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Bibliography: pages 191-212. / This is a study of the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS), an organisation that sought to bring together Catholic students on South African university campuses, examining specifically NCFS' political ideas and activities from 1960 to 1987. The underlying supposition of this thesis is that church history ought to be an integral part of the discipline of history, and that there is a need to write church history from "below" from the perspectives of the "people's church", the church that comprises the religious experience of the majority of its members rather than its hierarchy.

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Missionary work is one of the most important tasks undertaken by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Spreading the gospel is at the heart of the Savior's message to his apostles shortly before his ascension into heaven, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," (Matt. 28:19). Full time missionaries of the Church are charged with teaching Christ's message. The questions of what to teach and how to teach it have led to four sets of formal missionary discussions published by the Church beginning in 1952 and continuing on to 1961, 1973 and 1986. This thesis will document the timeline of decisions that lead to the creation of the missionary manual Preach My Gospel introduced in 2004 which contains the fifth set of missionary lessons published by the Church.

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This thesis explores the role of metropolitan religious values and discourses in influencing British officials' discourse on Sunni and Shi'i Islam in early mandate Iraq. It also explores the role that this discourse played in informing the policy decisions of British officials. I argue that British officials thought about and described Sunni and Shi'i Islam through a lens of religious values and experiences that led British officials to describe Shi'i Islam as prone to theocracy and religious and intellectual intolerance, traits that British officials saw as detrimental to their efforts to create a modern state in Iraq. These descriptions ultimately led British officials to take active steps to remove Shi'i religions leaders from the civic discourse of Iraq and to support an indigenous government where Sunnis were given most government positions in spite of making up a minority of the overall population of Iraq. This study draws on documents created by British officials serving in Iraq from 1919-1922, including official reports and correspondence, published government reports, personal correspondence and memoirs. It also draws on biographies of British officials, the secondary literature on religion and civil society in Great Britain, and the secondary literature on Shi'i Islam in Iraq. I engage in the historiography surrounding European Imperial perceptions of Islam and argue that historians should pay greater attention to the role that metropolitan religious experiences and values played in informing the way that imperial officials differentiated between different groups within Islam. I also engage in the historiography of British policy in mandate Iraq, offering a deeper view of how British discourse on Shi'i Islam developed and how this discourse influenced the policy decisions of British official. / Master of Arts / This thesis explores British officials’ perceptions of Shi‘i Islam in early mandate Iraq from 1919- 1923. It argues that British officials applied their personal ideas about the proper relationship between church and state, influenced by debates in Great Britain, to their duties in Iraq. As a result, British officials made comparisons between Sunni and Shi’i Islam which led them to perceive Sunni Islam and Sunni Iraqis as more compatible with the British vision of a modern Iraqi state and society. These perceptions in turn led British officials to actively combat the political efforts of Shi‘i religious leaders and to create and support a national government made up of minority Sunnis. This study helps us understand how British officials differentiated between different strands of Islam. It also contributes to our understanding of how British officials in early mandate Iraq came to enact policies that would have a long-lasting influence on the future of statecraft and politics in Iraq. This study draws on documents created by British officials serving in Iraq from 1919-1922, including official reports and correspondence, published government reports, personal correspondence and memoirs. It also draws on biographies of British officials, previous research on religion and civil society in Great Britain, and previous research on Shi‘i Islam in Iraq.

Transhumanism is an emerging philosophical and social movement that aims, through technology, to extend human life and radically expand intellectual, physical, and psychological capabilities. Many of transhumanism's goals overlap the eschatological hopes of Christians, such as the elimination of sickness and death. Yet observers who see transhumanism and Christianity in monolithic terms often portray them as adversaries. Against this view, I argue that within each community are factions that have comparable, but contested, views on God, the divine attributes, and human origins, responsibility, and destiny. As a result, an emerging dialog between particular transhumanists and Christians seeks to shape the future of humanity by integrating the basic commitments of transhumanism and Christianity. Bruno Latour's concept of modes of existence offers a framework for both developing and analyzing diplomacy between and within Christian and transhumanist communities. Specifically, Latour's work allows for the identification of category mistakes that set the terms of intermodal conflicts and dialog. Some transhumanists and most Christians hold beliefs about the nature and meaning of God. Christians believe in a Trinitarian God that is the preexistent, eternal, and personal creator of the universe. By contrast, elements of the transhumanist movement believe that in the future an artificial God will inevitably emerge as an omniscient and omnipotent supercomputer. The attributes, concepts and purposes of God and, by extension, nature lend a basis for developing diplomatic relationships between factions of transhumanism and Christianity. Diplomacy between transhumanism and Christianity exists via social media and virtual meeting places. At the forefront of this movement is a new Christian Transhumanist Association that I analyze in some depth. It is only a couple of years old, but its leaders have already attracted international attention. Their strategy of theological minimalism seeks to reduce friction among stakeholders. I show that this strategy sacrifices the insights that Christian theology and philosophy could bring to the development of transhumanism. I conclude that in order to affect transhumanism Christians must find ways to apply their insights into personal creator-creature relationships to the challenges of safely developing artificial superintelligence. / Ph. D. / Progress in science and technology raises the possibility that essential elements of human life could be transformed and enhanced by applications of science and technology. <i>Transhumanism</i> is a philosophical and social movement that believes that such transformations are both possible and desirable. In several respects, transhumanism’s goals overlap with the hopes of Christians, who long for a Second Coming of Christ and the subsequent elimination of sin, suffering, and death for all eternity. Based on Bruno Latour’s work, I analyze the superficial similarities between transhumanism and Christianity to argue that diplomacy between Christians and transhumanists is both possible and potentially beneficial. In developing this argument, I examine a new <i>Christian Transhumanist Association</i>, its leaders, and their diplomatic strategy of “theological minimalism.” I argue that this strategy is flawed because it does not apply the rich insights of orthodox, biblical theology to the most vexing problem of transhumanism development: the threat that an artificial superintelligence could be hostile to human life.