s cult and will complete the study of her veneration in Byzantium.

This study explores the Anglican Church in a particular locality, namely the Forest of Arden region of Warwickshire, from the Restoration to 1740. This thesis is in sharp contrast to those histories that have depicted the Church of England as a moribund institution. It is contended that Anglicanism was a vibrant and accepted part of the lives of a considerable proportion of the laity, providing the focus of the communal and social life of the parish. What is more, the church and its clergy successfully served the needs of the people. In addition, it played a significant role in the spiritual, educational and moral discipline of the lower orders. This study shows that there was a high level of clerical commitment to the good of the people and that there was a considerable amount of lay participation in all aspects of church life. Evidence is also presented that there was a general Anglican commitment to harmony between those of differing religious views.

This dissertation sets the Christology of Athanasius of Alexandria in the context of its sources, and evaluates its reception up to the Council of Chalcedon. His well-known emphasis upon the Son’s divinity is shown to be underpinned and counterpointed by a theological integration of creatio ex nihilo into his Christology. Recognizing the lack of continuity between the soul and divine being, Athanasius insisted upon the need for an ontological understanding of mediation, a project opposed by Arius. This dissertation demonstrates that the influence of Contra Gentes / De Incarnatione’s dynamic emphasis upon the Logos’s divine identity, is evident in both miahypostatic and dyohypostatic Christological trajectories, and that different aspects of the Athanasian corpus are responsible for multi-dimensional Christological developments. The impact of Athanasius is shown by a re-evaluation of Apollinarius, and in an exploration of the development of Christological language in Antiochene and Alexandrian Christologies of the fifth century. The motif of ontological mediation and relation of both natures in the God-Man in these diverse contexts demonstrates that Athanasius’s resolution was pivotal in subsequent Christian theology.