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This thesis investigated the factors contributing to the tense relationship between the congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in Piketberg during 1903-1972. It investigated the reasons why two congregations of colour in a small town as Piketberg were established. The problem that was investigated was a social, historical and religious one of determining which factors contributed to such tension.

A survey of the life of Dr. Peter Ainslie, a prominent leader of the Disciples of Christ, and his gradual movement away from denominational Christianity and his increasing prominence in the ecumenical movement and ultimately,his position of advocating for nondenominational Christianity.

This thesis is specially concerned with the section of the Church now called Mar Thoma Syrian Church; it has therefore to leave out of consideration the various groups which live apart from that section, once the occasions of separation have been noticed. Thus we shall see that the Syrian Church has a loose-knit unity until 1653; for the last fifty years that period under Roman Control. Then about half of the Christians became Jacobite in allegiance. The work of the Christian Missionary Society, missionaries in the nineteenth century, led the coversion of a few families to the Anglican faith and the formation of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church. We shall see more about this Church later on in this thesis.

This attempt to collect material concerning the history of the organisation of the Negro church in Indianapolis, and to present it in thesis form, has as its primary purpose the preserving of such information as exists of this nature, assembling it in usable form, and the encouraging of further efforts at keeping church records completely and accurately in the future.

本文通过比较的视角来探索中共政权对中国天主教会包括官方与地下教会的特殊控制及其原因。自中共建国后，对比与其同宗同源，同为近代外来宗教的基督新教，中国天主教会长期以来受到中共严厉的控制。同时，近三十年来，基督新教在中国发展迅猛，成为当代中国发展最快的宗教，而在晚清和国民党政权下，基督新教在中国的发展一直远远落后于天主教。本文试图对这两个特殊现象进行研究。 / 对于中共的严厉控制，学界的普遍观点是将其归结为天主教会强大的外国背景和与梵蒂冈的关系； 而近三十年来基督新教在华迅猛发展的原因被认为是它改良的教义和积极的传教模式。然而，基督新教同样具有强大的外国背景，它改良的教义和传教模式自晚清起在中国并没有本质改变，为何只在中共政权下得到迅速发展？本文试图通过对比天主教与基督新教在教义与组织结构、在华传播模式与发展速度、在华对政治的参与等方面的差异，以及天主教会在中国与中共政权在意识形态与组织结构上的异同，来探索中共对天主教会的特殊对待是否存在更深层次的原因，并探讨两者之间是否存在不可调和的矛盾。 / 笔者认为，作为一个意识形态与组织高度合一的政权，中共害怕任何有严密统一全国性组织的宗教，不管它是否有外国背景。而作为有全国性统一严密组织的宗教组织，天主教会在中国之所以没有像"一贯道"和"法轮功"一样被中共消灭掉，是因为其与梵蒂冈的关系。作为"国际性合法宗教"，天主教得以在中国生存。与基督新教相比，天主教会在中国，作为一种保守的，不倾向于革命或改良的宗教组织，在主观上从未试图挑战政权，但是其政教合一的严密组织以及建立在儒家伦理和宗族（家族）基础上的稳定的网络结构，在客观上构成对中共政权的有力竞争与潜在威胁，因此受到中共严密控制。中共利用"自选自圣"的策略，保持天主教会在中国的分裂， 从而达到"分而治之"的目的。同时，中共保持天主教地下教会在中国有限度的存在，以维持其对中国天主教会的有效控制。 / My research focuses on church-state relations in contemporary China, to explore whether or not the Catholic Church in China constitutes a threat to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. I am undertaking a comparative study of the CCP’s religious control over the Catholic and Protestant churches in mainland China through the approach of state-society relations, as well as a macroscopic view of political science with quantitative and qualitative analysis. / As they are both foreign-originated parts of Christianity, the Catholic Church has been subjected to much stricter controls from the mainland CCP since 1949 than the Protestant Churches. Furthermore, the Protestant churches have been the fastest growing religion in China in past three decades, but it had once grown relatively very slowly under late Qing and the KMT regimes, compared with the Catholicism. This research tries to explore these two strange phenomena, to study why the CCP has been so highly attentive towards the Catholic Church but has not eliminated it in mainland China. / Through expounding the differences between the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches in religious doctrines, organizational structures, propagation models, as well as development rates in China, which have been ignored by most scholars in the field, I try to interpret why the CCP has taken much tougher religious control over the Catholic Church, compared with the Protestant ones. Furthermore, I also make comparison between the Catholic Church and the CCP both of those are hierarchical organizations with highly unified ideologies, as well as different kinds of Universalism and Particularism. / In my view, the Catholic Church in China is different from Protestant churches, in that it has the tradition of "The Directives of Matteo Ricci," which expounded Christian doctrines in a Confucian way. It also comports with the traditional dependence on patriarchal clans (kinship) and obedience to secular authority found in Chinese society. It is not a social group that inclines to reform or revolution, but rather a conservative, exclusive, and highly stable one. Therefore, it has never intended to threaten or challenge the CCP’s authority. The opposition of the Catholic Church in China has been "misperceived" by the CCP. / As a regime highly unified in ideology and organization, the CCP’s state has been highly attentive toward any religion that has a nationwide, structured organization in China, whether it is of foreign or native provenance. Contrary to the common view in the field, it is argued that the Catholic Church could survive in China after 1949 -- in contrast to the "I-Kuan Tao" (Yi Guan Dao; eliminated in 1950’s), and "Falun Gong" (eliminated in recent years), because of its powerful world-wide network, its linkage with the Vatican. The CCP wants to maintain the disruption between the official and underground Catholic Churches in the Chinese mainland, to divide the Catholic Church and rule it in China. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 郝瑩. / Thesis submitted: October 2013. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-236). / Abstracts also in English. / Hao Ying.

Chung Yi Cheung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-121). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Why This Topic? --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Scope of This Thesis --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- The Structure of this Thesis --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Christianity and Nihilism --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Death of God and Nihilism --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Nihilism and the Project of Revaluation --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Project of Revaluation and the Method of Genealogy --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Fulfillment of Revaluation --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Method of Revaluation --- p.3 3 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Genealogy of Christianity --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Morality of Good and Evil --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Interpretation of Human Nature --- p.53 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Ascetic Ideal --- p.58 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Nietzsche's Criticism of Christianity --- p.65 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Slave and the Overman --- p.65 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Nihilistic Effects of Christianity --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Evaluation of Nietzsche's Understanding and Criticism of Christianity --- p.85 / Chapter 6.1 --- Nietzsche's Understanding of Christianity --- p.85 / Chapter 6.2 --- Nietzsche's Criticism of Christianity --- p.98 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.105 / Chapter 7.1 --- Dionysus versus the Crucified --- p.105 / Chapter 7.2 --- What Christian and Non-Christian Can Learn from Nietzsche --- p.109 / Chapter 7.3 --- Limitations of this Thesis --- p.112 / Bibliography --- p.114

This dissertation investigates the development of progressive Christianity. It explores the ways in which progressive Christian churches in Canada adopt biblical criticism and popular theology. Contributing to the anthropology of Christianity, this study is primarily an ethnographic and linguistic analysis that juxtaposes contemporary conflicts over notions of the Christian self into the intersecting contexts of public discourse, contending notions of the secular and congregational dynamics. Methodologically, it is based upon two-and-a-half years of in-depth participant observation research at five churches and distinguishes itself as the first scholarly study of progressive Christianity in North America. I begin this study by outlining the historical context of skepticism in Canadian Protestantism and arguing that skepticism and doubt serve as profoundly religious experiences, which provide a fuller framework than secularization in understanding the experiences of Canadian Protestants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In doing so, I draw parallels between the ways that historical and contemporary North American Christians negotiate the tensions between their faith and biblical criticism, scientific empiricism and liberal morality. Chapter Two seeks to describe the religious, cultural and socio-economic worlds inhabited by the progressive Christians featured in this study. It focuses on the worldviews that emerge out of participation in what are primarily white, middle-class, liberal communities and considers how these identity-markers affect the development and lived experiences of progressive Christians. My next three chapters explore the ways that certain engagements with text and the performance or ritualization of language enable the development of a distinctly progressive Christian modality. Chapter Three investigates progressive Christian textual ideologies and argues that the form of biblical criticism that they employ, along with entrenched concerns about the origins of the Christian faith ultimately, leads to a rejection of the biblical narrative. Chapter Four examines the ways in which progressive Christians understand individual 'deconversion' narratives as contributing to a shared experience or way of being Christian that purposefully departs from evangelical Christianity. The final chapter analyses rhetoric of the future and argues that progressive Christians employ eschatological language that directs progressive Christians towards an ultimate dissolution.

This research proposes a Nigerian indigenous oikotheology to assist the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) better meet the challenges of the “double earth crisis” of poverty and environmental degradation. The thesis begins by arguing that the crisis of poverty and the crisis of ecology are inextricably linked. It does this by examining the situation globally, in Africa and in Nigeria. It argues that for the church to be able to articulate the needed theological paradigm in response to the “double earth crisis”, it is important that it is adequately informed and equipped with environmental knowledge as well as the dynamics of the global capitalist system and its hegemonic influences. This understanding is imperative because these affect the environment and poverty nexus. The thesis then examines the response of the Anglican Church to the environment and poverty by situating this within the wider biblical, Christian and ecumenical history, and the history of the Anglican Church itself. It then looks at the Anglican Church in Nigeria by investigating the engagement of the three Anglican Dioceses in Anambra State (Nigeria) in environment and poverty issues. It also investigates the understanding of the diocesan clergy on these issues. Findings from the research field work indicate that a majority of the clergy exhibited an appreciable level of environmental awareness contrary to the hypothesis of the study. However, this knowledge is a “paper knowledge” because of its heavy reliance on the ‘traditional’ view of understanding of the environment. Thus it creates a huge gap between theoretical knowledge and practical commitment on the part of the dioceses. Collective will and practical commitment which are vital for the church’s engagement in poverty and environment issues are therefore lacking, and this leads to the church’s difficulty in significantly living up to its environmental responsibility in practical ways. In responding to the identified gap, the thesis examines ‘four generations’ of ecological motifs in theology, namely, dominion, stewardship, eco-theology and oikotheology. Oikotheology is an attempt to strengthen the weaknesses in the Christian ecological thoughts (from dominion to ecotheology) and hence provide an eco-theological framework that will engender commitment and action. However, because of the challenges with which Oikotheology grapples (strong eschatological influences and inaccessibility to African culture), it could not achieve this aim in the Nigerian setting. In a continued search for an eco-theological framework that is more African, the study articulates the synthesis of Oikotheology and African indigenous ecological ethics (a fifth generation) as a theological framework which would uniquely appeal to African Christianity in its attempt to collaborate with other disciplines in addressing the challenges of the environment and poverty in Africa and the world. Key to this synthesis is an examination of Nigerian Igbo proverbs-the egbe belu precautionary principle and onye aghana nwa nne ya in particular, and the African cosmology in general. This synthesis, considered in our opinion as Africa’s gift to humanity and Christendom, will no doubt significantly contribute to the global discussion on the current double earth crisis of environment and poverty. The thesis concludes with a series of practical suggestions including among others the formation of a National Commission on the environment by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) as a way of fostering environmental education. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not Sallie McFague's body of God model is an adequate resource for a Christian ecological theology. The study endeavours to evaluate, test and revise this particular theological model. It is located on the abstract and hypothetical level and is thus a non-empirical analysis of McFague's thought. The researcher analysed the body of God model by using theological and philosophical resources. Current literature on ecological theology was studied in order to formulate thirteen criteria for an adequate Christian theology. These criteria were used throughout the study to test the theology that accompanies McFague's model. The study analysed three key areas of McFague's thought: cosmology, anthropology and theology. It was found the body of God model tends towards reductionism, because it does not appear to endorse a coherent complexity hierarchy. This reductionism was apparent in the three key areas of McFague's thought. However, it was found the body of God model functions as a transformative metaphor that takes into account the social reality that affects the health of planet earth. Its strength is a clear orientation towards ethics that takes Jesus' praxis as its departure point. The researcher provides suggestions on how the body of God model may overcome reductionism. After consideration of the three key areas of McFague's thought, the researcher concluded that the body of God model is an adequate resource for a Christian ecological theology. It is suggested that this theological model is applicable to the South African context in three areas: the socio-economic reality and its impact on the natural environment, the land ownership and the issue of racism. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2006]