This study examines the growth of conservative Protestantism, or evangelicalism, in British Columbia from 1917, the beginning of open conflict with theological liberalism, to 1981. The period witnessed the development of evangelical institutions from rudimentary beginnings before 1920 to the rise of a complex network by the 1970's. Numerically, conservative denominations in British Columbia countered a national trend and nearly doubled their proportion of the population from 1921 to 1981. Towards the end of the period, weekly attendance at conservative churches surpassed that in mainline Protestant denominations. This study has a two-fold purpose. The narrative seeks to recount significant features of the denominational, institutional and numerical development of evangelicalism in British Columbia. At the same time, the crucial factors in its development will be analyzed, particularly those which explain its growth. Explanations which focus exclusively on socio-economic factors or American influences are rejected. Both played significant roles but neither are able to fully explain the growth and other factors must be considered in addition to them. Four are identified as playing particularly significant roles: 1. a loyalty to values and emphases which appeared endangered by modernism; 2. patterns of immigration which added relatively large numbers of evangelicals who soon identified with the wider evangelicalism, 3. larger than average family sizes and high rates of retention of children within conservative churches and 4. institutional factors, particularly the strenuous efforts spent in establishing large numbers of new congregations throughout the province. Common to all four factors is the sense shared by conservative Protestants that they were separate from the "world." Unlike religious liberals who sought to preserve Christianity by accommodating to modernism, conservatives were alienated by modernism and sought to preserve traditional evangelicalism in the face of massive cultural change. In British Columbia, which was characterized by an unusual degree of transiency, materialism and secularism, the conservative approach proved more successful. Neither branch of Protestantism grew as rapidly as the "no religion" segment of the population but, while mainline Protestantism declined proportionately, evangelicals evidenced a certainty and simplicity of conviction and action that appealed to an increasing minority of the population. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation examined the relationship between personality, individual values, work values and conditions of performance. The objective of this study was to determine what motivational constructs predict a smaller differential between performance outcomes under typical conditions of performance versus maximum conditions of performance. This study examined four research questions. 1) Is there a relationship between personality traits and conditions of performance? 2) Is there a relationship between individual values and conditions of performance? 3) Is there a relationship between work values and conditions of performance? 4) Which of the overall relationships are more highly correlated? Sackett et al. (1988) characterized maximum performance as evidenced when three conditions are met: 1) there must be explicit awareness that one is being evaluated, 2) there must be awareness of and acceptance of implicit or explicit instructions to maximize effort, and 3) performance must be measured over a short enough duration that the performer's attention remains focused on achieving maximum performance. Conversely, typical performance would be characterized by situations in which individuals were not cognizant of any performance evaluation, were not attempting to perform to the best of their ability, and in which performance was monitored over an extended period of time (Sackett et al., 1988). In this study, FFM personality traits of were proposed to correlate with a differential in performance outcomes between the two conditions of performance. Similarly, individual values of conformity, stimulation, hedonism, benevolence and achievement were proposed to correlate with a similar differential in performance. A specific set of work Values drawn from the Protestant Work Ethic were also proposed to correlate with a performance differential. The results of this research suggested performance outcomes do significantly vary under each performance condition, but that the results are highly correlated (.620 with p-value < .05). Individuals who perform at a superior level under conditions of typical performance also perform at a higher level under conditions of maximum performance as well. The study did not find support for the expected relationships between personality traits, individual values or work values and outcomes between conditions of typical and maximum performance.

Frontier Internship in Mission (FIM) was an experimental mission project conceived of and run by Presbyterian Student World Relations director Margaret Flory between 1961 and 1974. It was broadly ecumenical in concept and execution and closely tied to the World Student Christian Federation community. Recent college or seminary graduates were assigned to live and work with local people who were connected in some way to the global ecumenical network and who had invited them. They worked on projects mutually agreed upon, usually for two years. One hundred fourteen of the 140 Americans who originally participated and eight of the original 20 international participants were interviewed for this study. Their narratives about their life histories and experience during and after these international partnerships offer an intimate look at one group of largely mainline Protestant Americans born in the 1930s and 1940s, and the social and religious institutions that were their avenues to engagement with the wider world at a time of cataclysmic change. Over the thirteen years of FIM program operation considered here, conditions in the forty-eight different countries where Frontier Interns (FIs) served were transformed by movements for independence and by escalating covert and overt American intrusions. The core of this dissertation presents regionally-organized internship case studies highlighting the impact of those encounters on the FI’s Christian and American identities . It also analyzes the rejection of their witness when they returned home. Moving forward with their lives, Frontier Interns reaffirmed their commitment to “right relations” of mutual respect across difference and most often gravitated to social roles as bridge-builders and interpreters, domestically and internationally. The strong internal opposition to global ecumenism that had developed in some mainline Protestant churches changed the relationship of many FIs to those churches. It is argued here that the Frontier Interns’ experience highlights a societal shift from a moral order based on covenant or social contract to one that privileged the unrestrained exercise of power and interests. A covenantal commitment to mutual global partnerships is central to who the FIs are, their internships, and what they did with their lives subsequently.

<p>This thesis highlights four dualities of the black Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal tradition that psychologically and theologically complicate the process millennials must navigate when they leave the denomination for non-Apostolic, multicultural or majority-white churches. A product of the United States Pentecostal movement that was sparked by the influential 1906 Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, the Oneness Pentecostal movement is distinguished by doctrinal tenets such as its non-Trinitarian view of the Godhead, emphasis on the importance of water baptism in Jesus’ name, and belief in Spirit baptism with the evidence of speaking in tongues as prerequisite to salvation for all believers. For millennials who were raised in the black Apostolic church but have left the denomination and gravitate to multicultural and/or white-majority, non-Apostolic churches, four key dualities render the process complex: 1. While the black Apostolic church’s distinct, restorationist view of Christian history imbues its adherents with a sense of dignity due to its exclusivist doctrine, black Apostolic history in the United States is also steeped in racial division. 2. The denomination’s emphasis on physical manifestations of the Spirit, especially speaking in tongues, may feel imbalanced, but it also provides adherents with a tangible understanding of the Spirit often lacking in white or multiracial non-Apostolic spaces. 3. While the black Apostolic tradition is not heavily interested in contributions from systematic theological history, the tradition enables a useful, critical perspective on theological orthodoxy as understood in the white, Western tradition. And 4. Despite aspects of the black church that millennials raised in it may find to be “toxic,” the black church holds distinctive, culturally and existentially-affirming value for once-Apostolic black millennials who are drawn to multicultural or majority-white church spaces. Through a mixed methods approach of autoethnography, history, and textual analysis, this project highlights the ways in which ties between Pentecostal spirituality and blackness imbue once-Apostolic black millennials with a rich cultural-spirituality that continues to inform their experience even as they move into white-dominant Christian spaces.</p>

Magister Artium - MA / This study is situated in the field of Practical Theology with specific reference to empirical studies on the God-images that lay people operate with in their daily lives. It is often observed in the discourse on theology and development that the images people hold of God reflect a sense of power or powerlessness but may also influence the way lay people respond to their social environment. This applies irrespective of religious or denominational affiliation, age group, gender, occupation or socio-economic standing. In particular, this study focusses on two congregations, namely St Dominic’s Anglican Church and the Pentecostal Protestant Church, both located in Hanover Park. These are selected because they represent diverging theological traditions that may or may not shape people’s God-images. The assumption is that whether people see God as law-giver and law-enforcer, a strict judge, an advisor, an advocate, a close friend, a problem-solver or dispenser of goods and services, that this would make a significant difference to how people view themselves in relation to their world. Whilst this interest in understanding the types of God-images and the influence these God-images might have on particular groupings of people is not new, the interest in God-images is new within the field of practical theology (Counted 2015; Hoffman 2005; Lawrence 1997). The God Image Scale that was developed by Richard T. Lawrence (1997), is used in this study. Lawrence (1997:214) a Roman Catholic priest, who served as a pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Baltimore Maryland, developed two instruments namely the God-Image Inventory (GII) and the God Image Scales (GIS). Whilst the GII is used within clinical and pastoral counselling, the GIS has been more widely used in empirical studies in the field of religious psychology and, especially in North America, on the ways in which images of God function amongst specific groups of people. These instruments have not been widely used in the African or the South African contexts although Africa is widely regarded as “notoriously religious”. Such findings on God-images may be significant for Christian education in violence-ridden communities, not only in Hanover Park. The significance of this study on God-images within a specific community context is tied to the complexities of attempting to measure the quality of an individual’s God- image across different denominations, religious beliefs, religious practices and religious educational frameworks. Of equal importance is the need to distinguish between the influence that different doctrinal teachings and religious practices have on the formation of God-images and God-concepts. Whilst people who are social beings learn from their contexts, are influenced by their experiences and make choices based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, the corpus of God-image literature recognises the pivotal role and influence that one’s God-image have on religious knowledge, attitudes and behaviours within any given context.

In the United States, faith-based and other small credit unions are vanishing at the rate of nearly a credit union each workday. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to provide managers of faith-based credit unions with information about differences in financial performance and risk tolerance between faith-based and non-faith-based credit unions in order to improve their investment strategy and long-term sustainability. The study included a comparison of ratios measuring the financial performance and risk tolerance of randomly selected faith-based credit unions in the United States with the corresponding ratios of non-faith-based credit unions of similar size and location from 2003 to 2012. The data were collected from the National Credit Union Association, the U.S. government regulator of federally insured credit unions. The data analysis involved t tests and one-way ANOVAs to determine the differences in mean ratios of financial performance and risk tolerance between faith-based and non-faith-based credit unions. The findings demonstrated mixed support for the theoretical framework based on the Protestant ethic theory, which holds that certain traits associated with religion (e.g., thrift and debt avoidance) might influence financial performance and risk tolerance. The findings revealed significant differences between faith-based and non-faith-based credit unions in capital adequacy, liquidity risk, and credit risk, but not in profitability and interest rate risk. The implications for social change include the potential to strengthen the risk management and investment strategies for faith-based credit unions, thereby helping to ensure the continuation of vital financial services valued by members and their communities.

Si les livres d’emblèmes ont servi de sujet à de nombreuses études littéraires, leur marché n’a pas fait l’objet d’une analyse historique systématique. Pour y parvenir, cette recherche se base sur deux sources. Un corpus a été réalisé à partir des catalogues des principales bibliothèques permettant de suivre année par année, sur deux siècles et au niveau européen, l’évolution de la production des livres d’emblèmes. Rapidement cette étude a fait ressortir que le principal éditeur de ces ouvrages n’est autre que Christophe Plantin dont la politique commerciale dans ce domaine sera reprise par ses héritiers aussi bien à Anvers qu’à Leyde. La richesse des sources conservées au Musée Plantin-Moretus permet non seulement de connaître tous les frais de fabrication de nombreux livres d’emblèmes mais surtout d’en suivre les ventes au niveau national et international grâce aux foires de Francfort.La recherche a déjà souligné que la vogue des livres d’emblèmes suit de près la progression des idées de Luther en Europe. Les premiers dépouillements et analyses statistiques ont permis de confirmer que si les livres d’emblèmes sont, à l’origine, majoritairement silencieux sur les préférences confessionnelles de leurs auteurs, ils éveillent l’intérêt d’imprimeurs, d’éditeurs et d’auteurs imprégnés d’une culture favorable aux différents courants réformés. Ce facteur est souvent masqué par la prolifération tardive des livres d’emblèmes jésuites et dominicains répondant aux principes tridentins. A ce sujet, les deux sources utilisées ici permettent d’éclairer significativement la ventes des livres d’emblèmes au XVIe et XVIIe siècle. / While emblem books have been the subject of many literary studies, their trade has not been the subject of a systematic historical analysis. To achieve this, this research is based on two sources. A corpus was produced from the catalogs of the main libraries and provides data for tracking the evolution of the production of emblem books to be followed year by year, over two centuries on an European level. Quickly this study revealed that the main editor of these works is none other than Christophe Plantin, whose commercial policy in this field will be taken up by his heirs in Antwerp as well as in Leyden. The richness of the sources kept in the Plantin-Moretus Museum not only allows us to know all the costs of making many emblem books, but also to monitor their sales at national and international level through the Frankfurt trade fairs.Research has already emphasized that the vogue of emblem books is almost simultaneous with the progression of Luther's ideas in Europe. The first researches and statistical analyzes confirmed that if the emblem books were originally largely silent on the confessional preferences of their authors, they have awoken interest of printers, publishers and authors impregnated with a culture favorable to the various reformed currents. This factor is often masked by the late proliferation of books of Jesuit and Dominican emblems responding to the Tridentine precepts. In this regard, the two sources used here helped to enlight on the sales of emblem books in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of McMaster Divinity College in partial fulfilment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor of Practical Theology / Board members and pastors in Canadian Protestant churches need a stronger theological foundation for the practice of evaluating what “success” means for the local church. The Canadian church exists in a post-Christendom context where significant shifts have taken place relative to its perceived value and prominence in Canadian culture, which has sparked new interest in examining ministry fruitfulness. Within this context, the skill of conducting a theologically sound organizational evaluation will become a critical practice. This practical theology project follows the methodology of Richard Osmer, giving prominence to practice-led research as an over-arching paradigm. Empirical research, biblical interpretation, and theological reflection are key features ofthis project, which the researcher approached from the perspective of a consultant to church board leaders. Primary research was conducted among pastors and board members of Canadian Protestant churches to provide a research-informed understanding of evaluation criteria, processes, and tools currently used; theological principles, biblical passages, and spiritual practices that guide the evaluation process; and barriers or obstacles experienced. The messages to the seven churches in Rev 2-3 were used as an evaluation paradigm, which was tested, refined, and validated in research with five case study churches. Within these messages, Christ set out criteria for evaluation as well as an evaluation process methodology. Christ exhorted the seven churches to maintain a faithful witness, practice love, and produce fruitful service. Christ also warned them about the dangers of assimilating with culture as well as the importance of being attentive and diligent about false teachers and influencers within their churches. The evaluation methodology modelled in the literary form ofthe messages provides a Christcentric pathway for ministry evaluation. Christ’s evaluation methodology includes an acknowledgement ofChrist’s sovereignty, a context specific evaluation, an authoritative and aligned evaluation, a balanced approach of commendation and exhortation, a call to action, the practice of discernment, and a focus on the long-term mission of God. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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