This thesis considers how religious identities were constructed and expressed in Reformation England by focussing on two London livery companies: the Grocers and the Drapers. Livery companies had strong religious elements to their corporate identity; they had their origins in parish fraternities, maintained clergy and celebrated the feast of their patron saint. Whilst merchants have long been characterised as zealous early Protestants, existing research has simultaneously contended that the companies to which they belonged, and civic institutions more generally, adapted to the Reformation by secularizing their activities and ethos in order to retain stability – a notion that this thesis rejects. An examination of company records reveals that the rhetoric of Christianity, particularly appeals to peace, charity and brotherly love, punctuated the language of corporate governance throughout the century, and played a central role in the ability of the liveries to retain both a vibrant spiritual culture and fraternal stability. London's merchant elite were also London's civic governors and in their capacity as churchwardens and hospital officers we see that here too the language of peace and charity aced as a unifying and moderating force. Individual mercantile religious identities are also considered. By examining nearly 400 wills, a cache of almost 1000 letters and other trading records, it is clear that merchants can no longer be characterised as being unusually susceptible to Protestantism, and that their responses to the Reformation were more diverse than has been recognised. Until at least the late sixteenth century, the religious identities of London's citizens represent growing religious plurality rather than stark confessional polarisation. Moreover, ties of company membership, friendship and kinship had the power to transcend religious difference. Nor were 'zealous' and 'moderate' mutually exclusive traits. Those with a strong faith could moderate their behaviour in certain contexts, and such restraint could be as pious as it was pragmatic.

A paradigm of transcendence pervades Buell's novels, imaginatively conceived from within a Catholic consciousness of God's grace in effecting redemption. Safeguarding the Real Presence from invidious sacrilege, Elizabeth Lucy in The Pyx achieves heroic sanctity, losing her life to gain glory as a martyr to her faith . The Eucharist also has centrality in the lives of Stan Hagen and Martin Lacey in A Lot To Make Up For as they share in the sacrificial oblation at mass. In Four Days, sacred love suffuses profane love, the sanctity of human love being yet another manifestation of God's presence in the world, only to be tragically subverted by deception and self-interest. Buell's Catholic consciousness is also noticeably present in his thematic development of redemptive suffering. In Playground, the narrative reveals that suffering is itself the path to healing. The novel details Spence Morisons's suffering toward what he trusts will be his deliverance, his redemption taking the form of his conversion to a new self-realization about the nature of his humanity. In The Shrewsdale Exit, on the other hand, the need for conversion becomes apparent when Joe Hagen surrenders to a desire for murderous vengeance. A resolution is effected when Joe forsakes revenge, finding deliverance in the assurance that justice will prevail.

No description available.

No description available.

Because of the neglect and dichotomization in evangelical theology, this dissertation provides an evangelical ressourcement for the external and internal reality of revelation. By using resources from Scripture, the history of the church, and systematic theology, it argues that revelation includes external and internal dimensions that are organically united in the triune God. This construal is clear within the Bible and church history, and its biblical and historical presence carries implications towards the construction of a systematic theology of revelation and a practical understanding within the church. The dissertation argues that revelation is external and internal, whether a revelation occurs objectively to the human person in the form of a disclosure of information (external) or subjectively to the human person in the form of an unveiling of perception (internal). The argument is developed by utilizing a biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology of revelation. Accordingly, after a brief introduction to the contemporary scene in chapter 1, this dissertation addresses biblical theology in chapters 2 (Old Testament) and 3 (New Testament), historical theology in chapter 4, systematic theology in chapter 5, and practical theology in chapter 6.

In the last decade, the theory of shared leadership has received considerable attention. This theory shifts the primary focal point of leadership discussions from vertical to lateral forms of influence. Moreover, it has been recognized that the shared leadership environment requires a unique understanding of identity. Working in teams that allow for lateral forms of influence requires that members have both a bounded and open understanding of identity. This research examines the association between trinitarian thinking and the understanding of personal identity in the context of positions of lateral influence. In particular the doctrines of the image of God, union with Christ, and covenant are examined from a trinitarian perspective. Because the doctrine of Trinity emphasizes that the one God eternally exists as three persons, trinitarian thinking requires that both universals and particulars be held together in an equiprimal relationship. Each of these doctrines is examined in order to highlight the significance of this equiprimal relationship in understanding personal identity. In the concluding chapters of this research, a model of leadership is proposed that values both the bounded and open aspects of personal identity. This model encourages the development of ethical lateral influence through love, dialogue, and a covenantal understanding of authority. These three aspects of ethical lateral influence are then applied to the workgroup setting through the development of a particular organizational culture. In order for a culture that values love, dialogue, and covenantal relationships to develop, organizations must build observable patterns of teamwork, diversification, and coaching.

The aim of this research is heuristic, seeking andragogical strategies that may facilitate sexual-spiritual integration in ministerial training. The lived experience of sex and faith of seven Christian ordinands and a newly ordained minister was collected by interview and examined. Sex (sexuality and sexual expression) was revealed to be an arena for the development of identity, moral agency and the capacity for relationship, all of which are components of spirituality. Sex and sense-making about sex is a liminal space in which personal sexual experience, the Christian tradition, and other knowledge are wrestled and a “faithfully realistic” personal sexual ethic is created. This is the creation of practical wisdom, a poetic phronesis. The phenomenology of sexual-spiritual integration through poetic phronesis is theorised to be inherent in the moral creativity of human beings. Personal sexual knowledge is tacit and subjugated, and there are significant barriers in the Church which disable sexual reflexivity. The argument is made for an intentional andragogy that creates and resources the liminal space in which sexual phronesis takes place. The features of such an andragogy include: the bounding of sacred space, critical engagement with all four sources of theology (scripture, tradition, reason and experience), attending to the ethos of the training institution and the classroom, invitations to engage personal sexual experience through oblique methods, and opportunities for respectful conversation. Ordinands should be encouraged to cultivate a habit of sexual reflexivity and equipped to manage the sexual power and vulnerability inherent in the ministerial role. It is further theorised that the personal sexual sense-making of poetic phronesis is a micro-example of how lived experience may develop Christian tradition through poetic practical theology. Experience is reclaimed as a potential source of theology, validated by its fruits. Poetics as an emergent method and model of practical theology is posited as a means by which experience may enter into critical-liminal conversation with other sources of theology, advancing the tradition. The thesis is written so as to evoke personal sense-making, the medium echoing the message. Metaphor, poetry and story leaven more traditional academic prose to create liminal space in which the reader may be invited into sexual reflexivity.

This study investigates a range of ways in which the late medieval monastery of Iona interacted with the region of Argyll and the Isles: as the owner of churches and lands; as the centre of major saints’ cults; and as the focus of a school of sculpture. A major part of the research is a detailed examination of the local context of each of these links with Iona. The research project focuses on the monastery of Iona in the period c1203-c1575. These dates have been chosen specifically because they encompass virtually the entire period of occupation by the Benedictine monks, and because they apply to the most comprehensive surviving documents that relate to Iona and its landholdings. At the time of the introduction of the Benedictines to Iona, papal protection was sought, and a papal bull of December 1203 records Iona’s holdings at this period. Many of these holdings remained in Iona’s possession until the Reformation, soon after which time a rental was drawn up listing the abbot’s temporal and spiritual wealth, along with that of the bishop of the Isles, who was by this time also commendator of Iona abbey. These documents serve comprehensively to illustrate the fortunes of the monastery over the later Middle Ages. Iona’s acquisitions of lands and churches, and what subsequently became of these possessions, took place in the wider context of the changing political scene. For this reason, the political and social links between Iona, the Lordship of the Isles and other powerful local kindreds, such as the Mackinnons, MacLeans and Campbells, are explored. Iona’s relations with other religious houses in Argyll is also considered, particularly in relation to the potential transfer of lands between monastic houses. The monastery’s fortunes varied over the course of its existence, depending largely on who held the position of abbot, and on the relationships with powerful local magnates, as well as with other ecclesiastical bodies. It held estates and churches over a wide area, and although it gained many possessions, some were also lost to other houses, and to secular powers. There are many other churches and lands within Iona’s sphere of influence, but the nature of the evidence precludes drawing any firm conclusions about how many, if any, of them, were founded or owned by the monastery. Regarding Iona’s role as a centre of the cults of saints Columba and Adamnán, the local preponderance of churches dedicated to these and other saints important to Iona is considered in an effort to try to establish how widespread they are, and the longevity of these dedications. Looking also at Iona’s lands and the dedications of their churches, an attempt is made to discern any patterns; for example, to whom are the churches on Iona’s lands dedicated, and when? If churches on lands gifted to Iona had an existing dedication, is this likely to have been changed? Iona’s wider ecclesiastical associations are also discussed: the monastery held an ambivalent relationship with the papacy, and was considered to be under Rome’s protection, but often failed to pay its dues to the Curia, pleading poverty and the expense of having to travel such a long distance ‘from the ends of the habitable earth’. Due to the fragmentary nature of the existing documentary record, an interdisciplinary approach has been taken, involving the integration of evidence from historical sources, archaeology and place-names. One of the main fruits of the research has been the production of a gazetteer of Iona’s lands and churches held throughout the later Middle Ages. It is hoped that this may prove a useful tool in further research. Janet MacDonald Departments of Celtic and History University of Glasgow

The religious and ecclesiastical role of women in the early medieval church in the city of Rome has so far not been studied in detail and this thesis offers to remedy that gap. It presents in form of a case study limiting itself in terms of its topographical boundaries to the city of Rome, and in terms of a historical time period to that which coincides approximately to the start of the papacy of Hadrian I to the end of the papacy of Paschal I. Use is made only of source material which can be connected directly to early medieval Rome, and not only ordained and monastic roles of women are explored but also the many other ways in which women were able to engage with the liturgy, sacraments and religious ordinances as well as through diaconal and other forms of work. This is done not least through a detailed analysis of the relevant Ordines Romani. Other ways in which women of early medieval Rome were able to engage in the life of the church was through the production and maintenance of liturgical textiles and also through patronage on large and small scales towards individual ecclesiastical institutions. A less well known means of engagement was through the work of the diaconitae at Rome’s diaconiae. Throughout the thesis a particular interest is expressed in exploring how religious and ecclesiastical engagement was possible for women from lower social strata. In addition to this the overall inclusion, or otherwise, of women in the surviving iconographical material of early medieval Rome is analysed. Particular attention is given to matters such as relics, saints patronage and lectionary readings in relation to saints’ days. Matters of hermeneutics are explored on an ongoing basis in relation to the source material, but also in relation to the secondary literature consulted. Regarding the latter this is especially undertaken in relation to female monastic communities and the offices of the diacona, presbytera and episcopa. In respect of these offices, but also in relation to all other matters pertaining to the ecclesiastical and religious roles of women in early medieval Rome this thesis argues neither for a minimalist nor for a maximalist interpretation, but offers a nuanced yet, of necessity, fragmentary overall picture. This is borne out of the decision to work only with source materials that can be directly linked to early medieval Rome which in itself is fragmentary in nature. On the one hand it means that little can be made known on a subject area such as women’s religious education for instance. On the other hand this concentration on Roman source material alone means that matters unique to the situation of women in the church of medieval Rome can be established, such as, for instance, the continuation of the ordained office of the diacona into the early ninth century or the absence of any issues regarding cultic cleanness relating to women.

one of the most enduring assessments of the reformation has been the view that Protestantism and its worship shunned sensory experience in religion. As a result Protestant religion has been seen as fundamentally 'asensual', void of the images, relics, incense, vestments and fabric of late medieval religiosity. This appraisal has been most commonly applied to Protestant liturgy and worship. This was in contrast to pre-reformation worship which contained numerous objects and gestures making it highly sensualized. in late medieval liturgy this sensuality was the locus of spiritual action, allowing the distribution of sacred power or grace to believers in varying degrees through objects and actions. This evaluation is simplistic. In considering contemporary notions of sensation, sensory physiology and liturgical reform, a much more complex picture of the reformation in Tudor England emerges. Both Protestants and their conservative opponents shared the same basic understanding of how the senses worked physiologically. The senses were transformative powers that integrated perceivers with the world around them, literally bringing experience into the very being of the beholder. As such, they required proper governance to avoid evil objects, which caused sin and sickness, and to focus their attention on good and true objects. None were more potent than the rites of the late medieval church. Here divinity was internalized and integrated into believers through the senses. The senses, though, had their limits, and it was agreed that they were not suitable to determining beliefs or aspects of faith. As is well known, however, the reformation saw key disjunctures and clashes over the very nature of the doctrines and modes of salvation which defined these parameters. Inevitably, this resulted in a shift in how sensation functioned within religious contexts, namely liturgical life. on both sides of the religious divide the fear was that the senses would take control on their own, driving believers towards sin and concupiscence in an unfettered experience of the material world. Protestants saw this manifested in traditional piety, which was false and constructed, making the sensuality of late medieval religion highly detrimental. Conservatives, however, saw the empirical use of scripture by Protestants and the touting of scriptural authority as an improper use of the senses to determine faith. Each regarded the other as sensual. Protestants, despite their castigation of traditional piety, continued in many respects to employ its modes of interaction when encountering scripture. it took much of the sixteenth century to come to the realization that such a position was incongruous with reformed justification. The result for English notions of sensation was immense, as it became glaringly evident that Protestant doctrine and traditional sensory physiology could not exist side by side. The end of the Tudor era therefore coincided with the advent of a new era of sensing, in which the greatest revolution was that religious sensing was potentially benign to the perceiver; not saving, but not damning either.