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This thesis contributes to the literature on the French Catholic Marist mission in New Zealand by providing the first critical in-depth biography of one of the early French missionaries, Antoine Marie Garin (1810-1889). It emphasises the importance of the Marists’ position as outsiders in nineteenth-century New Zealand society. As neither ‘colonising’ British settlers, nor ‘colonised’ Maori, the Marists were in a special position to view events unfolding in the mid-nineteenth century, when New Zealand was changing from a Maori-dominated to a predominantly Pakeha-dominated world. The records which the Marists kept of their experiences, including diaries, letters, memoirs and annals, have the potential to provide a significant contribution to New Zealand historiography, and remain relatively untapped. As a biographical study, this thesis uses the framework of Garin’s life story to add insight to the intercultural dynamic in nineteenth-century New Zealand. The thesis begins with an exposé of the theory used to examine the intercultural dimension in Garin’s experience. Garin’s life in New Zealand was a tale of cross-cultural encounter occurring within two cultural-social paradigms: the Maori-Pakeha paradigm, and the Catholic-Protestant settler paradigm. With respect to the Maori-Pakeha paradigm, it is argued that Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of hybridity provides an innovative framework within which to study early interaction between Maori and Pakeha. The concept of hybridity stresses the interdependence of coloniser and colonised, thereby recognising the existence of agency on both sides, and avoiding the binary opposition of ‘Maori’ and ‘Pakeha’ that continues to mark contemporary New Zealand society. Another postcolonial theory, that of diaspora, is used to illuminate Garin’s experience in settler communities. It is argued that religion can be the basis for a diaspora, and that the Catholics in nineteenth-century New Zealand had a diasporic consciousness because of their creation of separate Catholic institutions, and their connections to the wider Catholic world. Part Two of the thesis consists of the biography proper. It is framed as a cultural biography: a biography that seeks to illuminate not only the subject’s life, but also national history. Garin was a grassroots Catholic missionary, who, through talent, perseverance and a little luck, made a notable impact on New Zealand society, in particular in the area of Catholic education. However, even more important to his story was his ability to build bridges between cultures, and create communities of Maori and settler Catholics. Arguably, Garin’s greatest legacy is the diary that he kept while a missionary to Maori. This documents the everyday border crossing that was taking place between the Maori of Mangakahia and Garin himself in the hybrid society of 1840s’ New Zealand.

This thesis was designed to determine the uses of media distributed by the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). The study compared laypersons' and ministers' respective uses of seven church media.A telephone survey was conducted of 597 subscribers of Vital Christianity magazine: 382 laypersons and 215 ministers. Participants' responses were analyzed by mean scores, t-tests, Pearson correlations, multiple regression analysis, partial correlation tests and factor analysis. Demographic data concerning lay and ministerial status, participation in church life, educational level and age was cross tabulated with 14 statments related to Blumler's three categories of media uses and gratifications: surveillance, interaction and diversion.The study found significant differences in the amount of church media used by ministers and laypersons. Whereas ministers use Vital Christianity primarily for surveillance, laypersons value interaction uses as highly as surveillance uses. Laypersons' also indicated significantly greater interest in both interaction and diversion uses of the magazine than did the ministers. Finally, the study found a modest correlation between age level and use of Vital Christianity to gratify diversion needs. / Department of Journalism

Little research has been conducted to show the relationship between short-term study abroad/mission experiences and the faith development of those who engage in them. Christian colleges and universities utilize these experiences to help develop their students' faith. This research analyzed the relationship between a Christian college student's experience in a one-month study abroad/mission experience and his or her faith development and maturity.The research was conducted with 171 students from a Christian university, including 72 students (study group) who spent one month in the university's study abroad/mission program and 99 students (control group) who took classes on campus during the same time period. The development of the student's faith was measured by three instruments: 1) a six question qualitative survey given to the study group; 2) the Faith Maturity Scale (FMS) published by the Search Institute; and 3) Growth in Mature Faith Index (GMFI) published by the Search Institute.The quantitative data analysis indicated no significant differences between pre- and post-scores for the FMS and GMFI; but the research did find changes that were significant on some of the question items between the two groups, such as the SAM participants becoming more accepting of people with different religious beliefs. Inflated research alpha levels (for multiple testing) were of concern for the researcher, as was the ceiling effect (pre-trip levels above the highest national levels for any age group) with the Christian college student population. Qualitative data indicated that the Study Abroad Mission Students developed in their relationship with God and their service to others. / School of Continuing Education and Public Service

For Native peoples, becoming Christian in north america has also meant becoming white. That is, the theological beliefs, cultural habits, and political movements that characterized american colonialism are inseparable. Among its many shortcomings throughout colonial history, Western Christianity has failed on a basic, epistemological level; it has failed to recognize itself as a particular theological tradition, instead positing itself as a universal. The insistence of the particular theological doctrines and scriptural interpretations of european settlers as Truth led to the demise of many Others—a violence to which the Indigenous peoples of this land attest. If, as I have suggested, particular theologies were part and parcel of the western colonial project, then it follows that attempts at disarming the imperial machine must not only involve decolonizing dominant politics and cultural habits, but also decolonizing dominant western theologies. This thesis takes up one of the dominant doctrines in Western Christianity, that of original sin. An analysis of this doctrine is pertinent because, in addition to articulating the dominant western Christian understanding of sin, death, and evil, in the world, it also reveals an undergirding anthropology and an implied soteriology, both of which provided justifications for the genocide on the Indigenous peoples of america. Following the decolonizing methodologies of Native americans Andrea Smith and Laura Donaldson, I will demonstrate that the doctrine is particular, both scripturally and culturally, and that the dominant reading of the supporting texts for the doctrine are neither universal nor necessary. Then I will interrogate the two primary texts, Genesis 3 and Romans 5 with alternative interpretations from Native theologians and the experiences of the doctrine by Native peoples. Finally, I will argue that if western theology is to truly release its monopoly on the Truth, even what it claims to be the True discourses and interpretations within Christianity, it must make itself vulnerable to deconstruction and interrogation by those it has oppressed; it must cultivate a posture of receptivity to the other and Native interpretive approaches, begin the hard work of unsettling settler theologies, and composing non-dominant readings of the bible.

Thesis (M.A. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.A. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977 / Pacific Islands Studies

In the New Testament different pictures of a Christian woman are presented, not only thepicture of someone who is nursing and caring, but also the picture of someone who is learningand being educated.Women are put into systems of gender which form them, and throughout the years the pictureof women has been that they primarily should be caring and nursing, not learning.Both of these pictures exist within the Swedish Missionary Society, a society that has not hadany constitution to comply with until 1964, which meant that each person could make his owninterpretation of the Bible and its texts.This essay examines how fifty-year-old women are pictured within the Swedish MissionarySociety 1945-1970, assuming that women who want to serve Jesus have to be prepared togive up their traditional role of nursing and caring, and focus on learning instead.The research method is qualitative, and the written sources are from a regional Christianweekly publication. The essay does not present an unambiguous picture of fifty-year-oldnonconformist women, but the results show that they are not being related to children, that themajority has a higher education than elementary school, and that many of them are addressedto as “Mrs”.