The purpose of this study is to examine the most significant reasons evangelical Christian faith is compelling to its adherents. Through the interviews of nineteen Evangelical Christians, it becomes clear that evangelicals see the Bible and Christian theology in a literal and factual way. Thus, contrary to some strains of contemporary thought and scholarship, evangelicals affirm that the claims of the Bible and Christian theology should be taken at face value. Even though such claims are implausible to the modem mind, it is precisely through seeing the Bible and theology in this light that evangelicals enter into their powerful faith lives. In addition to this literal-factual orientation, evangelicals are empowered by their relationship with God in Christ. Along with analysis of interview data, brief studies of evangelical approaches to the Bible and spiritual-psychological development will further serve to explicate evangelical faith. / Graduation date: 2003

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DXN115873.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-143).

Thesis (DTh)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Liberal neutrality is the idea that laws should not be based on religious or philosophical doctrines that not everyone accepts. The idea is closely related to the "liberal principle of legitimacy", which holds that laws are legitimate only if they are acceptable to people who are subject to them. In this thesis, I examine if the idea of neutrality meets liberalism's own requirements of legitimacy. To do so, I ask what arguments can be given to persuade evangelical Christians--a sizable minority of the U.S. population who are opposed to neutral policies on abortion, school prayer, etc.--to accept neutrality. First, I examine Ackerman and Rawls's "consensus-finding" argument, which claims generally that most comprehensive conceptions of the good are compatible with neutrality. Second, I examine Larmore, Dworkin, and Kymlicka's "consensus-building" arguments, which try to locate particular principles which non-neutralists (perfectionists) are likely to accept, and the acceptance of which is said to guarantee the acceptance of neutrality as well. I find both arguments unsatisfactory; neither is acceptable to a person who subscribes to the evangelical view of God and human nature. Third, I consider Rawls's proposal to exclude evangelicals and the like, based on the test of reasonableness which he believes is "freestanding". However, I find his test of reasonableness dependent on particular understandings of the terms "free and equal citizens", "common human reason", and "fair terms of cooperation". The test of reasonableness, I suggest, is not freestanding, and it is thus circular to use it as a criterion of exclusion. I conclude, therefore, that liberal neutrality fails to satisfy the liberal principle of legitimacy. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-22 16:42:44.821

The title of this thesis serves as a summary of its major emphases. Its first concern is to help churches become relevant. Sadly, some churches have become irrelevant, because they do not reflect the church of the Bible. This thesis points out that when we take careful note of what the Scriptures teach about church life, and then diligently apply these teachings to a particular church, we will find such a church becoming relevant within its own cultural milieu. Because this study aspires to be relevant, it is at the same time a praxis. It is an expression of the practical outworkings of the theology of church life as taught by the Bible. In other words, it is an applied ecclesiology, because it extracts from the tenets of Practical Theology those aspects of church life needed to bring about quantity and quality growth in local church situations. This thesis focuses its attention upon the Evangelical Church in South Africa, a group of twenty-six churches, ministering mainly to the Indian people living in Natal and the Transvaal. After delineating the broad dimensions of church life taught by the Bible, it advocates and amplifies eight all-encompassing principles which the Evangelical Church in South Africa needs to apply to its local churches if it wishes to grow both numerically and spiritually. In fact, we may safely conclude that these principles are universally applicable to any church, and will lead to significant spiritual growth when they are diligently applied in various church settings. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1993.

The history of the concept of secularisation is traced from its use as an anti-religious ideological term, through the modifications and refinements of classical sociology, to its association with modernisation in recent theory. Particular attention is given to the works of Bryan Wilson, Peter Berger and David Martin. The historical and sociological evidence which calls into question the classic theory of secularisation is cited and both the persistence of religion and the growth of new quests for the transcendent are shown to increase the pressure for a new paradigm for the understanding of the place of religion in the modern world. While British Evangelicalism's post-Victorian decline could be cited as evidence in support of the strong secularlisation thesis, its recent resurgence may point to religion's persistence in the modern world. The rise and fall of Evangelicalism is outlined, from its emergence in the eighteenth-century Revival, through its growing identification with middle-class culture in the Victorian era, to its reduction to the level of a religious sub-culture by the first half of the present century. Particular attention is given to the 'varieties of evangelicalism' and it is noted that, in contrast to those who attempted to use the belief-system as an ideological support for the defence of hierarchical society, radical Evangelicals insisted that religion must lead to historical and social transformation. The resurgence of conservative Christianity since the mid-point of the twentieth-century is described and analysed and a variety of possible futures for the revived Evangelical movement are suggested. Finally, the implications of the history of modern Evangelicalism for secularisation theory are outlined and it is argued that the time is ripe for an attempt to bridge the ideological gulf concerning religion which dates from the European Enlightenment.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-210).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [326]-359).