Despite its importance, surrender as a Christian spiritual practice has, to date, been largely ignored and misrepresented. To restore the authentic positive meaning and value of Christian surrender in the context of contemporary life, this study, as a practical theological project, conducts an interdisciplinary critical dialogue between spiritual/theological literature and theories of psychology so as to present a theological redescription of surrender. To facilitate this critical interdisciplinary dialogue, the first two chapters of this dissertation retrieve and examine spiritual/theological and psychological descriptions of surrender individually. Then, the similarities and differences between the two groups of literature are critically compared and contrasted. Finally, on the basis of the previous examination, a redescription of surrender is presented. The key findings in this study confirm that surrender is a fundamental human relational longing and practice rooted in the relationality of God. Surrender not only plays crucial roles in establishing, maintaining and deepening human relationships with God, others, and one's own self, but also becomes an effective epistemological mode of Christian spirituality in which believers are able to become faithfully, humbly and courageously opened to God, transcending ordinary boundaries of human experience. In the final chapter, focusing on the relational nature of surrender, surrender and its roles are redescribed in terms of the four relational contexts: (a) Relationship with God; (b) Inner relationship; (c) Interpersonal relationship; and (d) Relationship with Reality (or Surrender to experience).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:715473 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Kang, Chunku |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=231847 |
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