This dissertation examines the first three decades of a missionary encounter that began under the auspices of the Congo Inland Mission (CIM – later renamed as Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission [AIMM]) in Belgian Congo. As Africans, North Americans, and Europeans entered into relationship with each other through mission, they developed an identity as global Mennonites. They began to embrace a catholic ecclesial imagination – that is, a commitment to shared membership within the church as a political body capable of transcending competing claims of race, ethnicity, gender, or nation-state. Using both an ecclesiological lens of analysis and a global history framework, this dissertation traces the ways in which ecclesial institutions, practices, discourses, and performances functioned to support or undermine a social imagination that embraced expatriate missionaries and local believers within a single church, in both its local/congregational and trans-local manifestations. During the period covered by the dissertation, expatriate and Congolese Mennonites struggled to define what the church was, and to determine who could participate in it and how. Factors that helped to promote a shared ecclesial imagination among Congolese and expatriate believers included an inter-denominational vision, faith mission principles and practices, Pentecostal revivalism, a Mennonite congregational polity, shared experiences of work and worship, and friendships that crossed boundaries of race and gender. However, CIM missionaries’ assertions of ethnic Mennonite control over mission strategy and structure, and their complicity with colonial labor exploitation, promoted a two-tiered understanding of the church that entrenched racial segregation and squelched the aspirations of white missionary women and Congolese evangelists. An ecclesiological lens of analysis thus offers new insights into the relationship between missions and colonial regimes, into the role of mission in American Mennonite denominational formation, and into the interactions among gender, race, and ethnicity in mission. The dissertation traces the contested memories of early CIM “pioneers,” such as Alma Doering, Aaron and Ernestina Janzen, and L.B. and Rose Haigh, and retrieves the missional agency of the many Congolese Mennonites who worked alongside them. In this way, it both uncovers the struggles for catholicity that shaped the missionary encounter at its inception, and calls attention to the ways in which such struggles continue to play out on the terrain of memory and knowledge production, coming to light through the competing efforts and uneven ability of Congolese and North American Mennonites to tell stories about their shared past. The historical narrative at the core of the dissertation thus serves as a case study for a broader exploration of theological and historiographical themes of memory and catholicity in relation to mission. The dissertation develops an ecclesiological framework for the study of the missionary encounter in which an explicit commitment to catholicity guides the task of writing world Christian history. It identifies ways in which such an ecclesiological mode of remembering can contribute to greater unity and catholicity within the global church.

In critical dialogue with the tradition of American Protestant youth ministry in the 20th and 21st centuries, this dissertation aims to generate novel insights into how congregations influence adolescent development and thriving. Using a mixed-methods approach, I explore recent shifts in the focus of the theology and practice of youth ministry in dialogue with the lived experiences of adolescents in mainline churches in the United States. Questions of adolescents in churches are particularly relevant to mainline Protestant congregations that are declining in membership and cultural capital. The questions are also relevant to adolescents who face complex economic, ecological, and social challenges that are unique to the 21st century. Some of these challenges are due to cultural notions that simultaneously idolize and vilify adolescents. To address these issues, I draw on social scientific resources to reconsider the term adolescent, arguing against G. Stanley Hall’s famous definition of adolescence as a time of universal “storm and strife.” Instead, I employ feminist anthropology, Positive Youth Development, and social constructivism to redefine adolescence as part of a lifelong process of becoming. In the dissertation, I begin by tracing the history of adolescence and American Protestant youth ministry since 1900. I then introduce three churches in which I carried out ethnographic work to gain deep insight into the lives of adolescents while clarifying the stakes and outlining concepts that are developed later in the dissertation. Youth ministry practices and theories are embedded within and intersect with social theories, economic theories, denominational histories, and the realities of life in the 21st century. To understand adolescent experience, therefore, I undertake an analysis of adolescent experiences alongside the broader sociocultural and intellectual currents that shape these experiences. I then approach the same questions quantitatively, developing a shared language to render intelligible the different ways adolescents thrive in diverse contexts. I next place the ethnographic and quantitative research in dialogue with several theological and philosophical thinkers, arguing for a non-essentialist view of both religious identity and adolescents that emphasizes pluralism, intersectionality, and the contestation of meaning. I reconstruct adolescence in congruence with a broader view of human becoming, within which connection, human plasticity, and reciprocity are vital. Finally, I suggest that a kenotic ecclesiology can help churches continue to promote the flourishing of adolescents, and indeed, of all living things.

Interest in digital ministry is growing as the internet becomes increasingly ubiquitous. Specifically, social media provide unique opportunities for outreach and community-building. The social media platform TikTok has grown in popularity since it became available in the United States in 2018. Its culture of authenticity and capacity to foster closer connections between users who do not otherwise know each other may make it a useful resource for ministry. Consequently, a number of Christian clergy have begun to use TikTok as a form of ministry. However, little is known about how clergy use the platform. Because progressive and conservative clergy may engage in outreach differently, and in the absence of prior knowledge about TikTok use, the current exploratory study focuses only on Christian clergy who identify as progressive. TikTok contains exclusively video content, most of which is posted publicly, and videos range from a few seconds to a maximum of three minutes. To understand how progressive Christian clergy use TikTok, a qualitative content analysis was conducted on 90 TikTok videos produced by 9 different clergypersons who use the keyword hashtag #progressiveclergy. The clergy included in the sample all appeared in the top 100 videos listed under that hashtag. Each video’s transcription, caption, visual content and text appearing on the video, the date posted, and the number of lives, comments, and shares it received were all included in analysis. Open coding was used to identify themes and emerging patterns. Results demonstrate that progressive Christian clergy are using TikTok for three main purposes: to share aspects of progressive Christianity; to respond to conservative Christianity, including church-related harm; and to provide spiritual formation and pastoral care. Secondary uses of the platform including sharing aspects of clergy life, humorous videos, and responding to criticism. Implications of these findings for evangelism and ecclesiology in the context of digital ministry are discussed, along with directions for future research.

This dissertation is a homiletical-theological response to the current ecclesial identity crisis of the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) that stems from the ongoing influences of U.S. imperialism and neo-colonialism. The ecclesial identity of the KMC has been colonized in many aspects, and the decolonization of its self-understanding and ecclesial practices is a pivotal task for the renewal of the church. This dissertation attempts to construct a Korean Methodist ecclesiology in the postcolonial context of a divided Korea through and for the practice of preaching. The understanding of the church and the practice of preaching mutually shape one another. Thus, the renewal of preaching can be a way to renew the ecclesial identity of the KMC. By reconfiguring Edward Farley’s influential understanding of theologia and the emerging discourse of homiletical theology, this dissertation offers a contextual, homiletical-theological approach to attend to the intersection of ecclesiology and preaching, which is the theology of the gospel. The gospel of reconciliation as a contextual gospel in postcolonial Korea is the center of the ecclesial identity of the KMC. It also functions as a guiding principle for my ecclesiological discussions of John Wesley, the Korean Non-Church movement, Minjung Church, and Miroslav Volf into a contextual, gospel-driven Korean Methodist ecclesiology. After offering an understanding of a gospel-driven Korean Methodist ecclesiology, the dissertation provides a homiletical method for reconciling preaching in dialogue with conversational approaches and postcolonial approaches to preaching in North American homiletics. Reconciling preaching refers to both sermonic movements and the process of sermonic dialogue and ongoing ecclesial conversation in a church. Reconciling preaching has a three-fold movement: a dialogical movement, a prophetic movement, and a healing movement. These rhetorical movements intend to create an ecclesial version of Homi Bhabha’s Third Space in which people can renegotiate their identities in relation to God and others and can reimagine a new way of being God’s people and a church in light of the eschatological fulfillment of God’s final reconciliation. This dissertation offers a practical theological method of decolonizing and renewing the ecclesial identity of the KMC through a homiletical theological reflection and a concrete homiletic method.

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Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan / This thesis examines issues that complicate the reception of Vatican II, proposes hermeneutical principles to engage these issues, and argues that to receive the council’s teaching on the church and episcopal conferences one has to combine sociology with the traditional sources of theology such as Scripture, patristic theology, church teaching, and church history. Chapter One studies issues that involve the reception of Vatican II through the perspectives of Walter Kasper, the delegates of the 1985 Synod of Bishops, and Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. It shows that to engage these issues, one has to pay attention both to the historical context of Vatican II and to the documents of the council, to both ressourcement and aggiornamento, and to both elements of continuity and elements of discontinuity in the teaching of Vatican II. Chapter Two explains why one needs sociology to interpret Vatican II’s teaching on the church. It argues that for the council’s bishops the church is more than a mystery of communion promoted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and defended by Joseph Ratzinger in his debate with Walter Kasper. The church is the sacrament of Christ or a theological and socio-historical reality. As a result, Scripture, patristic theology, church teaching, and church history are not sufficient to provide a proper understanding of the church. Sociology should be integrated into conciliar ecclesiology to study the church. Chapter Three shows how sociology can be integrated into ecclesiology to help theologians receive Vatican II’s teaching on the church. The chapter engages Neil Ormerod’s critique of Roger Haight’s two-language approach to ecclesiology to demonstrate why the relationship between the theological and the socio-historical dimension of the church complicates the integration of sociology into ecclesiology. It argues that Karl Rahner’s theology of grace and the church can provide a framework for relating sociology to ecclesiology. Chapter Four builds on this framework to examine the Vatican’s and Asian bishops’ reception of episcopal conferences. It argues that neither the Vatican’s nor the Asian bishops’ reception can offer a comprehensive understanding of episcopal conferences. To receive this teaching of the council, one has to combine sociological insights from the sociology of organizations with theological concepts from Scripture, canon law, and church teaching. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 1979 / VOORWOORD: Miskien moet ons ons voorwoord met ‘n bekentenis begin. Dit is nou ruim 18jaar gelede dat ons ons navorsing oor Andrew Murray se teologie begin het. Gedurende hierdie tyd het ons die werk vir lang tye gestaak omdat ons ingrypende probleme met ons onderwerp gehad het. Dit het hierop neergekom dat ons nie Murray se teologie kon inpas of versoen met die gereformeerde tradisies van die N.G. Kerk nie. Liewer dus as om tot negatiewe resultate te kom, het ons ons versamelde stof en bevindinge altyd weer diep weggebêre. Maar, al het ons dit gedoen, kon ons Andrew Murray nooit heeltemal uit ons gedagtes ban nie. So het met die jare bewustelik en onbewustelik ‘n nuwe en meer ewewigtige benadering tot sy teologie gegroei. Ons het geleer om hom in die raamwerk van sy tyd te plaas wat vanself tot ‘n meer milde oordeel gelei het op die punte waarin ons van hom moes verskil. Dit was tog nie billik gewees nie om hom los te maak van die tye waarin hy geleef het en die teologiese klimaat wat hy geadem het, om hom dan uitsluitlik en streng vanuit calvinisties-gereformeerde oogpunt te beoordeel nie. Uit hierdie nuwe benadering het daar ‘n nuwe waardering vir Andrew Murray en sy geestelike grootheid gegroei en kon ons die studie uiteindelik voortsit en tot voltooing bring. Ons wil vertrou dat hierdie poging om Andrew Murray se vernaamste teologiese motiewe bloot te lê en hom te probeer verstaan, 'n nuwe belangstelling in sy geestel ike nalatenskap sal stimuleer. So pas het die jongste lewensbeskrywing van Andrew Murray deur ’n Amerikaanse skryfster, Leona Choy, ons ter hand gekom: Andrew Murray Apostle of Abiding Love, Fort Washington, 1978. In haar voorwoord sê sy: "The books of this spiritual giant of yesterday have influenced my own Christian life since I was in my teens. I could hardly understand their spiritual heights in my immaturity, but instinctively I knew that this man of God beckoned me to start climbing a mountain that would take a lifetime to scale. Through my years of academic preparation, then ministry for the Lord on the mission field and in varied types of Christian service, I read Murray’s books over and over, understanding new sentences which leaped into my spiritual horizon of need. I wrote dozens of poems sparked by phrases from his writings which spoke intensely to my spirit. I feel that I was nourished and sustained on Murray’s soundly Biblical teachings and draw to launch out into the deep with God.” As sy verder sê: “A contemporary biography of Andrew Murray is long overdue", bring dit ons onder die die indruk van hoe wydgelese Andrew Murray sestig jaar na sy dood nog steeds is. Eintlik het ons hier met iets verstommends te doen dat ‘n predikant van die N.G. Kerk in Suid-Afrika uit ‘n vorige eeu as't ware, nog so kontemporêr in die gedagtes van Amerikaners is. Ten slotte wil ons ons opregte dank betuig aan prof. F.J.M. Potgieter wat as ons promotor opgetree het tot met sy aftrede. My hartlike dank aan prof. W.D. Jonker wat hom in hierdie hoedanigheid opgevolg het en ons gedurende die afgelope jaar van intensiewe studie deur die finale stadiums van die werk met soveel onmisbare raad bedien het. Ongelukkig kan my moeder wat so belanggestel het in my werk oor Andrew Murray, nie hierdie gelukkige dag saam met ons belewe nie. As afgevaardigde na die stigtings-konferensie van die C.S.V. in die moederkerk op Stellenbosch het Andrew Murray ‘n onuitwisbare indruk op haar jong gemoed gelaat. Eindelik, ‘n laaste woord van dank aan my huisgenote wat my deur die jare met hulle geloof en belangstelling bygestaan het. In hierdie verband het vroutjie veral in die afgelope jaar van studie ‘n onmisbare rol gespeel.

Thesis (DTh (Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The purpose of this dissertation is to trace the development of Malawi’s Nkhoma Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) from a mission church in 1962 to a mature church today. In so doing, it asks, “How has Nkhoma Synod developed its self-understanding of being a church?”

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The title of the study is “Socialization as a modus of moral formation in the church.” Specific attention is paid to the work of Johannes van der Ven on moral formation. Appreciation is expressed for Van der Ven’s interdisciplinary approach. He makes wide use of sources from philosophical and theological ethics, sociology, education, etc. Van der Ven does not only concentrate on First World scenarios, but also focuses attention on other areas, such as South Africa. His view of moral formation does not focus exclusively on the moral life of the individual, but also includes community life (primary groups) and the broader pluralistic context. His work, therefore, receives detailed attention. His methodology, theoretical viewpoints and identification of seven modi of moral formation receives attention. Furthermore, the relationship between morality and religion, education and communication is also discussed. This study therefore focuses attention on the following question: “The role of the church in socialising as a way of moral formation.” The structure of the study is as follows: The introductory chapter shows that societies today are characterised by moral problems and that there is an intense need for moral formation. The question and methodology of this study is explored against this background. In chapter 2 entitled: “A Theological rationale for moral formation”, the following aspects are discussed: , a theological rationale for moral formation; the relationship between life view and ethics/morals, the Bible and Christian ethics and a conclusion. In chapter 3: “Van der Ven’s theories for moral formation”, Van der Ven’s approach to moral formation, specifically to socialising as a way of moral formation, is explored. A short sketch of his intellectual biography is followed by his theoretical departure points and his approach to the 7 ways of moral formation. This view of socialising is awarded detailed attention. This description paved the way for the application of Van der Ven’s insights, which enjoys support from behavioural sciences, for the process of socialising in the church. In chapter 4, entitled: “The faith community as space for socialising and moral formation”, it is argument that congregational practices play an integral part in the process of socialising. The following aspects are discussed: the congregation as agents of the faith community, worship and socialising, baptism and socialising, holy community and socialising, role models and socialising, Christian education and socialising. The most important finding of the study is that Van der Ven’s approach helps the congregation to further the case for socialising by way of her practices. Socialising offers a way for the church to uphold her responsibilities to contribute to addressing the moral challenges of South Africa. Moral formation in South Africa and elsewhere in the world is very important. The church offers an indispensable space in which moral formation can take place.