M.A. / Money plays an important role in the everyday lives of church members. How church members view and engage with money has various implications. It concerns their theology, their well being and a number of other areas. In many cases the church has abdicated its responsibility to instruct and give guidance to church members and not provided adequate leading in the sphere of personal financial management. Diverse views on money are propagated through various media by both the secular world and the church alike. This Practical Theological study concerns the ethos of church members with regards to their personal financial management. It is a qualitative, phenomenological case study of the members of the AFM Taberna Dei assembly located in Polokwane, South Africa. This study is explorative and contextual. Qualified research subjects were selected by random sampling. Participants had to meet defined criteria, and data collection took place primarily through interviews with the chosen subjects. The probing question asked to participants is: “How do you approach your personal financial management?” Two main themes emerged during the coding and analytical phases of the research: theme A concerns religious beliefs influencing personal financial management and theme B non-religious beliefs and practices influencing the personal financial management of the participants. It is apparent that a general ethos of the personal financial management of members of Taberna Dei exists. This ethos is both defined and critiqued.

This study focuses on exploring the reasons behind dating choices concerning religion and race. Studies report that race is more important than religion in choosing dating partners. Understanding religious and racial dating preferences and choices can help uncover group relations in the larger society. The present study examines the reasons why someone may be willing to date a group outside their religion but not a group outside their race. A pre-interview survey questionnaire was used to locate interview participants. The first 20 respondents who met the specific criteria of being White, single, and a conservative Christian were selected for a qualitative phone interview. To qualify, the respondents needed to be willing to date at least one group that was not Christian, but unwilling to date certain groups outside their race. The interviews were transcribed and the content was analyzed for patterns and themes using the Grounded theory. The results revealed that all the respondents except one were unwilling to date a Black individual and five were unwilling to date any race but White. The least likely to be considered as dating partners for religious groups were the Muslims and atheists. For race, many of the participants viewed Hispanics and Asians as more culturally or physically similar to them than Blacks. The main reasons why the respondents indicated they were willing to date Jewish and agnostic individuals were that they perceived them as similar to themselves in their belief systems. For both religion and race, the respondents were more willing to consider dating groups that were considered to have less stigma in society. The concept of stigma provides a framework for examining the respondents dating choices.

Throughout Christianity's tumultuous history in Japan, there have been several traditions which have stood independent from Western missionary churches. Two such traditions are the Kakure Kirishitan (“Hidden Christians”) and Uchimura Kanzo's Non-Church Movement. Both have interpreted Christianity in ways that make sense within their own historical and cultural contexts. Japan's Hidden Christians were forced by strict persecution to practice their faith in secret, where they developed ways to disguise their practices. Meanwhile, at the dawn of a new era of religious freedom in Japan, Uchimura Kanzo formed a new way to practice Christianity that both integrated Japanese traditions such as bushido while rejecting typical structures of church hierarchy and organization. Through this project I hope to give a voice and proper agency to the often overlooked indigenized ways of practicing Christianity. Japanese Christian communities have forged their own religious practices that force us to expand our understanding of what it means to be Christian and what Christianity can look like in the lives of everyday people. The focus shifts away from church authorities and dogmatic proclamations, thus empowering and recognizing the authority of lay practitioners to make their own meaning from the Christian tradition.

Over the last three decades, social justice-oriented evangelical Christians of various political stripes have become increasingly concerned about the problem of human trafficking. This issue has brought together Christians concerned about pornography and sex addiction, the social effects of immigration policy, and the exploitation of the poor in a globalized world. Widespread evangelical interest in the problem of human trafficking – particularly sex trafficking – has created an entire industry of non-profit service providers, foundations, advocacy organizations, missions, and parachurch ministries devoted to “ending modern slavery.” Their advocacy has spread beyond overtly religious spaces, and the movement to end human trafficking has become one of the most significant religious and humanitarian movements of the twenty-first century. Why has “ending modern slavery” become a special calling for American evangelical Christians, and what does this tell us about evangelical humanitarianism? How do everyday Christians – from non-profit CEOs and legal advocates to lay volunteers and social workers – conceptualize human trafficking as a distinct category of human exploitation, come to feel a particular calling toward anti-trafficking work, and imagine possible solutions to this humanitarian and moral crisis? My project centers on an ethnographic study of a faith-based, anti-trafficking non-profit organization in New York City, Restore NYC, and intervenes in broader political and academic conversations about the nature of American evangelicalism; the neoliberalism of faith-based humanitarianism; and gender, affect, and genre in the “rescue industry.” I use ethnography, archival research, and popular media analysis to explicate the motivations, tactics, ideology, and theology of the contemporary anti-trafficking movement, while positioning it within the longer history of evangelical humanitarianism.

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by Lai Yuet Sim, Phoebe. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-183). / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Literature --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Those Related to Wu's Biography and Work --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Those Related to Wu's Theology and Ideology --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- "Those Related to Wu, the TSM and Chinese Protestant Christianity" --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2 --- Objectives and Significance of the Study --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Scope of Study --- p.9 / Chapter 1.4 --- Method of Study --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4.1 --- Fundamental Considerations --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4.2 --- Analytical Framework --- p.13 / Chapter 1.5 --- Limitations --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- THE CHINESE CONTEXT AND WU'S SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1 --- Pre´ؤPRC Era: 1893-1949 --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- The Late Qing Years 1893-1911 --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- The Dictatorship of Yuan Shikai 1911-1916 --- p.20 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- "Warlordism, the Enlightenment and Civil War 1916-1931" --- p.21 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Japanese Aggression and War of Resistance 1931-1945 --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Civil War between CNP and CCP 1945-1949 --- p.37 / Chapter 2.2 --- The PRC Era 1949-1979 --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Socialist Construction 1949-1956 --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- "Ultraleftism, the Cultural Revolution and Modernization1957-1979" --- p.62 / Chapter 2.3 --- Comments --- p.66 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- THEOLOGY AND SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT: WU'S IDEAS --- p.74 / Chapter 3.1 --- Jesus Christ and Love --- p.74 / Chapter 3.2 --- Jesus' Gospel --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3 --- God --- p.84 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- God as Love and as Father --- p.86 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- "Contents of the Term ""God""" --- p.87 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Works of God --- p.91 / Chapter 3.4 --- Truth --- p.93 / Chapter 3.5 --- Kingdom of God --- p.95 / Chapter 3.6 --- Mission of Chinese Christianity --- p.98 / Chapter 3.7 --- Communism and Christianity --- p.109 / Chapter 3.8 --- A Synthesis --- p.112 / Chapter 3.8.1 --- 1918-1931: Love --- p.113 / Chapter 3.8.2 --- 1931-1939: Jesus' Gospel --- p.113 / Chapter 3.8.3 --- 1940-1949: God --- p.117 / Chapter 3.8.4 --- After 1949: Mission of Christianity --- p.121 / Chapter 3.9 --- Comments --- p.123 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- AN EVALUATION --- p.135 / Chapter 4.1 --- Consistency? --- p.135 / Chapter 4.2 --- Relevancy? --- p.141 / Chapter 4.3 --- Renovational? --- p.147 / Chapter 4.4 --- Continuity? --- p.148 / NOTES --- p.163 / BIBLIOGEAPHY --- p.173

Yeung Kwok-keung. / "June 2000." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-248). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

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This thesis addresses the objective of formulating a moral-philosophically credible media ethics by encompassing two main dimensions: the examination of existing media-ethical models and the integration of sustainable arguments through utilizing eco-religious epistemology to overcome identified challenges. By incorporating eco-critical perspectives within the Media ecology tradition, which studies media as environments, the thesis proposes a creative intersection between established media theories and a theological tradition that tackles profound questions about humanity's place in the world. The initial section of the thesis analyzes moral-philosophical concepts within the media ethics frameworks proposed by three ethicists; Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson; Clifford G. Christians and Sandra L. Borden. While all three endorse universal values, they offer distinct frameworks for both understanding the ontology of universals and how these are contextualized in the journalistic community. Christians' moral epistemological theories,particularly regarding the ethics of being and Proto-norms have generated significant controversy and scholarly debate on the necessity and intellectual credibility of defending universal values in media ethics. Critical perspectives from this discourse are presented and evaluated as a complement to the analysis of Christians' media-ethical model. In exploring sustainable moral-philosophical arguments, the thesis suggests that moral claims can exhibit both universal and contextual characteristics. It suggests that a media-ethical model should integrate universal values with a communitarian perspective on journalists'moral responsibility. However, understanding the interplay between the contextual and universal dimensions of ethical values requires engaging in critical moral-philosophical theory. In addition, critical perspectives on technology and ideas of space and time need to be addressed in new ways. Thus, eco-religious epistemology, as advocated by ethicist and theologian Whitney Bauman, is proposed as a creative means to understand moral-philosophical questions regarding space/time, contextualism/universalism, and technology within media ethics.