Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1996. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-297).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1996. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-297).

Project (D. Min.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 72).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-172).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-172).

This dissertation explores the effects of postwar suburbanization on American Catholicism by studying the dioceses of metropolitan New York, especially the creation and expansion of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in suburban Long Island. Throughout the 1960s the Diocese of Rockville Centre was one of the fastest growing Catholic communities in the country and was hailed as the nation’s first suburban diocese and a model for the future of the U.S. Church. The project details how Catholic pastoral leaders grappled with the rapid exodus of the faithful from urban ethnic neighborhoods to newly built suburbs, and how Catholic sociologists and intellectuals assessed the effects of suburbanization. I argue that postwar suburbanization revolutionized the sacred space of the parish, the relationship between clergy and laity, and conceptions of Catholic education. In suburbia the communal life of the ethnic parish yielded to the nuclear family and the home, the dominance of the clergy gave way to lay leadership and initiative, and devotion to parochial schools declined in favor of participation in public education. Suburbanization was thus a crucial catalyst of religious reform even before the Second Vatican Council. Similarly, suburbanization transformed Catholic participation in American politics. The economics of suburbia drove Catholic voters to prioritize tax relief and local control of public schools over the bishops’ demands for state funding of private schools. Suburban Catholics thus contributed to the growth of postwar conservatism and to the development of the culture wars that reconfigured American politics through the 1960s and 70s.

This multidisciplinary, applied study investigated whether the township church can be repositioned or re-discovered as an asset, which could be used to form strong community structures in local communities and in turn be the foundation for community development and Local Economic Development (LED) for Tshwane (specifically Soshanguve and Hammanskraal (S&H)). The concept of oikos is of central importance in the understanding of the ecological dimension of mission in relation to LED and was used in this thesis defined as oikomissiology which has a Christological basis and broadens the scope of mission by reinterpreting missio Dei and various socio-theological themes in order to realise the vision of collective wellbeing or shalom). Oikomissiology provided a framework / worldview for analysis, description, reflection and planning for action which releases the world, economics, the church and conventional Christian theology / missiology from the traps of anthropocentrism. A narrative approach enabled the “uncovering” of the voices of grassroots communities, giving grassroots participants (i.e. local church ministry representatives) freedom to tell their stories and share their experiences as far as LED is concerned, such that major economic concepts were spoken of in these stories in laymen’s language. The narratives were supplemented by interviews with experienced practitioners and church leaders, which resulted in gaining richer perspectives on LED and on how township congregations that participated in this research are attempting to respond to current socioeconomic crises in Tshwane (S & H). A literature study and a study of the physical space were performed in dialogue with narratives and interview findings. The findings of this applied study established that the township church, in relation to other community organisations and structures, is an asset that could play a number of vital roles towards improving LED in Tshwane (S & H). / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology (Urban ministry))