Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-207).

Project Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1995. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #090-0229. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-156).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [293]-297).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-164).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia International University, 2004. / Abstract and vita. "April, 2004." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-181).

Thesis (M. Th.)--Catholic Theological Union, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The purpose of the dissertation is to survey the major attitudes within the Occidental Protestant Churches towards Christian missionary work. This embraces, firstly, an historical account of the earliest evidences of missionary interest within Protestantism and the various reactions to it by Church leaders. Secondly, the study involves the growth of missionary enthusiasm among church members and the consequent development of missionary attitudes within the context of the three-way relationship of the Occidental Protestant Churches to each other, to the younger Churches of the Orient and to non-Christian Oriental religious faiths. Although much historical data is presented, this dissertation does not aim to be a history of Protestant missions to the Orient. Research into this wide subject has proceeded within definite limits, which are explained in the introductory chapter. Throughout the study attention has been focussed on the Orient, although the discussion in the early chapters has not been restricted to this area. The time-period, covered by the survey, stretches from the Protestant Reformation to the outbreak of the First World War [TRUNCATED].

This thesis is an attempt to make visible how Christians within a minority people in the southern Philippines view the Bible conceptually as a source of spiritual authority and also how they read and interpret the Bible, both privately and within the context of community worship. Reading and studying the Bible is now universally practised by people from multitudes of cultures, a reality that has naturally engendered a great deal of interest on the part of scholars. The resultant scholarship however, has been preoccupied with the findings of the professional researcher, and little has been published which reveals how “ordinary indigenous readers” view the Bible and/or how they interpret it. Using qualitative data gathered by this author among Manobo Christians living in the hills of central Mindanao, this thesis will endeavour to redress this imbalance and provide access to the voices of ordinary Manobo readers. The thesis also makes an important contribution to the Bible’s place within Philippine Christianity. Despite the expanding readership of the Bible within the Philippines almost no research has focused on how the Bible is actually interpreted by ordinary readers. The thesis will major on the appropriation of the Bible by Christians from within the Manobo Bible Church Association of Mindanao, an association of churches born out of the church planting efforts of missionaries belonging to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. At the centre of the thesis is an encounter between conservative evangelical missionaries and the unique culture and cosmology of the Manobo. The central argument is that the missionaries’ prototypically, evangelical doctrine of Scripture was appropriated and reconfigured by Manobo Christians in ways that reveal the persistent ability of elements of their own cosmology, and customary law, to exert influence upon their localisation of Christianity. In particular, the thesis focuses on how the localisation process has led to innovations by the Manobo on what is meant by the Bible as “spiritual authority” and to reinterpretations of significant theological themes within the evangelical gospel message. At the same time the thesis also outlines how adoption of the Christian Scriptures has redefined the position that indigenous sources of authority, such as spirit priest and village chief, now occupy within Manobo Christian communities.

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