Marcella Althaus-Reid was a theologian who dared to imagine differently, a thinker whose inventive style brought striking originality to her writings on sexuality and gender, people and God. Her work is remembered most noticeably in theological academia for her conceptual phrase, ‘Indecent Theology’. In this thesis about questions of God, the innovative elements of Marcella’s literary corpus are developed in new ways by placing her academic theories alongside a practical research study undertaken in the alternative milieu of Church of Scotland congregations in Edinburgh. This primary material, which has been analysed through interview and focus group transcripts, together with questionnaire responses, brings revealing insights to frame the emerging tensions between churchgoers and Marcella across the dimensions of its four chapters. In each, the following themes are developed: the ambiguities surrounding questions of asking who God might be; the considerations involved in recognising God’s relationship with the Bible; the exploration of the extent to which sexuality and gender may influence God concepts; and the recognition of the role people play in evaluating their understandings of God in Christianity. Arranged in a rhythmical structure throughout, every chapter is first prefaced by a media-based report which contextualises relevant themes in a contemporary idiom, and is later concluded by a deconstructive postscript that, in fragmentary ways, invokes some critical concepts in the work of Jacques Derrida germane to the particular questions of God pursued in each.

The interest for doing this study is developed during my time as a student in textile history atUppsala university, Sweden. Textile history, as it is taught in Uppsala, uses both practical andtheoretical knowledge as a base for analysing, understanding and interpreting, textiles as sourcematerial in research. As a student in textile history I have sometimes experienced a lack ofunderstanding for the position it takes in the academic field, both from people within the textilehistorical field and from the outside. In this study, I take the opportunity to explore this position.I understand textile history research as a field in between the practical and theoretical.Knowledge in craft are used as a base for understanding source material, but are then oftenconnected to the theoretical framework of Material culture studies (MCS) for interpretation.But, even though this is an often-used theory, the problems of finding relevant texts and frame-works are difficult.By generating a grounded theory about the field of craft- and practical research in Swe-den, and then moving on to see what kind of literature the field of MCS can offer, I discuss theposition that textile historical research take between them. The generated theory shows that themain concern in the field of practical research are the aim to be an accepted part of the academy.The analysis of the literature in the field of MCS shows that the areas of technology and materialsciences need tools to understand the human aspect of production. From this I conclude thattextile history, as a field that is already part of creating a meeting between practical researchand MCS, could well take up the position to write its own theories. Theories grounded in prac-tical knowledge, but as a part of the field of MCS. Doing that would be of gain for both fields,and for the textile historians inhabiting and creating a meeting in between the fields.