Studying the overlaps between religion and politics in human geography is no longer a niche pursuit. Now, a plethora of literature in the discipline covers various facets of the topic, analysing the role of religion in contexts ranging from welfare contracts to geopolitical imaginations. Furthermore, investigating the religion/politics interface has been enhanced in recent years by increasing theoretical innovation in religious geography, incorporating poststructural epistemologies into the subdiscipline. This shift has directed geographers to the fluid construction of practices and places through the everyday lives of religious subjects and communities. Despite these developments, I argue that studies at the religion/politics interface still lack an epistemology that can adequately comprehend emerging empirical work in geography and associated disciplines that highlights the blurring of religious praxis into activism. Geographers have rarely represented the mechanisms that produce the heterogeneity of religious involvement in politics, putting the new poststructural epistemologies in the subdiscipline to work by categorising religious subjects and communities as homogeneously progressive or regressive, or focussing instead on the affective atmospheres and internal dynamics of faith communities. In this thesis I argue that in order to understand religious involvement in activism, geographers of religion need to begin to blend poststructural epistemologies that attend to the everyday fluidity of religion with epistemological work on networks in activist geographies. This is necessary work because these two realms are beginning to intermingle on the ground, consequently highlighting the production of religious subjectivities between religious and activist practices. In response to this gap between theory and empirics, I turn my attention to faith communities that embody elements of a postchristendom ethos, flattening religious hierarchies, welcoming difference, and engaging beyond themselves through social justice activism. By addressing this context I can underscore the knowledges that geographies of the religion/politics interface have missed so far, examining the multiple factors at play in the formation of faith community raison d’êtres, the accommodation of difference in faith communities, and how religious subjects negotiate their praxis between religious and activist spaces. By drawing attention to these issues and developing an epistemology to deal with them, this thesis develops more nuanced ways of producing knowledge about religious subjectivities and communities as they relate to activism.

This study’s purpose is to analyze Grace Davies theory, which points out that churches throughout the west is facing difficulties with declining memberships as a result of a separation process between the churches and the state. In contrast to Davies theory, Sweden saw an increase in number of voters in year 2017’s church election, which leads to question whether Davies theory is overemphasized or if the church of Sweden is in a unique position. This study aims to analyze the current landscape of churches in the west through media and to do this, the study delimitates to four Swedish daily newspapers: Dagens Nyheter, Sveriges Television, Kyrkans Tidning and Svenska Dagbladet, to provide content through different perspectives. To apply the information gathered, the study uses a qualitative content analysis, since it offers tools for categorizing, interpretation and understanding of the newspapers substance. This study approaches the church election through three theories, which argues that the church of Sweden has lost its dominating role in society and is now under the influence of media, the state and secular forces. The critical part of media’s relation to this year’s church election is found in the presentation of the church of Sweden as a political figure, rather than a faith community. The result shows through media’s presentation that the majority is indeed based on political influence and that Davies theory might indeed be true. Though it also shows a resistance to politics in the church domain, which argues that the churches ongoing negative trend might reverse in the future.

This study attempted to understand Malachi’s ethics by situating them firmly in a particular historical, religious and socio-economic context. Malachi as the conscience of his people was skilful and creative in adapting the older prophetic traditions to the advantage of their religious, economic and socio-cultural context. The book of Malachi contains a fundamental critique of the sacrificial practices of the time. The prophetic criticism of the cult as seen in the book was conducted on the basis of covenantal principles. The book’s ethical uniqueness is observed somehow most clearly in the preponderance of a negative emphasis the book places on temple rituals and the way the language of the cult dominates his analysis of malpractices. The book shows where the ritual delinquencies are and how to deal with them. Thus for the purpose of enacting a communal ethic, the thesis stressed the theological values and ethical relevance of the enduring message of Yahweh alone as the sovereign of all creation and thus of humble trust and hope in him, of repentance, of commitment to the ideals of fidelity and steadfastness, of judgment, truth and justice, and of covenant renewal and restoration of fortunes which Malachi offers people who yearn for them irrespective of their religious and cultural background and nationality. The study showed how the ethical dimensions of Yahweh (theological dimension); his people as a restored community of faith (social and political aspects) and their land (economic conditions) as seen in the book of Malachi obviously make ethical proposals for faith communities in dealing with every theological, socio-political, and economic issue within the larger human society. Thus the various interpretations of the different oracles in the book of Malachi served as basis for this study to evolve ethical proposals for contemporary Christian application, at least within an ecclesia community. The church must serve as a channel through which the ethical demands of God for a well-ordered community can be mediated within her and larger human society and must find creative ways to translate the biblical imperative in a contemporary theological, social and economic context. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Old Testament Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

Canada has distinct contemporary faith communities that differ from western and European counterparts. Unfortunately statistics tracking denominational allegiances give little insight into the daily intricacies of collective religious practice. The purpose of this study is to contribute towards filling a gap within scholarly research on the lived culture and experiences of contemporary religious communities within Canada. This study examines the pattern of culture-sharing within a non-denominational faith community as lived and practiced in Ottawa. Through autoethnography, this study asks why members attend and how members view the use of popular culture video clips within church. Individual and collective religious identities are constructed through observations, interviews and material artifacts gleaned through participant observation from January 2011 to December 2011. The results show that within the church, a community of practice is built around shared parenthood and spiritual journey. Members place importance on children, on providing support of all kinds for one another, and on keeping religion relevant. Reasons for attending are echoes of the patterns of culture-sharing: members enjoy the feeling of community, the support, the friendships, the play dates. Participants view popular culture video clips played within church as one aspect of an overall importance placed upon relevance. Mutuality of engagement results in members experiencing their lives as meaningful, it validates their worth through belonging, and it creates personal histories of becoming within the context of a community of practice. Future research recommendations include further study of other contemporary faith communities within Canada, with investigation into the possibility that communities of practice may be what the churched and unchurched are seeking.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-232).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-232).

This thesis seeks to examine the nature of political theatre within the postmodern context. I distinguish between the historical alternative theatre and the paradoxical alternative theatre in my work. The historical alternative coincides with the alternative theatre movement developed in Britain between the late 1960s and late 1970s, while in Portugal this movement was mainly designated as independent theatre between 1974 and the 1980s. I start by analysing the narratives of birth and death of the historical alternative theatre movement in the British and Portuguese contexts from the establishment of the movement in the late 1960s to the present. I go on to propose that beyond the historical alternative and within a post-ideology framework, contemporary theatre may still engage with politics by exercising a localised and temporary paradoxical alternative. For my research I selected four long-running and state-funded theatre companies, o bando, Kneehigh, Foursight and Escola de Mulheres, chosen according to two of the categories prominent during the historical alternative movement, community theatre and women's theatre. Through detailed analysis of productions of the four theatre companies, I assess the characteristics of a postmodern political oppositional theatre. My methodological approach covers the longitudinal context of the companies and productions by looking at past productions, funding statements, reviews, practitioners' interviews, theatre programmes and the rehearsal, performance and reception stages of the theatrical process. I start by analysing each company's history and their own mythologies of the alternative, before focusing on two of the central traits of the theatre developed during the historical alternative theatre movement, non-traditional spaces and non-traditional audiences. Each of the four companies has, out of necessity or choice, positioned itself outside of traditional theatre and entertainment circuits for some of its productions, negotiating symbolical and ideological independence side by side with large productions in repertory and/or commercial theatres. Each of the companies fosters, in addition, in their non-traditional places mechanisms that subvert circumstantially the hierarchical values imbued by neoliberal thought. The oppressed take centre-stage. Exposed to the vagaries of the weather, to exiguous or improvised audience spaces, expected to, forced by circumstances or incentivised to interact with fellow spectators and actors, audiences rediscover in the moment of the performance their shared humanity and form fleeting and secular communities of faith.

Numerous faith-based organizations (FBOs), denominations, and religious groups are represented in the United States. Faith leaders have the responsibility of addressing the spiritual needs of the congregation; however, the health needs of parishioners may be a point of discussion faith leaders should address. Communities surrounding FBOs may have limited health care services, lack transportation, and have serious health issues. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the experiences of faith leaders on giving health counseling to their congregation. Faith leaders play an essential role in providing health counseling on various health topics to their congregation and community. A total of 15 faith leaders were recruited from 6 counties in North Carolina by convenience sampling. Face-to-face face semi-structured interviews was the data collection method. The transformational leadership theory was used to examine how faith leaders motivate parishioners through constructs of the framework. Using NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software tool, the coded results indicated that faith leaders need specialized training to provide health counseling to parishioners about health issues shared beyond their field of expertise. The insight gained from faith leaders was important to understand the health-related resources needed to improve the health of parishioners. This study may be useful for faith leaders, public health educators, health policy makers, and researchers seeking to understand faith leaders' experiences; it could impact positive social change by providing resources and training needed to combat health-related issues within congregations.

No description available.

This thesis is about a pastoral theology of participation, guided by the process of participatory action research. It explores through the lived experience of the participants practical ways of doing friendship. On this research journey, I explore the discourse of individualism and how it blinds us to our connectedness as creations in the image of God. Without denying the benefits scientific development have to offer, I argue for a more richly textured individualism, inviting concern for the consequences of our actions on the well-being of others as part of our ethical ways of being. The Fourth Century description of a Christian as `friend of God' was the inspiration for the metaphor of friendship as a powerful counterweight against the isolating forces of a culture where the distorting ideology of consumerism and individualism are prevailing. I argue for the re-membering of this metaphor for God as friend, and the church as community-of-friends. Through the telling of tales of living friendship, interwoven with and giving life to the philosophy of friendship, I build further on the metaphor for the church as community-of-friends. I propose a Friendship Position Map and the metaphor of a circle of concern, arguing that although it comes more natural to us to love those close to us, and reach out to them in friendship, in an ethical spirituality of participation and mutual care, we are to follow Jesus' example and show hospitality towards all others, including strangers and enemies. Where many authors write about the importance of community, this thesis is about how to create the nourishing community we long for. It explores practical ways in which communities can overcome obstacles in their way to connect to each other through ethical ways of loving and doing friendship. It offers some ideas about learning to be friends in the inner circles of the circle of concern with those close to us, in order to do friendship in the outer circles. I explore the role of the church and faith communities as habitat for the nurturing and/or cultivating of living friendships, in inviting faith communities to live as community-of-friends; friends of God and of one another. / Practical Theology / D.Th. - (Practical Theology--Pastoral Therapy)