Currently there is a critical shortage of transplantable organs in the UK. The existing evidence base highlights that cultural and religious norms can hinder familial consent and uptake of registration as an organ donor, particularly within ethnic minority groups. There is a dearth of information relating to the Polish community in the UK. Since the expansion of the European Union and the potential and consequent economic migration of Poles to the UK, this community presents a potential significant contribution to the active transplant waiting list, NHS Organ Donor Register and requests made for organs for donation on behalf of a relative. The aim of the study was to examine in depth, the perceptions of the relationship between deceased organ donation, gift exchange and religion. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, grounded theory methodology was used and one to one interviews were carried out with 31 participants who were recruited using a purposive convenience sampling strategy. This approach allowed for the collection of rich and deep data in a hitherto under-researched issue with the Polish community in the UK. To contextualise the key findings of the relationship, an in-depth analysis of settlement patterns, helping behaviour and experiences of and attitudes toward religion was conducted. The relationship between religion and gift-exchange was perceived to interact in different ways with deceased organ donation depending on the context. For the individual making an end-of-life choice, gift exchange impacted on the perception of the organ as a gift and whether reciprocity was expected, religion shaped views of the need for the body after death and social and cultural norms influenced the view of the 'typical' donor and family discussion of donation. For the relatives, social, religious and cultural norms impacted on death rituals and the conceptualisation of the dead body and experiences of a relative's death. This study contributes to an understanding of the social, cultural and religious norms toward deceased organ donation from a Polish perspective and the implications for policy, health promotion and clinical practice.

The Methodist Mission Northern has provided social services to the community since 1851. The underpinning philosophy of Methodist Mission Northern’s service provision is that of being a Good Neighbour. The concept of Good Neighbour derives from the Old and the New Testaments of the Holy Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and also public policy. A defining moment in the emergence of Christian universalism comes when the neighbour is asserted to include everyone, … while the Levite and the Cohen pass by the injured man… the Good Samaritan comes to his aid and proves himself the true neighbour of his (injured) neighbour [Zizek, Santner, & Reinhard, 2005, p. 6]. What does Good Neighbour entail in the context of so many people suffering owing to poverty, injustice and social exclusion? This study set out to examine how the concept of Good Neighbour has been put into practice and how that is relevant in contemporary public policy setting. This research was undertaken using phenomenological enquiry approach which explored the experiences of the key stakeholders namely the Board of Governors, the staff and the clients or service recipients of the Methodist Mission Northern to understand the impact of service delivery on clients. This was done through a review of the Minutes of the Board Meetings and Annual Reports over a twenty year period from 1986 to 2006. The study found that for the greater part of the history the operation of the concept of Good Neighbour by Methodist Mission Northern tended to focus on the charity model which provides for the day to day needs of the clients such as providing food, clothing and shelter and other immediate needs. For Methodist Mission Northern’s concept of Good Neighbour to reflect its underpinning philosophy more effectively the practice needs to move beyond the charity model into a community development model focussed on social change and transformation. This means meeting the needs of clients in ways that empower them to move towards independence and interdependent self sustainability.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 475-496).

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The Methodist Mission Northern has provided social services to the community since 1851. The underpinning philosophy of Methodist Mission Northern’s service provision is that of being a Good Neighbour. The concept of Good Neighbour derives from the Old and the New Testaments of the Holy Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and also public policy. A defining moment in the emergence of Christian universalism comes when the neighbour is asserted to include everyone, … while the Levite and the Cohen pass by the injured man… the Good Samaritan comes to his aid and proves himself the true neighbour of his (injured) neighbour [Zizek, Santner, & Reinhard, 2005, p. 6]. What does Good Neighbour entail in the context of so many people suffering owing to poverty, injustice and social exclusion? This study set out to examine how the concept of Good Neighbour has been put into practice and how that is relevant in contemporary public policy setting. This research was undertaken using phenomenological enquiry approach which explored the experiences of the key stakeholders namely the Board of Governors, the staff and the clients or service recipients of the Methodist Mission Northern to understand the impact of service delivery on clients. This was done through a review of the Minutes of the Board Meetings and Annual Reports over a twenty year period from 1986 to 2006. The study found that for the greater part of the history the operation of the concept of Good Neighbour by Methodist Mission Northern tended to focus on the charity model which provides for the day to day needs of the clients such as providing food, clothing and shelter and other immediate needs. For Methodist Mission Northern’s concept of Good Neighbour to reflect its underpinning philosophy more effectively the practice needs to move beyond the charity model into a community development model focussed on social change and transformation. This means meeting the needs of clients in ways that empower them to move towards independence and interdependent self sustainability.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on how the internal secularization of the Church ofSweden affects the congregations' work when it comes to fulfilling its mission. Where thecongregations may provide answers to the questions in their written planning of their tasks andfocus areas. Three internal secularization theories have been used in the analysis of the sourcematerial, which are ”classical secularization theory”, ”supply-side-theory” and a third theory whichcan be called the critical secularization theory.The first question in this study examines whether or not it is possible to see any regional differencesand similarities between the parishes The second question intend to investigate if there any topic orproblem that the congregations particularly highlights.. Based on the study of the source material,the third question aim to see if one theory of secularisation is more correct than the others when itcomes to describingthe development of the Church of Sweden today. The last question in this studywill try to place the parishes in one of Anneli Öljarstrand's two categories, these are the reluctantcongregation and the conformist one. These questions will be answered by using the contentanalysis method, where the analysis will be based on a coding scheme. The coding scheme containsfive categories that are based on the empirical material, the theory and the previous research.The answer to the questions has been that the congregations emphasize the importance of beinginclusive and open. And that there is a differnece between the parishest as well as similarities. Thestudy shows that the classical secularization theory are the theory that best fits the assembledcongregations. The answer to the last question is that there are congregations that fit in as bothconformist and reluctant.

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Peter L. Berger's conception of agency in his earliest writings (c.1954-1960) is logically and empirically inadequate. At the root of this inadequacy is an idealism that prevents him from providing a compelling account of actual empirical agency. Chapter 1 asserts that Berger's earlier works warrant analysis. Chapter 2 discusses Berger's earliest influences, particularly Max Weber and The Swedish Lund School of motif research. Chapter 3 identifies a unique commitment to Christian Humanism at the base of Berger's conception of agency. Chapter 4 clarifies how Berger's Christian humanism interacts with his Weberian, and Parsonian-inspired functional analysis of the American religious establishment. The thesis concludes (Chapter 5) by identifying more specifically how and why Berger's Christian humanism undermines his attempt to empirically ground human agency.

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2017-06-29T19:22:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JORGE MARTINS DE JESUS.pdf: 806339 bytes, checksum: 47e0774db213b89cef685468f3d946f6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-29T19:22:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JORGE MARTINS DE JESUS.pdf: 806339 bytes, checksum: 47e0774db213b89cef685468f3d946f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-14 / This Dissertation investigates the social function of the symbol of God's Kingdom and the role it played during specific periods of the history of the Christian religion, as well as the ways in which was suitable as power of social legitimacy by different groups. To achieve this, we used a methodology that is divided in three moments: as a basic strategy is research used the qualitative method, which will assist in the description of the Kingdom of God, symbol of its meaning, ressignifica??es and evolution that suffered during the periods covered; How to approach and method of data collection was chosen the hypothetico-deductive, through which, from the gap of knowledge that is evident in problem formulated, it is possible to develop hypotheses and test them through the process of deductive inferences; finally, as a method of procedure and data analysis is comparative-historical method, which, at the time investigating the events, circumstances and institutions of the past, can also check similarities and explain differences with other periods, explaining the way the social function of the Kingdom of God symbol was developed in the past and its influence in later periods. One of the hypotheses obtained as a result is that the main social function of the symbol of God's Kingdom play a structuring role and organizer of life in society, through a discursive and symbolizing action plan whose objectives are to create an ideal society through religion. With that, one of the arguments that is driven by this result relates to ambiguity in the use of the symbol that is the result of disputes and group interests, sometimes antagonistic, who dispute the legitimacy and the symbol manipulation. / A presente Disserta??o investiga a fun??o social do s?mbolo Reino de Deus e o papel que desempenhou durante per?odos espec?ficos da hist?ria da religi?o crist?, bem como as formas com que foi apropriada como poder de legitima??o social por diferentes grupos. Para isso, ? utilizada uma metodologia que divide-se em tr?s momentos: como forma de estrat?gia b?sica de investiga??o ? utilizado o m?todo qualitativo, o qual ir? auxiliar na descri??o do s?mbolo Reino de Deus, de seu significado, ressignifica??es e evolu??o que sofreu durante os per?odos abordados; como m?todo de abordagem e de coleta de dados foi escolhido o m?todo hipot?tico-dedutivo, pelo qual, a partir da lacuna de conhecimento que se evidencia no problema formulado, ? poss?vel elaborar hip?teses e test?-las pelo processo de infer?ncias dedutivas; por fim, como m?todo de procedimento e an?lise dos dados ? utilizado o m?todo hist?rico-comparativo, o qual, ao tempo que investiga acontecimentos, circunst?ncias e institui??es do passado, tamb?m pode verificar similitudes e explicar diverg?ncias com outros per?odos, explicando, assim, a forma com que a fun??o social do s?mbolo Reino de Deus foi desenvolvida no passado e a verifica??o de sua influ?ncia nos per?odos posteriores. Uma das hip?teses obtidas como resultado ? a de que a principal fun??o social do s?mbolo Reino de Deus ? desempenhar um papel estruturador e organizador da vida em sociedade, atrav?s de uma simboliza??o discursiva e de planos de a??o cujos objetivos s?o de criar uma sociedade ideal por meio da religi?o. Com isso, uma das discuss?es que ? orientada por esse resultado diz respeito a ambiguidade na utiliza??o do s?mbolo que ? resultado das disputas e dos interesses de grupos, ?s vezes, antag?nicos, que disputam a legitimidade e a manipula??o do s?mbolo.