In my personal experience, I have discovered notable aesthetic problems that face many contemporary evangelical churches. In spite of these churches’ best efforts, they fail to bridge the culture gap and foster a meaningful worship service. But John Dewey’s aesthetic philosophy understands the shifting nature of our environment and the value of aesthetic experience, providing beneficial insights to assist unhealthy churches. To better understand the applicability of his philosophy, Chapter II is an exposition of John Dewey’s aesthetics that revolves around four central questions: What is Dewey’s starting point for aesthetics? What distinguishes aesthetic experiences from others? What is his criticism of the “museum conception of art”? What is the significance for Dewey of our activities having or not having aesthetic quality? Chapter III is a Deweyan investigation of four real churches: the elite church, which promotes an aesthetic that is reserved for its members; the broken church, which is divorced from community; the humdrum church, which is preoccupied with the routine; and the sensational church, which is characterized by indulgence. Chapter IV is a description of two recent attempts to bridge the culture gap and offer meaningful worship activities: the seeker-sensitive movement which contends that the church must be “culturally inviting” to the community, and the emerging movement(s), which seeks to dismantle traditional churches using deconstructionism and reconstructing worship services that are experiential, pluralistic, and sensory. My Deweyan argument in Chapter V is that both the “seeker-sensitive” and the “emerging” movements fail to adequately understand the shifting character of our environment and our relation to it. If problem churches acknowledge that discontinuity with environment is inevitable, seek to meet the needs of others, embrace adjustment as a core component, and value aesthetic experience, they will be in a better position to bridge the culture gap and offer an enriching worship experience in their services. Three Deweyan lessons are gleaned from this inquiry: value aesthetic experience and its contribution in bridging the culture gap, implement Deweyan insights drawn from our examination of traditional churches, and contribute to society by generating artproducts that will benefit the community.

Text in German, English and German summaries / Die Masterthesis zeigt auf, wie das Reich-Gottes-Verständnis die Theologie und die missionarische Praxis im hallischen Pietismus bei August Hermann Francke beeinflusst hat. Mittels einer Literaturarbeit wird in missionstheologischer Perspektive das hallische Gottesreich-Verständnis erforscht sowie aus missionsgeschichtlicher Sicht die Praxis der hallischen Pietisten dargestellt. Beide Blickwinkel werden miteinander in Verbindung gesetzt, so dass die Zusammenhänge zwischen Reich Gottes und Gemeindepraxis herausgearbeitet werden. Es zeigt sich, dass die Reich-Gottes-Rede die Rahmenbedingungen, den Bezugspunkt, die menschliche Partizipation, die Ganzheitlichkeit sowie die Reichweite des missionarischen Handelns in Halle maßgeblich beeinflusst hat. Auf Basis der Forschungsergebnisse werden Schlüsse und Praxisimplikationen für die heutige Diskussion um den Reich Gottes Begriff und die missionarische Praxis gegeben. / This study shows how the concept of the Kingdom of God has influenced the theology and missionary church practice of August Hermann Francke. By means of a literature study, the concept of the Kingdom of God in Halle Pietism is researched from a perspective of mission theology. In addition to that the church practice of Francke will be presented from a perspective of mission history. Both points of view are linked to each other so that the relations between the Kingdom of God and church practice are worked out. It is obvious that the view of the Kingdom of God has decisively influenced the framework, the point of reference, human participation, the holistic approach, as well as the range of missionary activity in Halle. On the basis of the research results, conclusions and practical implications for today’s discussion about the concept of the Kingdom of God and missionary practice are given. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

In the town of Södertälje, a great number of ecclesiastical denominations are represented, a majority of which with roots in the Middle East. To a person attending several various Christian services at many different churches, the diversified ecclesiastical scene offers many similarities among the different denominations, as well as many differences between them. An obvious difference is the view of ministry. In the Church of Sweden women may be ordained, whereas this is not possible in the Chaldean-Catholic Church or the Syrian-Orthodox Church. This paper describes how some ordinary worshippers, members of the Chaldean-Catholic Church or the Syrian-Orthodox Church, look upon their own religious practices in view of the fact that they belong to minority denominations in a secularized society in which the Church of Sweden is the major church. This paper has a Theological as well as a Sociological perspective, since these two perspectives have a reciprocal effect on each other regarding the creating of identities of both informants and churches. An important aspect of this paper is the informants’ view of the relationship between priesthood and gender. It will be obvious that the informants’ opinions of who may be allowed to take Holy Orders depend more on the person’s eligibility than on gender, irrespective of traditions in their denominations. In spite of the fact that women are not ordained in either of the churches dealt with in this paper, the informants hold the view that this may change with time. Instead, they mean that this is one in a row of adaptations that should be carried out by their churches, in order for them to be able to continue to exist in Södertälje and to achieve an ongoing increase in numbers. However, the question of priesthood and gender is complicated, partly due to traditions in their home countries, but also since the bodies of men and women, respectively, are regarded differently in Orthodox theology, not least so in comparison with that of the Church of Sweden. In this paper the informants also express questions arisen from encounters between their respective home countries and Sweden. Primarily, those questions are about the possible effects that may occur when ecclesiastical traditions meet secular values. That affects the informants’ views of culture and nationality, as well as the meaning of being an individual in a group, profoundly marked by church traditions in a society as individualistic as Sweden. / I Södertälje finns ett stort antal kyrkliga samfund representerade, flertalet med rötter i Mellanöstern. Det kyrkliga landskapet medför att det för den kyrkobesökare som rör sig i flera olika kyrkorum, är lätt att upptäcka många likheter mellan de olika kyrkliga samfunden, men också flera skillnader. En påtaglig skillnad är synen på prästämbetet. I Svenska kyrkan kan kvinnor vara präster, medan detta inte är möjligt i Kaldeisk-katolska kyrkan eller i Syrisk-ortodoxa kyrkan.   Den här uppsatsen handlar om hur några vanliga gudstjänstdeltagare, medlemmar i Kaldeisk-katolska kyrkan eller Syrisk-ortodoxa kyrkan, ser på de egna kyrkotraditionerna och -praktikerna i ljuset av att vara minoritetskyrkor i ett sekulärt samhälle där Svenska kyrkan är majoritetskyrka. Uppsatsen har ett teologiskt såväl som ett samhällsorienterat perspektiv. Anledningen till det är att dessa två perspektiv har en ömsesidig påverkan på varandra beträffande informanternas - och kyrkornas - identitetsskapande. En viktig ansats i uppsatsen är vilken syn på relationen prästämbete och kön informanterna ger uttryck för. Uppsatsen visar att informanternas uppfattning om vem som kan vigas till präst är mer beroende av personlig lämplighet än av kön, oaktat att de kyrkotraditioner de tillhör säger något annat. Trots att kvinnor inte vigs till präster i någon av de kyrkor som uppsatsen belyser, menar informanterna att det på sikt inte alls skulle vara en omöjlighet. Det är istället en i raden av anpassningar som de menar att deras kyrkor bör göra, för att fortsätta att leva och verka i Södertälje och för att tillväxten av medlemmar ska vara god. Dock visar det sig att frågan om prästämbete och kön inte är okomplicerad. Det beror dels på traditioner från hemländerna, men också på att mannens och kvinnans kropp betraktas på olika sätt i ortodox teologi, inte minst jämfört med Svenska kyrkans teologi. I uppsatsen ger informanterna också uttryck för frågor som har väckts genom mötet mellan deras respektive hemländer och Sverige. Främst handlar detta om vad som kan hända när kyrkliga traditioner möter sekulära värderingar. Detta påverkar deras syn på såväl kultur och nationalitet som vad det innebär att vara individ i en grupp, som starkt präglas av kyrkliga traditioner, i ett samhälle som är så individcentrerat som Sverige.