Inner healing prayer (IHP) warrants greater practical theological attention. The practice of IHP, most significantly developed by Agnes Sanford, has been described by many of those individuals and ministries that have seen God transform lives through it. This study focuses especially on the models developed by John and Paula Sandford, Leanne Payne, and Ed Smith as representative of IHP. Social constructionism, particularly as it has drawn attention to the significance of narrative, provides a fresh perspective with which to interpret what is taking place in IHP. A theology centred on Jesus' proclamation and demonstration of the in-breaking reign of God combines with social constructionism to suggest that a personal Creator God, who has a privileged perspective on reality, actively joins in the social processes by which we construct our understandings of reality. Interpreting IHP from this social constructionist perspective, this study proposes that IHP can be described as a practice in which God is invited and expected to experientially enter into the social processes by which people construct their reality. Traumatic or hurtful events have often created apparent realities that persons are unable to integrate into the central stories that identify their lives. IHP facilitates an encounter in which God•s loving, forgiving presence is experienced in the midst of such hurtful events allowing a new, more integrated and hopeful, construction of reality. The faith, hope and love of those leading in IHP and the symbolic, metaphorical language contribute to the ability of IHP to affect change at an emotional level, but the central role of the imagination, especially in visualising Jesus' presence, is the most unique and characteristic aspect. This interpretation provides a viewpoint to critique the practice of IHP and suggests some ways that an understanding of God's kingdom might further enhance its practice. A small~scale qualitative interview project offers the opportunity to assess whether this social constructionist interpretation corresponds to the way in which participants in IHP make sense of their experience. It is hoped that the constructionist perspective offered here provides a language that can broaden an understanding of IHP, enhancing dialogue and further research. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

A. B. Simpson / Charles Spurgeon / Andrew Murray / Oswald Chambers / George Muller / Hudson Taylor / John MacMillan / A. W. Tozer / Kenneth Hagin / Kenneth Copeland / Frederick K. C. Price / E. M. Bounds / Amy Carmichael / Phoebe Palmer / This thesis is a study of nineteenth and twentieth century faith theology and praxis, seeking to determine a balanced, healthy faith that is both sound in theology and effective in practice. Part 1 presents a history and sources of Faith Teaching and Practices. It first looks historicalty at the roots of later faith teaching and practice by presenting a sampling of teachings on faith from early church fathers, reformers, mystics, and Pietists. These form the foundation for the movements of faith in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--the classic faith teaching, followed by the modern faith movement and leaders. Part 2 deals with the foundational issues of faith teaching and practice: the relationship of faith to the supernatural, the concept of the inheritance of the believer and the practice of claiming the promises of God, the nature of faith, and the authority of the believer and its inferences for faith praxis. Part 3 investigates seven major theological issues of faith teaching and practice: faith as a law and force, the object and source of faith, the relationship of faith and the will of God, distinguishing between a logos and a rhema word of God, the concepts of revelation and sense knowledge, the doctrine of healing in the atonement, the question of evidence of the baptism in lhe Holy Spirit. Part 4 examines major practical issues of faith teaching and practice about which controversy swirls: positive mental attitude and positive confession; issues of discernment in acting upon impressions, voices, revelations, and "words from the Lord;" questions of failh regarding sickness and healing, death, doctors and medicine; the relationships between sickness, suffering, healing, and sanctification; and prosperity. Part 5 reflects upon these issues and comes to final conclusions regarding: the role of hermeneutics in determining failh theology and praxis, how to handle unanswered prayers and apparent failures of faith, the seeming paradox and tension between claiming one's inheritance and dying to self, a summary of practical conclusions for exercise of healthy faith, and final conclusions and recommendations on developing a sound theology and practice of faith for the twenty-fist century. / Practical Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

Strategic level spiritual warfare has been an emerging trend within Evangelical missiology ever since C. Peter Wagner published his Spiritual Power and Church Growth (1986). The distinctive doctrines of Wagner’s SLSW are 1. The doctrine of territorial spirits, which entails the belief that powerful demons control specific geographical territories and its human inhabitants. Through a variety of spiritual warfare techniques such demons can be overcome. 2. The doctrine of territorial defilement. The assumption here is that a territorial spirit can only hold people in a location in bondage if it has obtained the legal right to do so because of sins and evils committed in that locality in the past. Identificational repentance on behalf of the people living in such territories removes the legal right of the territorial spirits. 3. The doctrine of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare prayer. The underlying assumption is that territorial spirits can only be removed by means of aggressive spiritual warfare in the form of a variety of prayer and exorcism methods for dealing with territorial spirits. (4) The doctrine of territorial commitment. This doctrine justifies the exercise of spiritual power and authority by modern apostles in their communities. Wagner’s missiology has been largely shaped by the church growth movement. In his quest for better techniques to bring about mass conversions Wagner, impressed by the Latin American Pentecostal churches, embraced Pentecostalism and developed SLSW. However, a thorough biblical study demonstrates that SLSW is mostly unbiblical. A study of SLSW in Church history also demonstrates that SLSW was never accepted in orthodox Christianity. From a contextual point of view SLSW turns out to be a North American missiology with nationalist and political biases. Finally, when looking at the potential effects of a SLSW style missiology in the context of Malawi it emerges that Wagner’s SLSW is likely to reinforce rather than diminish the prevalent witchcraft fears in the Malawian society. At the same time SLSW tends to ‘demonize’ other cultures and thus hinders genuine contextualization. In the final analysis SLSW turns out not to be a commendable strategy for Christian Mission in Malawi. / Christian Spirituality Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This study seeks to examine the precise way it may be said that God takes risks in creating and governing this world. In order to articulate this model of providence various texts of scripture are studied which have either been overlooked or interpreted differently in discussions of divine providence. These texts reveal a deity who enters into genuine give-and-take relations with creatures, a God who is genuinely responsive and who may be said to take risks in that God does not get everything he desires in these relationships. Furthermore, the traditional texts used to defend the no-risk view of providence are examined and shown that they do not, in fact, teach the idea that God is the cause of everything which happens in the world such that the divine will is never thwarted in the leas detail. The biblical teaching of God in reciprocal relations with his creatures is then discussed in theological and philosophical terms. The nature of God is here understood as loving, wise, faithful yet free, almighty, competent and resourceful. These ideas are explicated in light of the more traditional theological/philosophical understanding of God. Finally, some of the implications of this relational model of God are examined to see the ways in which it may be said that God takes risks and whose will may be thwarted. The crucial watershed in this regard is whether or not there is any conditionality in the godhead. The no-risk view denies, while the risk model affirms, that some aspects of God's will, knowledge, and actions are contingent. In order to grasp the differences between the two models the doctrines and practices involved in salvation, the problem of evil, prayer and guidance are examined to see what each model says about them. It is claimed that· .the relational or risk model is superior to the no-risk model both in terms of theoretical coherence and the practice of the Christian life. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / Th. D. (Sytematic Theology)

La prière, parce qu’elle suppose une reconnaissance du pouvoir des mots et des gestes, est une pratique tangible et un fait historique. Étudier sa nature et ses évolutions fait progresser la connaissance des comportements et des dispositifs religieux. Ainsi, les prières formulées par les empereurs romains, qu’ils soient païens ou chrétiens, participent de la manifestation de leur pouvoir et de l’expression des rapports complexes entre l’individu, la communauté et le monde divin. Néanmoins la nature de la documentation et la spécificité des différents systèmes religieux conduisent à privilégier une relative synchronie. L’étude des prières récitées par l’empereur dans la célébration des cultes publics permet de préciser l’articulation entre la personne impériale et la communauté publique. Sur le temps long, il est alors possible de discuter les supposées évolutions ou mutations de ces responsabilités et de leurs représentations. Aussi la nature même des prières romaines peut-elle être éclairée au regard des interrogations modernes sur les religions antiques et des concepts de spiritualisation, d’individualisation ou de performance collective. La définition du paysage cultuel des empereurs romains permet de reconsidérer le sens même de la prière individuelle et de ses enjeux religieux et sociaux. L’ensemble de ces approches se prolonge harmonieusement avec le passage du paganisme au christianisme. La place des empereurs dans le culte communautaire, la possible élaboration de dispositifs cultuels spécifiques et la représentation de leurs prières individuelles ou personnelles participent de l’étude historique de la lente constitution d’un christianisme impérial romain divers. / The prayer is a tangible practice and a historical fact. It implies recognition of the power of words and gestures. The study of its nature and evolutions improves knowledge of religious behaviours and setups. Prayers made by pagan or Christian Roman emperors involve representation of their power and show the complex relationship between the person, the community and the divine world. However, the available documentation and the specificity of different religious systems lead to adopt a relative synchrony. The prayers said in public cults are used to study the relationship between the imperial person and public community. It is then possible to have a long-term discussion of the supposed changes or mutations of these responsibilities and their images. The nature of Roman prayers can be discussed by the modern interrogations about antique religions and concepts such as spiritualization, individualization and collective performance. The definition of the Roman emperors worship landscape allows reconsidering the very meaning of individual prayer together with its religious and social issues. All these approaches extend harmoniously from Paganism to early Christianity. The position of emperors in community worship, the development of specific worship setup and representation of individual or personal prayers are part of an historical study focused on the slow formation of a diverse Roman imperial Christianity.

Washington National Cathedral sits atop Mt. St. Alban’s hill in Washington, D.C. declaring itself the nation’s cathedral and spiritual home for the nation. The idea of a national church serving national purposes was first envisioned by L’Enfant in the District’s original plan. Left aside in the times of nation building, the idea of a national church slumbered until 1893 when a group of Episcopalians petitioned and received a Congressional charter to begin a church and school in Washington, D.C. The first bishop of Washington, Henry Y. Satterlee, began his bishopric with the understanding that this cathedral being built by the Protestant Episcopal Church Foundation was to be a house of prayer for all people. Using Jasinksi’s constructivist orientation to reveal the one hundred year rhetorical history defining what constitutes a “national cathedral” within the narrative paradigm first established by Walter Fisher, this work utilizes a rhetorical biographical approach to uncover the various discourses of those speaking of and about the Cathedral. This biographical approach claims that Washington National Cathedral possesses an ethos that differentiates the national cathedral from the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul even though the two names refer to the same building. The WNC ethos is one that allows a constant “becoming” of a national cathedral, and this ability to “become” allows for a rhetorical voice of the entity we call Washington National Cathedral. Four loci of rhetorical construction weave through this dissertation in the guiding question of how the Cathedral rhetorically created and how it sustains itself as Washington National Cathedral: rhetoric about the Cathedral, the Cathedral as rhetoric, the Cathedral as context, and Cathedral Dean Francis Sayre, Jr. as synecdoche with the Cathedral. This dissertation is divided into eight rhetorical moments of change that take the idea of a national church from L’Enfant’s 1791 plan of the City through the January 2013 announcement allowing same-sex weddings at the Cathedral and Obama’s second inaugural prayer service. The result of this rhetorical exploration is a more nuanced understanding of the place and how it functions in an otherwise secular society for which there is no precedent for the establishment of a national cathedral completely separated from the national government. The narrative strains that wind through Cathedral discourse create a braid of text, context, and moral imperative that ultimately allows for the unique construction of Washington National Cathedral, a construction of what defines “national” created entirely by the Cathedral.

This study explores the ways in which objects are used in the organization of daily life, by specifically focusing on the use of prayer beads and their mechanical and digital variations. For this purpose, a framework based on material culture and practice theory is employed to understand how Islam informs and guides the organization and the conduct of daily life around the pervasive prayer practices, the ways objects are used for these purposes and how practices and products co-evolve by influencing each other. Fieldwork with devout Muslims, who are using prayer beads together with mechanical and digital counters for their daily praying practices, is conducted by employing ethnomethodology. Findings on the ways in which objects are used, utilized, appropriated and adopted within the socio-cultural and political dynamics of Islam in Turkey are analysed regarding the social and practical aspects of daily life such as the organization of daily life and daily practices, the core issues shaping these practices, thus objects, how identity discourse reflected on/by the use of objects and the ensemble of products that is orchestrated for a meaningful organization of daily life around prayer practices.

Inner healing prayer (IHP) warrants greater practical theological attention. The practice of IHP, most significantly developed by Agnes Sanford, has been described by many of those individuals and ministries that have seen God transform lives through it. This study focuses especially on the models developed by John and Paula Sandford, Leanne Payne, and Ed Smith as representative of IHP. Social constructionism, particularly as it has drawn attention to the significance of narrative, provides a fresh perspective with which to interpret what is taking place in IHP. A theology centred on Jesus' proclamation and demonstration of the in-breaking reign of God combines with social constructionism to suggest that a personal Creator God, who has a privileged perspective on reality, actively joins in the social processes by which we construct our understandings of reality. Interpreting IHP from this social constructionist perspective, this study proposes that IHP can be described as a practice in which God is invited and expected to experientially enter into the social processes by which people construct their reality. Traumatic or hurtful events have often created apparent realities that persons are unable to integrate into the central stories that identify their lives. IHP facilitates an encounter in which God•s loving, forgiving presence is experienced in the midst of such hurtful events allowing a new, more integrated and hopeful, construction of reality. The faith, hope and love of those leading in IHP and the symbolic, metaphorical language contribute to the ability of IHP to affect change at an emotional level, but the central role of the imagination, especially in visualising Jesus' presence, is the most unique and characteristic aspect. This interpretation provides a viewpoint to critique the practice of IHP and suggests some ways that an understanding of God's kingdom might further enhance its practice. A small~scale qualitative interview project offers the opportunity to assess whether this social constructionist interpretation corresponds to the way in which participants in IHP make sense of their experience. It is hoped that the constructionist perspective offered here provides a language that can broaden an understanding of IHP, enhancing dialogue and further research. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

A. B. Simpson / Charles Spurgeon / Andrew Murray / Oswald Chambers / George Muller / Hudson Taylor / John MacMillan / A. W. Tozer / Kenneth Hagin / Kenneth Copeland / Frederick K. C. Price / E. M. Bounds / Amy Carmichael / Phoebe Palmer / This thesis is a study of nineteenth and twentieth century faith theology and praxis, seeking to determine a balanced, healthy faith that is both sound in theology and effective in practice. Part 1 presents a history and sources of Faith Teaching and Practices. It first looks historicalty at the roots of later faith teaching and practice by presenting a sampling of teachings on faith from early church fathers, reformers, mystics, and Pietists. These form the foundation for the movements of faith in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--the classic faith teaching, followed by the modern faith movement and leaders. Part 2 deals with the foundational issues of faith teaching and practice: the relationship of faith to the supernatural, the concept of the inheritance of the believer and the practice of claiming the promises of God, the nature of faith, and the authority of the believer and its inferences for faith praxis. Part 3 investigates seven major theological issues of faith teaching and practice: faith as a law and force, the object and source of faith, the relationship of faith and the will of God, distinguishing between a logos and a rhema word of God, the concepts of revelation and sense knowledge, the doctrine of healing in the atonement, the question of evidence of the baptism in lhe Holy Spirit. Part 4 examines major practical issues of faith teaching and practice about which controversy swirls: positive mental attitude and positive confession; issues of discernment in acting upon impressions, voices, revelations, and "words from the Lord;" questions of failh regarding sickness and healing, death, doctors and medicine; the relationships between sickness, suffering, healing, and sanctification; and prosperity. Part 5 reflects upon these issues and comes to final conclusions regarding: the role of hermeneutics in determining failh theology and praxis, how to handle unanswered prayers and apparent failures of faith, the seeming paradox and tension between claiming one's inheritance and dying to self, a summary of practical conclusions for exercise of healthy faith, and final conclusions and recommendations on developing a sound theology and practice of faith for the twenty-fist century. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical Theology)

Strategic level spiritual warfare has been an emerging trend within Evangelical missiology ever since C. Peter Wagner published his Spiritual Power and Church Growth (1986). The distinctive doctrines of Wagner’s SLSW are 1. The doctrine of territorial spirits, which entails the belief that powerful demons control specific geographical territories and its human inhabitants. Through a variety of spiritual warfare techniques such demons can be overcome. 2. The doctrine of territorial defilement. The assumption here is that a territorial spirit can only hold people in a location in bondage if it has obtained the legal right to do so because of sins and evils committed in that locality in the past. Identificational repentance on behalf of the people living in such territories removes the legal right of the territorial spirits. 3. The doctrine of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare prayer. The underlying assumption is that territorial spirits can only be removed by means of aggressive spiritual warfare in the form of a variety of prayer and exorcism methods for dealing with territorial spirits. (4) The doctrine of territorial commitment. This doctrine justifies the exercise of spiritual power and authority by modern apostles in their communities. Wagner’s missiology has been largely shaped by the church growth movement. In his quest for better techniques to bring about mass conversions Wagner, impressed by the Latin American Pentecostal churches, embraced Pentecostalism and developed SLSW. However, a thorough biblical study demonstrates that SLSW is mostly unbiblical. A study of SLSW in Church history also demonstrates that SLSW was never accepted in orthodox Christianity. From a contextual point of view SLSW turns out to be a North American missiology with nationalist and political biases. Finally, when looking at the potential effects of a SLSW style missiology in the context of Malawi it emerges that Wagner’s SLSW is likely to reinforce rather than diminish the prevalent witchcraft fears in the Malawian society. At the same time SLSW tends to ‘demonize’ other cultures and thus hinders genuine contextualization. In the final analysis SLSW turns out not to be a commendable strategy for Christian Mission in Malawi. / Christian Spirituality Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)