Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 293-306).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).

This study evaluates the efficacy of Earle, Knudsen and Shriver's (1975) typology of clergy community leadership roles when the level of analysis is extended from the community to the parish. Earle, et al. (1975) developed an analytical fourfold leadership typology identifying the roles of pastor, prophet, priest, and evangelist. Earle, et al. (1975) used the typology to conduct survey research on clergy identities in the community of Gastonia, North Carolina. This study utilizes qualitative field research within parishes of the Episcopal Church to examine the utility of the leadership typology when it is extended from a community to a parish level of analysis. The results of this study show that the utility of the role typology of Earle, et al. (1975) is limited at the parish level of analysis by three problems. These are identified as the problems of clergy neutrality, orchestrated leadership and clergy freewheeling. Each of these problems is discussed utilizing examples from the field research. The problems reveal weaknesses in the analytical foundation of the typology of Earle, et al. (1975) and demonstrate that the typology is not exhaustive in nature. This study concludes that Earle, et al.'s fourfold typology has some utility but that additional research into the roles of parish clergy is necessary to establish a sound analytical typology for the sociological exploration of clergy leadership roles. / Master of Science

This thesis examines Fielding Burke's Call Home the Heart, Grace Lumpkin's To Make My Bread, and Myra Page's Gathering Storm through the lens of ecofeminism, an interdisciplinary theory that contributes the necessary insight into the link between the abuse of power on personal, political, and economic levels that underlies the human oppression and environmental exploitation experienced by the novels' characters and communities. A resurrection of the Gastonia novels through the framework of ecofeminism will contribute to the scholarly discourse regarding this maturing theory as well as intensify the critical body of work concerning the Gastonia novels themselves. This thesis, in conjunction with the works of instrumental Appalachian scholars, literary critics, and historians as well as major landmark texts in the field of ecofeminism such as Kathy Warren's Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature and Greta Gaard's Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, purposes to advance the critical standing of the Gastonia novels.