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Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-114).

The ex-gay movement in the United States has, for the last three decades, argued that there can be "freedom from homosexuality." Available movement narratives shape how individuals struggling with homosexual desires understand their past, present and future. To gain insight into the identity work of people involved in the movement, those who have left and those who exist on the margins, I engaged in collected 31 semi-structured interviews, engaged in participant observation of an ex-gay conference and conducted a narrative analysis of movement narratives. In three journal article style manuscripts, I discuss my findings concerning the narrative identity work of each group.

This study seeks to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy in the West Zimbabwe Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1998 to 2008. The research was undertaken due to the realisation that apostasy has reached a point of concern to both members and local church leadership. The researcher also noted with concern that not much if any has been done on the causes and implications of apostasy since the introduction of the Church in Zimbabwe over one hundred years ago and the organisation of the West Zimbabwe Conference about forty years ago. The research was motivated by these concerns coupled with the increasing number of apostasy which continuously reflect negatively on the church and may subsequently limit the church’s ability to evangelize the communities. The aim of the study therefore is to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy and make recommendations that will assist both church members and the church leadership in formulating policies and programs geared towards minimizing apostasy in the church. The study combines both the quantitative and the qualitative research designs. The population for the study consisted of the one hundred and seventy one (171) churches with a total church membership of one hundred and fifty three thousand, seven hundred and two (153,702). A sample percentage of ten was adopted for the selection of churches while the proportional stratified sampling technique was used. The instruments used for the study were both face and content validated and a pilot study carried out to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The data collected from the study was analysed using descriptive statistics and a descriptive interpretive method. Findings from the study confirm that there is apostasy within the WZC of the Seventhday Adventist Church. Accordingly, the data analysis revealed that the causes of apostasy in order of magnitude are external, internal and doctrinal respectively. The study also revealed that youths, females and urban church members are highly susceptible to apostasy than their adult, male and rural counterparts respectively. Apostasy had a considerable effect on church membership as well as the receiving of tithes and offerings. Recommendations were made based on the findings of the research. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

This study seeks to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy in the West Zimbabwe Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1998 to 2008. The research was undertaken due to the realisation that apostasy has reached a point of concern to both members and local church leadership. The researcher also noted with concern that not much if any has been done on the causes and implications of apostasy since the introduction of the Church in Zimbabwe over one hundred years ago and the organisation of the West Zimbabwe Conference about forty years ago. The research was motivated by these concerns coupled with the increasing number of apostasy which continuously reflect negatively on the church and may subsequently limit the church’s ability to evangelize the communities. The aim of the study therefore is to investigate the causes and implications of apostasy and make recommendations that will assist both church members and the church leadership in formulating policies and programs geared towards minimizing apostasy in the church. The study combines both the quantitative and the qualitative research designs. The population for the study consisted of the one hundred and seventy one (171) churches with a total church membership of one hundred and fifty three thousand, seven hundred and two (153,702). A sample percentage of ten was adopted for the selection of churches while the proportional stratified sampling technique was used. The instruments used for the study were both face and content validated and a pilot study carried out to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The data collected from the study was analysed using descriptive statistics and a descriptive interpretive method. Findings from the study confirm that there is apostasy within the WZC of the Seventhday Adventist Church. Accordingly, the data analysis revealed that the causes of apostasy in order of magnitude are external, internal and doctrinal respectively. The study also revealed that youths, females and urban church members are highly susceptible to apostasy than their adult, male and rural counterparts respectively. Apostasy had a considerable effect on church membership as well as the receiving of tithes and offerings. Recommendations were made based on the findings of the research. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

This thesis presents a broad exploratory analysis of apostasy from religious fundamentalism in light of cognitive developmental theory. Reciprocally, the thesis provides a critique of cognitive developmental theory in light of its application to apostasy from fundamentalism. Autobiographical narratives of approximately 200 apostates from Christian and Muslim fundamentalisms are used to represent the experience of apostasy. Three related and representative cognitive developmental theories are used to inform the analysis of these apostate narratives. These theories include James Fowler’s Stages of Faith (FDT) (1981); Fritz Oser and Paul Gmünder’s Stages of Religious Judgment (RJT) (1991); and Helmut Reich’s Levels of Relational and Contextual Reasoning (RCR) (2002). These three representative theories are used to generate cognitive developmental hypotheses for the experiences of apostates from fundamentalisms. There are three primary hypotheses guiding the research: (i) Fundamentalist contents predispose a particular form of cognitive operations. (ii) Fundamentalist contents suspend equilibration between accommodation and assimilation. And (iii), some forms of apostasy from fundamentalism are the product of a sociocognitive conflict. These hypotheses are addressed through four research questions: (i) How do fundamentalist cultures sponsor or arrest cognitive development? (ii) What are the developmental characteristics of apostates’ experiences? (iii) What are the implications of cognitive development for apostasy and fundamentalism? And (iv), what are the implications of apostasy from fundamentalism for theories of cognitive development? The thesis utilises a paradigm of critical realism and a theory of interactionism. Critical realism assumes the existence of an objective reality, while acknowledging its exclusively subjective mediation. The interactionist approach acknowledges the potential influences of genetic predisposition, social-environmental context, and individual agency affecting cognitive development and apostasy from fundamentalism. A dual methodological approach is used to collect and analyse data relevant to the hypothesis. Data collection involves two phases: (i) Collection of existing unstructured apostate narratives. And (ii), collection of semi-structured apostate responses. The first phase narratives are collected using online databases, published anthologies, and solicited scripts. The second phase responses are collected using a semi-structured survey. The dual methodological analysis combines coded content analysis and narrative analysis. Coding is informed by the three developmental theories. The qualitative thesis findings may be summarised in two parts. The first pertains to apostasy from fundamentalism; the second pertains to cognitive developmental theory. Of the former, the research found: (i) Cognitive development represents a significant and even primary influence in some forms of apostasy from fundamentalism. And (ii), some forms of fundamentalism sponsor stage specific structures. Reflecting on cognitive theories of religious development, the research found: (i) Sociocultural, affective, and noncognitive physical influences may directly and indirectly facilitate or inhibit cognitive development. (ii) Specific stages and structures of cognitive development may be culturally embedded. (iii) Cognitive development may be compartmentalised. (iv) Cognitive development may regress or fracture when faced with transitional crises and environmental changes. (v) There are diverse trajectories of religious development. And (vi), fractured development at one stage may perpetuate fractured development in the next stage. Finally, the thesis discusses implications of these findings for contemporary dialogue on religious development. These collective findings provide support for a religious styles model (i.e. Streib’s Religious Styles Perspective, 2001) that integrates a cognitive stream based on Fowler’s faith development into a more multiperspective understanding of religious development. Such a model would account more adequately for the diverse influences interacting to produce different trajectories of religious development.

This thesis presents a broad exploratory analysis of apostasy from religious fundamentalism in light of cognitive developmental theory. Reciprocally, the thesis provides a critique of cognitive developmental theory in light of its application to apostasy from fundamentalism. Autobiographical narratives of approximately 200 apostates from Christian and Muslim fundamentalisms are used to represent the experience of apostasy. Three related and representative cognitive developmental theories are used to inform the analysis of these apostate narratives. These theories include James Fowler’s Stages of Faith (FDT) (1981); Fritz Oser and Paul Gmünder’s Stages of Religious Judgment (RJT) (1991); and Helmut Reich’s Levels of Relational and Contextual Reasoning (RCR) (2002). These three representative theories are used to generate cognitive developmental hypotheses for the experiences of apostates from fundamentalisms. There are three primary hypotheses guiding the research: (i) Fundamentalist contents predispose a particular form of cognitive operations. (ii) Fundamentalist contents suspend equilibration between accommodation and assimilation. And (iii), some forms of apostasy from fundamentalism are the product of a sociocognitive conflict. These hypotheses are addressed through four research questions: (i) How do fundamentalist cultures sponsor or arrest cognitive development? (ii) What are the developmental characteristics of apostates’ experiences? (iii) What are the implications of cognitive development for apostasy and fundamentalism? And (iv), what are the implications of apostasy from fundamentalism for theories of cognitive development? The thesis utilises a paradigm of critical realism and a theory of interactionism. Critical realism assumes the existence of an objective reality, while acknowledging its exclusively subjective mediation. The interactionist approach acknowledges the potential influences of genetic predisposition, social-environmental context, and individual agency affecting cognitive development and apostasy from fundamentalism. A dual methodological approach is used to collect and analyse data relevant to the hypothesis. Data collection involves two phases: (i) Collection of existing unstructured apostate narratives. And (ii), collection of semi-structured apostate responses. The first phase narratives are collected using online databases, published anthologies, and solicited scripts. The second phase responses are collected using a semi-structured survey. The dual methodological analysis combines coded content analysis and narrative analysis. Coding is informed by the three developmental theories. The qualitative thesis findings may be summarised in two parts. The first pertains to apostasy from fundamentalism; the second pertains to cognitive developmental theory. Of the former, the research found: (i) Cognitive development represents a significant and even primary influence in some forms of apostasy from fundamentalism. And (ii), some forms of fundamentalism sponsor stage specific structures. Reflecting on cognitive theories of religious development, the research found: (i) Sociocultural, affective, and noncognitive physical influences may directly and indirectly facilitate or inhibit cognitive development. (ii) Specific stages and structures of cognitive development may be culturally embedded. (iii) Cognitive development may be compartmentalised. (iv) Cognitive development may regress or fracture when faced with transitional crises and environmental changes. (v) There are diverse trajectories of religious development. And (vi), fractured development at one stage may perpetuate fractured development in the next stage. Finally, the thesis discusses implications of these findings for contemporary dialogue on religious development. These collective findings provide support for a religious styles model (i.e. Streib’s Religious Styles Perspective, 2001) that integrates a cognitive stream based on Fowler’s faith development into a more multiperspective understanding of religious development. Such a model would account more adequately for the diverse influences interacting to produce different trajectories of religious development.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1986. / Includes index. This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #036-0015. Bibliography: leaves 143-152.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--North Carolina State University, 2006. / Title taken from PDF title screen (viewed September 10, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-158).

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