This is a strange phenomenon in the present day and yet is happening. This study unpacked the social, economic, cultural as well as religious factors that contribute to women staying in abusive relationships. Research has been carried out reporting that women stay in abusive relationships because of economic and social reasons, therefore this study has focused specifically on the cultural and religious reasons why women stay in these relationships. This study worked from a social- constructionist paradigm seeking to understand how within cultural and religious communities the role of men and women, marriage and how gender roles within marriages are understood, specifically from an African and Zimbabwean perspective. What cultural and religious discourse shapes this understanding and keeps so many women captive in abusive relationships? This is the main question that guided the study. The co-researchers of this study came from organisations who work with survivors of domestic violence. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Practical Theology / MA / Unrestricted

This thesis adds a new contribution to the tradition of empirical theology, concerned with individual differences in young people’s attitudes toward religion and values. This thesis explores the correlates of attitude toward Christianity (assessed by the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity) among 5,199 13- to 15-year-old students in England and Wales who participated in the Young People’s Values Survey during 2002 to 2010.The Young People’s Values Survey was designed to draw together two independent strands of research within the tradition of empirical theology, the first concerned with charting the correlates of individual differences in attitude toward religion (operationalised originally by the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity), and the second concerned with individual differences in young people’s religion and values (operationalised originally by the Teenage Religion and Values Survey). This thesis reports on findings generated from the Young People’s Values Survey, the first study within the Teenage Religion and Values Survey series to include the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. This thesis comprises main two parts. Part one locates this study within the tradition of empirical theology by collating, reviewing and assessing the two bodies of knowledge (or strands of research) on which it builds. Part two presents new empirical analyses exploring the correlates of young people’s attitudes toward Christianity during the first decade of the twenty-first century. These analyses explore first, the psychometric properties of the short-form Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and second, the relationship between attitude toward Christianity and: sex differences, purpose in life, suicidal ideation, immortality beliefs (belief in life after death), and implicit religion (attachment to Christian rites of passage). This thesis concludes by discussing how the findings of this study may shape future empirical research within the tradition of empirical theology concerned with assessing young people’s attitudes toward religion and values.

The fundamental premise of this work is that the meaning of a Biblical text is the history of its meaning. The interpreter must take note of the experience in which a text originated, and the settings in which it has been encountered. This essay surveys the ‘history of effects’ (Wirkungsgeschichte) of the Lord’s Prayer from the time of Jesus Christ until the beginning of the third century. In the beginning chapters, significant attention is devoted to the context of prayer in first-century Palestine and the continuity between the Lord’s Prayer and Jewish tradition. Subsequent chapters survey the presentation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the Didache, and Tertullian’s De oratione. Each stage of interpretation is evaluated in the light of its continuity and discontinuity with its anterior history of reception. This work concludes with an evaluation of how the notions of diachronic creativity and synchronic continuity illuminate the progressive interpretations of the Lord’s Prayer during the period under consideration.

As a former urban development manager and now a minister in the Church of England, I offer this thesis as a theological reflection on the church’s engagement in the urban development process. By bringing together an understanding of urban policy with a hermeneutical reflection, a missional rationale is offered to the church in the context of urban change. The Pastoral Cycle model of learning is used based on five key stages: First, through immersion in the experience of the church’s interaction with London’s Thames Gateway project, three core themes are identified: promoting human flourishing, mediating tension and representing hope. Second, an understanding of these three core themes is explored in a social analysis of urban development policy and the Church of England’s engagement with urban development in the past. Third, a Biblical hermeneutic is offered based on Jeremiah. 29v7 where God calls on his people ‘to seek the shalom of the city where I place you into exile.’ Links are made with the three core themes, as the community of God are called: to seek not only human flourishing but shalom; to mediate the tensions of a city that is not their own; and to represent God’s hope in the midst of change. Fourth, the core themes are developed into a transformative strategy based on partnership with others to promote shalom, helping foster civil society by mediating tension and creating social justice, and representing God’s hope for their future. Three agents of transformation who deliver this strategy are then identified: the workplace chaplain, the church based community worker and the parish priest. Finally, in a return to praxis, the transformative strategy is re-evaluated based on the learning experiences of these agents of change in Longbridge, Birmingham. This leads to a call for a collaborative approach to church engagement. Lessons learned here will help the church engage better with the urban development agenda. As a result, the church’s agents of change are better able to work closer together to promote shalom, mediate tension and represent hope.

The perspective of this thesis is different from that of recent studies within the sociology of religion in that it questions the value of continuing the sect-church typology and favours a phenomenological approach. It intends to move towards the vision of one reviewer of Wilson: Patterns of Sectarianism (1967) who looked forward to "further and rather different analysis of much of this material". In looking at the same or similar material in a different light it aims to contribute to the theoretical base of the sociology of religion. It sets out to look at the persistence of the Salvation Army as an institution, as a form of human organization designed to pursue religious aims, rather than as a "sect" or an example of any other academically imposed category. As such this study has nothing to add to the "sociology of sectarianism". This thesis utilizes the theory of Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann that there is a dialectic process involving the human construction and internalization of social reality, involving tensions and dualities which make the acceptance of that reality, and therefore human existence, possible. Here the processes involved in the genesis and development of the Salvation Army, together with the concomitant dualities and tensions, are exposed by empirical analysis and their importance assessed. An explanation of the persistence of the movement is presented built upon this theoretical perspective. This study represents an important empirical testing and application of Berger and Luckmann's theory. "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. "These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them; they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is - I repeat it - a difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and c12arly the line of separation between them. "The world may not like to SRe these ideas dissevered, for it has been accustomed to blend them; finding it convenient to make external show oass for sterling worth - to let whitewashed walls vouch for clean shrines. It may hate him who dares to scrutinize and expose - to rase the gilding, and show the base metal underneath - to penetrate the sepulchre, and reveal charnel relics: but, hate as it will, it is indebted to him." (Charlotte Bronte: dane Eyre, Preface)

This thesis presents a theological exploration of the problems and potentialities of speaking about Christian faith in the context of working life. It is based on a qualitative investigation of the experience of Christians working in secular institutions. The argument is that the discursive interface between work and worship raises critical questions of identity, of power and of language which challenge the integrity of Christian discipleship. The practice of articulating faith-talk in the working context is analyzed in the light of a trinitarian hermeneutic. The thesis addresses the practical theological question: How may a Christian speak adequately and appropriately of their faith at work? This question is explored through an integration of qualitative-representational analysis and theological-evaluative critique. An ethnographic method is developed, based on extended immersion in the field of secular work, and focused in a series of research conversations and reflective meetings. Analyzed from the perspective of a Christian woman who has struggled and continues to struggle to forge an adequate and contextual articulation of faith in workplace settings, the problematic is described through the metaphor of ‘a life in two languages’. A faithful resolution of the problem is approached through the contextual discovery of three trinitarian practices: of engagement, fluency and communion. The thesis makes a contribution to academic knowledge in the practical theology of working life. By addressing the communicative dimension of working life, and exploring the experience of Christians in the workplace using the resources of cultural theory and discourse analysis, the thesis presents a contemporary and practical perspective on work. In a field which attracts a large volume of popular and motivational writing, the study contributes a sustained and critical reflection and offers a creative map for interpreting the challenge of Christian witness at work in the light of a trinitarian understanding of faithful practice.

The existence of movements in nineteenth century Lutheranism and Anglicanism to revive (repristinate) the doctrines and practices of a former age is well known. The scope of this dissertation only includes aspects of the eucharistic theologies of these movements, and then only as taught by a few representative theologians. The two repristination movements that are compared in this respect are the Missouri Synod of Lutheranism (the Confessional Lutherans - whose main theologian was C.F.W.Walther) and the Oxford Movement in Anglicanism (the Tractarians - whose main theologian of the Eucharist was E.B.Pusey). To investigate the eucharistic theologies of these movements, major writings on the doctrine of the Eucharist by these chosen representatives were studied and compared. An attempt was made to discover how close these theologians came to sharing a common eucharistic theology. The eucharistic writings of the two movements were found to be similar in their dependence upon quotations from historic eucharistic literature to promote orthodoxy in the nineteenth century. But on the Lutheran side material from the sixteenth century was usually reissued without comment in compilation volumes. Although Walther and others usually systematised Reformation-era material for easier reference in the nineteenth century, few additions or reinterpretations were thought necessary. On the Anglican side, Pusey quoted from the early Church Fathers extensively, often with little comment or addition, but was compelled to reinterpret much eucharistic material. This is because the task before the Oxford Movement, of promoting an orthodoxy which was not recognised by many Anglicans, required creative writing which Lutheran Confessionalism did not. For the Tractarians, Anglican doctrinal material from sixteenth century had to be reinterpreted to conform with the desired orthodoxy. Unlike the Confessional Lutherans with their sixteenth century material on the Eucharist completely usable, Tractarians such as Pusey and Wilberforce had to struggle with eucharistic concepts in the authoritative writings available to them and, through a considerable amount of creative thinking on their part, articulate a eucharistic theology which conformed to their ideal of catholic doctrine. Hence a fuller body of nineteenth century eucharistic thought and writing is evident from the Tractarian side than from the Lutheran. The method of investigation consisted of analysing certain issues involved in eucharistic theology and comparing the treatments of those issues in authoritative Lutheran and Anglican sources. How and why the treatments resembled and differed from one another was explored. Particular attention was paid to the doctrine of the Real Presence, because of the influence of that doctrine upon other eucharistic issues and questions. Because, unlike the Confessional Lutherans, the Tractarians received a hostile reaction from within their church to their eucharistic theology, a sample was included of some of the arguments presented by Anglican opposition to the eucharistic theology of the Oxford Movement. It was discovered that the similarity between the goals of the Anglican and Lutheran repristinationists to restore what they believed to be true catholic orthodoxy included a corresponding similarity in many of their theological presuppositions. For the most part they shared a conservative reverence for the Bible, the creedal formularies of Christian antiquity and of certain Reformation formularies. A completely unified approach to the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist did not materialise; yet despite the independence of their respective inquiries, the Anglican and Lutheran repristinationists were discovered to maintain strikingly similar positions on several issues of eucharistic theology. Most notable was the congruence of their teachings concerning the Real Presence. Diversity between the two movements was encountered concerning the language and philosophy behind other issues such as that of eucharistic sacrifice. Nevertheless, such a measure of doctrinal congruence concerning the frequently devisive subject of the Lord's Supper was encouraging to discover. The measure of congruity achieved by the independent efforts of these Lutherans and Anglicans of the nineteenth century, as they tried to repristinate purity of doctrine and orthodoxy, may constitute a superior model for modern-day ecumenical endeavours. This is especially the case if the route to Christian unity via a tolerance of contradictory doctrines around the eucharistic table threatens to collapse under the weight of its own implausibility.

The aim of the thesis is to demonstrate the significance of ordinary prayer for the study of ordinary theology, as conceived by Astley (2002), and to make an original contribution to research in this field. For this purpose, in part one, the thesis begins by establishing the relationship between ordinary theology and ordinary prayer, followed by a review and evaluation of empirical studies relevant to ordinary prayer. These studies are organised according to five themes: who prays, when people pray, the subjective effects of prayer, the objective effects of prayer, and the content of prayer. Part one concludes with a consideration of the significance of the empirical prayer studies for the understanding of ordinary theology and ordinary theologians, and demonstrates their practical importance to the Church. Based on the evidence gathered thus far, a new methodology is proposed, which supports the detailed study of ordinary prayer content found in prayer requests left in churches. The new methodology involves the development of an analytical framework designed to explore the content of ordinary prayer through the three components of reference, intention, and objective. In part two, the analytical framework is employed in five case studies: two case studies test the general framework through the analysis of two different sets of prayer requests; one case study uses the general framework to explore ordinary prayer and implicit religion; and two case studies use modifications of the intention component of the framework in order to provide focused studies relating to ordinary prayer and health and well-being and to ordinary prayer and the activity of God in the world. The thesis concludes with an evaluative summary of the contribution of ordinary prayer to ordinary theology in general and the contribution of the new methodology to the study of ordinary prayer and ordinary theology in particular.

This thesis is a constructive work in theology. The aim is to show the centrality of liturgy for theological investigation, exposing how liturgical action at once shapes and gives rise to theological articulation and also manifests an implicit theology. The meaning is in the making, as it were, and this thesis seeks to show the descriptive nature of theology and liturgy as that which makes all theology possible. What is liturgy? Following the earliest usage of leitourgia in the ancient world, and especially as articulated by Saint Paul, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Irenaeus, I show that the Church’s earliest articulation of liturgical action bears an implied ontology of participation, namely in the singular liturgical action of Christ. Liturgy is not, therefore, to be defined or understood as “the work of the people,” but rather as the “work of the One for the sake of the many,” in which all of creation participates. I argue that the human is to be understood as a liturgical animal who by virtue of her being(-)created is incorporated into the Liturgy God is. I also argue that liturgy names the inter-offering of the Persons of the Trinity, whereby each hypostasis exists as mutually constituting and constituted. The human’s participation in this liturgical action is a participation of the whole person, mediated by the materials and movements involved in the liturgical action—liturgy as the mediation of the divine economy. I also show how late medieval liturgical reforms issue a gradual and unwarranted relegation of the laity’s involvement in the liturgical action. Although inadvertent, this continual extraction of lay participation serves to secularize their role and extract them from the economy to which the liturgy is meant to assimilate. All of this is to expose how the liturgical action, which was vastly influential to the social imaginary of the medieval world, construes and conditions the human more and more along a secular line. Additionally, it is to recover the essential nature of liturgical action for social construction. Indeed, liturgical action as social construction—the embodying of the reciprocal and mutually constituting life of God in whose image the human is created and to whose Being, through Christ the Liturgy, the human has been assimilated, is being-assimilated, and will be assimilated.

In the years following Ireland's political independence in 1922 the popularity of its missionary movement was unprecedented. This most Catholic of endeavours helped to assert Ireland's difference from Britain. Religious women actively participated in this process. Their medical work and subsequent representations of the mission fields contributed to a rhetoric of Irish nationalism that served to define postcolonial Ireland within a universal, Catholic discourse. However, the location of their missionary spaces, largely in British colonial Africa, brought the sisters into contact with the empire from which Ireland had recently withdrawn. In their encounters with local people, the sisters perpetuated a form of colonialism that will be studied as a seeming contradiction to the Catholic Church's stance against British rule in Ireland. This is conducted through the lens of gender, and exposes the variation in Catholic-informed ideals of femininity in this postcolonial period of Ireland's history. To study these nuns is to explore the gendered and uneven power relations within the Church, their contribution to the expansion of Catholicism and their ambiguous role in empire. By drawing on the scalar connections between varied missionary spaces including the body, convent and domestic home, in both Ireland and Tanganyika, this thesis contributes to broader debates in historical geography and postcolonial theory.