Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 320-331).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-152).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 258-268).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-247).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-241).

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the unique and interactive effects of job stress (overtaxation, organizational, and management stress), religious coping (positive and negative), and church-based social support (received, provided, and anticipated) on the subsequent psychological outcomes (well-being and distress) among a national sample of Presbyterian clergy. The data were drawn from the February 1997 and November 1999 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) Panel Study. Clergy currently serving a local congregation were included in the analyses (N = 521). Findings indicate that overtaxation, organizational, and management job stressors tend to increase subsequent levels of psychological distress, while organizational and management job stressors tend to decrease subsequent levels of psychological well-being. Consistent with prior research and with Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, positive religious coping predicted subsequent psychological well-being. Finally, the findings from this study supported the stress-buffering effects of social support received from church members, indicating that this type of support may protect clergy from the damaging psychological effects of overtaxation and burnout over an extended period of time. This thesis concludes with a call for seminaries, denominations, and local churches to provide clergy serving in local church ministry with the social support they need. Doing so will enhance the psychological well-being of clergy, thus improving their personal capacity to effectively provide support to their church members and others in the community who seek their counsel. / text

Beginning with the fundamentalist controversy of the 1920’s, the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) was consistently divided by numerous disagreements over reunion with the Northern Presbyterian Church, racial policies, changing theological views, and resolutions on current social controversies. Led by groups such as the Southern Presbyterian Journal, Concerned Presbyterians, Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship, and Presbyterian Churchmen United, conservatives attempted to redirect the direction of the PCUS; however, their efforts failed. Disgruntled by a liberal-moderate coalition that held power, many conservatives withdrew and created the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 1973, the first major division of a Southern denomination. The PCA was not solely founded because of racial disagreements or any single cultural debate; rather decades’ long theological disagreements regarding the church’s role in society fueled separation along with several sharp social controversies. This departure also expedited reunion (1983) between the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations that formed the present Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PC(USA)). Like many other historic Protestant denominations, the PC(USA) has seen a decline in membership, but the PCA and other small Presbyterian denominations have been growing numerically thereby guaranteeing the continued presence of Presbyterianism in America.

The nineteenth century saw the revival and widespread propagation in Scotland of a view of Scottish history that put Presbyterianism at the heart of the nation's identity, and told the story of Scotland's history largely in terms of the church's struggle for religious and constitutional liberty. Key to this development was the Anti-Burgher minister Thomas M'Crie, who, spurred by attacks on Presbyterianism found in eighteenth-century and contemporary historical literature, between the years 1811 and 1819 wrote biographies of John Knox and Andrew Melville and a vindication of the Covenanters. M'Crie generally followed the very hard line found in the Whig- Presbyterian polemical literature that emerged from the struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth century; he was particularly emphatic in support of the independence of the church from the state within its own sphere. His defence of his subjects embodied a Scottish Whig interpretation of British history, in which British constitutional liberties were prefigured in Scotland and in a considerable part won for the British people by the struggles of Presbyterian Scots during the seventeenth century. M'Crie's work won a huge following among the Scottish reading public, and spawned a revival in Presbyterian historiography which lasted through the century. His influence was considerably enhanced through the affinity felt for his work by the Anti- Intrusionists in the Church of Scotland and their successors in the Free Church (1843- 1900), who were particularly attracted by his uncompromising defence of the spiritual independence of the church. The steady stream of historical works from Free Church ministers and laymen during the lifetime of the church corresponded with a very weak output of academic history, and in consequence the Free Church interpretation was probably the strongest single influence in forming the Scots' picture of their history in the late nineteenth century. Much of this interpretation, - particularly the belief in the particularly Presbyterian nature of the Scottish character and of the British constitution, was accepted by historians of the other main branches of the Presbyterian community, while the most determined opposition to the thesis was found in the work of historians of the Episcopal Church. Although the hold of the Presbyterian interpretation was weakened at the end of the century by factors including the merger of most of the Free Church in 1900 and the increasing appearance from 1900 of secular and sometimes anti-Presbyterian Scottish history, elements of it continued to influence the Scottish national self-image well into the twentieth century.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., 1998. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [351]-355).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.