Dissertations / Theses: 'Christianity and politics'

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Anstoetter, Donald T. "Christianity and the modern state in the philosophy of Pierre Manent." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2008. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p029-0736.

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Stephanous, Andrea Zaki. "Religion and politics in the Middle East : political Christianity in the Islamic context." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2002. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.504224.

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Erhueh, Anthony O. "THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY TO POLITICS IN NIGERIA A HISTORICO-THEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW." Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology, 1989. http://digital.library.duq.edu/u?/bet,1335.

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Karamura, Grace Patrick. "The interplay of Christianity, ethnicity and politics in Ankole, Uganda, 1953-1993." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1998. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/530/.

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Christianity was a powerful factor in the re-ordering of the ethno-political events in Ankole. Since its inception at the end of the 19th Century (1877 & 1879, Protestants and Catholics respectively), the Churches, both Protestant and Catholic have played a leading role in the new chapter of Western civilisation. Since then, the churches have been able to impact on people because of their pioneering advantage in social services like schools, hospitals and agriculture. Because of such advantage, by the mid 1950s, the churches were not only powerful forces in shaping the flow of events in their respective areas, but they were also entangled by various forces which have since been difficult to disentangle from. Ethnicity, religion and politics, forces that were not so pronounced before, became prominent after the introduction of Christianity and especially after the products of missionary schools graduated. Hence, since the 1950s, religious and ethnic polarisation have dictated the kind of politics in Ankole and Uganda generally with the disastrous consequences of religio-political divisionism. Underlying these forces is the ethnic factor which has hibernated between religion and politics. Thus, whereas it has been possible for the churches to grow in numbers in such a short time (within a century), the same growth factors have not been an advantage in dispelling ethnic and religious disparity. This is the main thesis of this research, that ethnicity more than religion or politics has been the contending factor in Ankole politics. This thesis is not simply a chronological study of Christianity in Ankole but looks at other wider social issues like the Banyarwanda refugees, the Ankole monarchy and Islam, and how these factors have impacted on the Ankole church.

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Entwistle, Philip Owen. "The dragon and the lamb : Christianity and political engagement in China." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e6b9286c-c7bf-43ff-8c1e-34fcb78bbe30.

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This thesis examines political engagement amongst young urban Chinese Protestants. Based on 100 interviews in Beijing and Shenzhen, 50 with Protestants, and 50 with non-Protestants, it focuses on three areas: national narratives (what individuals think about China, its current situation and its future direction), political opinions, and social and political activity. I firstly argue that Protestants generally adhere to a relatively ‘critical’ national narrative, one that is more divergent from the Party-state’s nationalist discourse than that of their demographic peers. I then argue that in causal terms, it is primarily individuals who hold these critical values who are most drawn to Christianity, rather than developing the values as a result of their faith. Secondly, Protestants do not just hold more negative opinions of China's political regime, but that the criteria by which they judge it are different. In contrast to their demographic peers, Protestants do not base their judgements of the regime on its performance at delivering on everyday political issues. Thirdly, Protestantism catalyses the development of a sense of agency in its adherents: a sense of moral responsibility towards China and a desire to bring change through transformative activism. However, factors in China's cultural, historical, social and political context serve to steer Protestants' activism away from engagement with secular society and inward towards the church community. I conclude by arguing that Protestantism poses two challenges to China's Party-state: Firstly, it is symptomatic of an underlying sense of social and political malaise, of scepticism towards the primacy of economic enrichment and towards the Party-state’s attempt to legitimise its rule based upon this. Secondly, Protestantism catalyses the emergence of a critical, morally agentic individualism that anchors its worldview in a discourse outside the control of the Party-state. Adapting to these social shifts presents a major future challenge for the CCP.

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Santos, da Costa Priscila. ""Re-designing the nation" : politics and Christianity in Papua New Guinea's national parliament." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14580.

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My thesis addresses how Christianity can constitute itself as a creative force and a form of governance across different scales. I carried out 12 months of fieldwork between 2013 and 2015 in Papua New Guinea's National Parliament (Port Moresby). My interlocutors were bureaucrats, liberal professionals and pastors who formed a group known as the Unity Team. The Unity Team, spearheaded by the Speaker of the 9th Parliament, Hon. Theodor Zurenuoc, were responsible for controversial initiatives, such as the destruction and dismantling of traditional carvings from Parliament in 2013, which they considered ungodly and evil, and the placement of a donated KJV Bible in the chamber of Parliament in 2015. My interlocutors regard Christianity as central to eliciting modern subjects and institutions. They consider Christianity to be a universal form of discernment, contrasted to particularistic forms of knowing and relating which are thought to create corruption and low institutional performance. I show how the Unity Team regarded Christianity as more than a way of doing away with satanic forces and building a Christian self. They expected Christianity to be a frame of reference informing work ethics, infusing citizenship and, finally, productive of a public and national realm. By exploring Christianity ethnographically, I offer a contribution to Anthropological discussions concerning politics, bureaucracy, citizenship, and nation-making.

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Van, Dyke Robert Todd. "Discerning the powerful reign Paul's political theology in Philippians /." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2000. http://www.tren.com.

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Scratcherd, George. "Ecclesiastical politics and the role of women in African-American Christianity, 1860-1900." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:120f3d76-27e5-4adf-ba8b-6feaaff1e5a7.

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This thesis seeks to offer new perspectives on the role of women in African-American Christian denominations in the United States in the period between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century. It situates the changes in the roles available to black women in their churches in the context of ecclesiastical politics. By offering explanations of the growth of black denominations in the South after the Civil War and the political alignments in the leadership of the churches, it seeks to offer more powerful explanations of differences in the treatment of women in distict denominations. It explores the distinct worship practices of African-American Christianity and reflects on their relationship to denominational structure and character, and gender issues. Education was central to the participation of women in African-American Christianity in the late nineteenth century, so the thesis discusses the growth of black colleges under the auspices of the black churches. Finally it also explores the complex relationship between domestic ideology, the politics of respectability, and female participation in the black churches.

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Talone, Joseph P. "An apology for Christian political involvement." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1990. http://www.tren.com.

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Watkyns, Brian Richard William. "The relationship between religion and rights in the writings of John Locke." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15829.

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Bibliography: pages 168-181.
Since 1945 the emphasis on rights has been an ever-increasing phenomenon while the influence of the church plays an ever-diminishing role in today's society. The irony of the situation is that rights have their source in religion. It is Locke who is credited with having put the question of rights into the mainstream of political thinking and it was Locke's faith in God that enabled him to put forward the political doctrine that will be considered in this thesis. The theme of this study is the reconciliation of traditional Christianity with humanist political theory's emphasis on rights in Locke's Political Philosophy which I have termed Theopolity. It traces Locke's thoughts, starting with his view on the creation of man which ultimately gives rise to natural and human rights. These rights, when violated by Government, legitimately result in revolution. Locke has three areas of thought, which when combined, give rise to his political doctrine. These areas are Epistemology, Theology, and Politics. He believed that after creation man was in the State of Nature. This state of Nature was controlled by the law of Nature which gave rise to, and preserved, Natural Rights. To ensure the protection of these Rights the individual entered into a Social Contract and so created a political society. Once society had been established, a Government was formed to ensure the protection of the individual by means of civil laws. These laws extended Natural Rights and these extended rights are known as Human Rights. This study concludes that John Locke's political thought is the most cogent political doctrine that can be adopted by rational individuals who share a strong sense of justice and morality in a Democratic Christian Society. It shows that Locke's pursuit of truth led to his basic, common-sense politics which was the embodiment of the true state of man in a society where the individual's God-given rights are respected.

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Ropi, Ismatu. "Muslim responses to Christianity in modern Indonesia." Thesis, McGill University, 1998. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21260.

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As Indonesian Muslim depictions of Christianity have varied over time, this study is an attempt to provide a brief survey of the Muslim attitudes towards Christianity in modern Indonesia. It will set the stage by first investigating the Muslim depiction of Christianity as found in the seventeenth century works of Nuruddin al-Raniri. It will go on to survey some aspects of Dutch colonial policy concerning Indonesian Islam and will cover Muslim responses to and perceptions of Christian doctrine in the Old Order and New Order periods. Some polemical writings from the two communities produced by such writers as Hendrik Kraemer, F. L. Bakker, A. Hassan, A. Haanie and Hasbullah Bakry will be examined in detail.
This thesis will inquire into the connection between Indonesian Muslims' treatment of Christians, ranging from polemic and suspicion to dialogue and accommodation, and political events which occurred and religio-political policies adopted particularly in the New Order under Soeharto. Furthermore, this thesis will also discuss the works of Mukti Ali and Nurcholish Madjid who in recent years have called for the more objective and positive dialogue leading to practical cooperation between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia.

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Feinberg, Sarah A. "Stanley Hauerwas's true politics in the church." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1996. http://www.tren.com.

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Robinson, Carin. "Doctrine, discussion and disagreement Evangelical Protestant interaction with Catholics in American politics /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (ProQuest) Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2008. http://worldcat.org/oclc/436288150/viewonline.

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Keller, Megan. "The Two Conversions of John Newton: Politics & Christianity in the British Abolitionist Movement." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1873.

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This thesis interrogated the relationship between abolition and the evangelical revival in Britain through the life of John Newton. Newton, though not representative of every abolitionist, was a vital figure in the movement. His influence on Hannah More and William Wilberforce along with his contributions to the Parliamentary hearings made him a key aspect of its success. How he came to fulfill that role was a long and complex journey, both in terms of his religion and his understanding of slavery. He began his life under the spiritual direction of his pious, Dissenting mother, became an atheist by nineteen, and then an influential, evangelical minister in the Church of England in his later adulthood. In the midst of that journey, Newton was impressed, joined the crew of a slave ship, was himself enslaved, became a slave ship captain, and then, eventually, a fervent abolitionist. Though it was far from straightforward, Newton's evangelical Calvinistic theology seems to have driven him to ultimately condemn the slave trade. Understanding the relationship between Newton’s two conversions—to evangelical Christianity and abolitionism—gives modern readers’ insight into the intellectual roots of the abolitionist movement more broadly, the dynamics between Christianity and politics, as well as how individual moral choice can affect history.

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Booyse, Adonis Carolus. "The sovereignty of the African districts of the African Methodist Episcopal Church :a historical assessment." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2010. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_6342_1298630360.

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This research project focuses on the relationship between the American and the African districts of the African Methodist Episcopal Church during the period from 1896 to 2004. It investigates the factors which led to the tensions emerged in the relationship between the American districts and the African districts. It specifically investigates the reasons for the five secession movements that took place in the 15th and 19th Districts of the AME Church in 1899, 1904, 1908, 1980 and 1998. The research problem investigated in this thesis is therefore one of a historical reconstruction, namely to identify, describe and assess the configurations of factors which contributed to such tensions in relationship between the AME Church in America and Africa. The relationships between the American and the African districts of the AME Church have been characterised by various tensions around the sovereignty of the African districts. Such tensions surfaced, for example, in five protest movements, which eventually led to secessions from the AME Church in South Africa. The people of the African continent merged with the American based AME Church with the expectation that they would be assisted in their quest for self-determination. The quest for self-determination in the AME Church in Africa has a long history. The Ethiopian Movement was established by Mangena Maake Mokone in 1892 as a protest movement against white supremacy and domination in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. However, the lack of infrastructure within the Ethiopian Movement and the constant harassment from the Governments of South Africa in the formation of black indigenous churches compelled Mokone to link with a more established and independent Black Church. The AME Church presented such an opportunity to Mokone. The parallels of subordination in the history of the Ethiopian Movement and the AME Church in America gave Mokone to hope that the quest for self-reliance could be attained within the AME Church...

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Filby, Liza. "God and Mrs Thatcher : religion and politics in 1980s Britain." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4527/.

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The core theme of this thesis explores the evolving position of religion in the British public realm in the 1980s. Recent scholarship on modern religious history has sought to relocate Britain's "secularization moment" from the industrialization of the nineteenth century to the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s. My thesis seeks to add to this debate by examining the way in which the established Church and Christian doctrine continued to play a central role in the politics of the 1980s. More specifically it analyses the conflict between the Conservative party and the once labelled "Tory party at Prayer", the Church of England. Both Church and state during this period were at loggerheads, projecting contrasting visions of the Christian underpinnings of the nation's political values. The first part of this thesis addresses the established Church. It begins with an examination of how the Church defined its role as the "conscience of the nation" in a period of national fragmentation and political polarization. It then goes onto explore how the Anglican leadership, Church activists and associated pressure groups together subjected Thatcherite neo-liberal economics to moral scrutiny and upheld social democratic values as the essence of Christian doctrine. The next chapter analyses how the Church conceptualized Christian citizenship and the problems it encountered when it disseminated this message to its parishioners. The second half of this study focuses on the contribution of Christian thought to the New Right. Firstly, it explores the parallels between political and religious conservatism in this period and the widespread disaffection with liberal Anglicanism, revealing how Parliament became one of the central platforms for the traditionalist Anglican cause. Secondly, it demonstrates how those on the right argued for the Christian basis of economic liberalism and of the moral superiority of capitalism over socialism. The next chapter focuses on the public doctrine of Margaret Thatcher, detailing how she drew upon Christian doctrine, language and imagery to help shape and legitimise her political vision and reinforce her authority as leader. Finally, the epilogue traces the why this Christian-centric dialogue between the Church and Conservative government eventually dissipated and was superseded by a much more fundamental issue in the 1990s as both the ruling elite and the Church were forced to recognise the religious diversity within British society.

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Nilsson, Erik. "Conserving the American Dream : Faith and Politics in the U.S. Heartland." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Socialantropologiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-80374.

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Recent decades have seen substantial changes in the U.S. political landscape. One particularly significant development has been the growing influence of a conservative coalition encompassing evangelical Christianity, interventionist foreign policy and neoliberal reform. This study explores the force and internal dynamics of this political assemblage. Based on fieldwork among conservative voters, volunteers and candidates in a small city in northwestern Ohio during a midterm election year, it probes the energy of conservative politics, its modes of attachment and influence, and the organizational forms through which it circulates. Contemporary conservative politics are shown to be centered on a particular epistemological intuition: that to be able to act, one must believe in something. This intuition implies an actively affirmative stance toward “beliefs” and “values.” The study also addresses methodological and analytical challenges that conservative politics pose for anthropological inquiry. It develops a “conversational” analytical attitude, arguing that in order to understand the lasting influence conservatism one has to take seriously the problems that it is oriented toward.

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Angelova, Iliyana. "Baptist Christianity and the politics of identity among the Sumi Naga of Nagaland, northeast India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:653e1bad-b11b-42be-994c-b4e7c396d12c.

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This doctoral thesis explores the entanglement of religion and identity politics in the Indo-Burma borderlands and the indigenisation of Christianity there through grassroots processes of cultural revivalism. The ethnographic focus is on the Sumi Naga from the state of Nagaland in Northeast India. While the Sumi started converting to Baptist Christianity at the beginning of the twentieth century, conversion rates accelerated especially in the 1950s and again in the 1970s when two evangelical revivals swept across the lands of the Sumi and resulted in their conversion en masse. Significantly, these Great Revivals coincided in time with the most turbulent political history of this borderland region, as the Sumi, alongside all other Naga, were waging an armed struggle against the Indian nation-state for their right to self-determination and independence. While this struggle is now largely being fought with political rather than military means, it remains ideologically motivated by Naga perceptions of their distinct ethnic identity, history and culture compared to the rest of India. Baptist Christianity has played a central role in shaping and sustaining these perceptions. Over the past several decades following the Second Great Revival in the 1970s there has been a movement from within Sumi society to reconstruct and redefine their identity by drawing heavily on both their contemporary religion (Baptist Christianity) and their 'good' pre-Christian culture, which had been demonised and rejected in the course of earlier conversions. Discourses have been circulating in public space on the urgent need to reconceptualise collective Sumi identity by reviving, or preserving, those aspects of pre-Christian Sumi culture that are perceived as 'good' and constitutive of Sumi-ness but are currently 'under threat' of being gradually lost to modernity and foreign influences. These discourses are directly linked to processes of cultural revivalism across Nagaland, which have been motivated by a sense of the perceived loss of 'good' cultural heritage and cultural roots. This thesis is an ethnographic study of these processes of identity (re)construction within a Sumi Naga community. It sets out to examine the ways in which Baptist Christianity is central to everyday life in a Sumi village and how it plays an important role in forging group cohesion and solidarity through ritual practice and various forms of fellowship. The thesis then proceeds to study the phenomenon of cultural revivalism in both its discursive and practical manifestations. The thesis argues that the cultural revival has not reduced the centrality of Baptist Christianity to Sumi self-ascriptions and perceptions of identity, but is rather thought to have enriched it and given it a stronger cultural foundation. Hence, a Sumi Naga Christianity is being created which is perceived as unique, indigenous and distinct in its own right. The thesis attempts to explore the essence of this vernacular Christianity against the backdrop of its specific historical, economic, political and spiritual context and the all-encompassing Naga struggle against the Indian nation-state. In pursuing these issues, the thesis locates itself within debates on the intersection between religion and identity politics, which prevail in many contemporary contributions to the anthropology of Christianity.

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Davis, Richard Arthur. "Political church and the profane state in John Milbank and William Cavanaugh." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8216.

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Contemporary political and public theology is predominantly statist, with a view of the state as the solver of human problems, and with the church urging the state to do more to bring about social justice and peace. This practice of politics as statecraft has been forcefully challenged by a number of recent theologians, such as those within the theological movement known as Radical Orthodoxy. Against such a backdrop, this thesis examines the work of two of Radical Orthodoxy’s most political writers: John Milbank and William Cavanaugh. Their characterization of the state, as based in nominalist philosophy and violence, is highly negative. This negative assessment renders statist theologies and the practice of statecraft profane and deeply problematic for Christians. They prefer instead to see the church as the only true politics. Yet this move places their ecclesial and sacramental politics in the overall modern movement of the politicization of Christianity. This thesis argues that the state is neither sacred nor profane, but if accepted as mundane, it is something that can be freely engaged with by the church as part of its overall witness to politics and society. In order to outline and assess the political theology of Milbank and Cavanaugh three biblical and doctrinal lenses – creation, preservation, and redemption – are used to judge their work. From the viewpoint of creation we see where Milbank and Cavanaugh find the origins of the state in comparison with other theological positions. This carries through to the commonly held view that the state is in the order of preservation, as an ordinance of God preserving human society from the chaos caused by human sinfulness. Finally, in redemption we see how in both Milbank and Cavanaugh the state becomes an anti-redeemer in competition with the political salvation found in the church and voluntary associations. The thesis concludes by drawing on the work of Jacques Ellul in advocating the desacralization of the state from being either sacred or profane. Such a perspective enables the Church to freely engage in statecraft as just one tactic in its political advocacy without corrupting itself.

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Muscato, Peter A. "Boundaries and strategy for Christian political action." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1988. http://www.tren.com.

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Gregorowski, Christopher. "Anglican identity and contemporary relevance : a critical study of the Partners in Mission process within the Church of the Province of Southern Africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14650.

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Bibliography: leaves 436-444.
This is a church historical study and critical theological analysis of the Partners in Mission (PIM) process in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), which uses methods appropriate to such a study. Chapter 1 examines the background against which the PIM process and CPSA's PIM 'Vision' must be seen: Anglicanism, its origins, intentions and mission - and the tension between Anglican identity and contemporary relevance. Chapter 2 traces the process of renewal which has been described as the Anglican Communion's 'coming of age', and identifies some of the themes which were later to become 'The Vision'. The Anglican PIM process emerged out of the church's efforts to adjust to the rapidly changing post-colonial world of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, when Anglican provinces within newly-independent nations could no longer be regarded as inferior to and dependent on the Church of England. A watershed in this quest was the Anglican Congress in Toronto in 1963, when for the first time the equal partnership was articulated in the statement Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ (MRI). MRI became a Communion-wide programme which evolved into the PIM process, and together they constitute the Anglican Church's programme of contemporary reform and renewal. The CPSA is a full participant in this PIM process and has held three PIM Consultations, the third of which took place in November 1987 when the church was given the vision to engage in the struggle for the eradication of apartheid and the building of new societies of justice and peace in southern Africa. .In Chapter 3 we examine the Provincial 1987 Consultation, the process which led up to it and the making of The Vision. In Chapter 4 we examine publications and records of the CPSA and correspondence with the Bishops of the Province which describe the implementation of The Vision in the life of the CPSA and its contribution to the church's mission. Chapter 5 is a critical evaluation of the CPSA's PIM process, based on the evidence of the previous chapter. Our conclusion is that The Vision has been only partially implemented because of the church's persistent failure to transform words into actions, poor communication, the failure to focus on priorities, a lack of resources, traditionalism and clericalism in the CPSA, the fear of loss of identity, and a spiritual crisis - much of which points to a lack of appropriate leadership. The consequences of ineffective implementation include the failure of the CPSA as a whole to engage relevantly with the crisis in southern Africa, to express appropriate penitence and make restitution for its part in the sin of apartheid, and to engage in effective evangelism. Chapter 6 is an attempt to see how the CPSA could be renewed by means of a revitalised PIM process, in order to be relevant in southern Africa today. We explore a possible pastoral plan and ways in which the CPSA would benefit from engaging more fully in the 'Kairos' process. The CPSA will contribute to the life and future direction of the Anglican Communion insofar as it is true to its ecumenical calling to witness to the kingdom of God as a part of the church in southern Africa, and the Communion will best serve its members and enable them to discover their true identity by setting them free to be faithful to their mission in their various contexts. Throughout this study we have used primary source documents from the Anglican Communion and the CPSA which tell of the birth, progress an implementation of MRI, PIM and The Vision.

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Tsukada, John Jutaro. "Whose politics? Which story? : a critical engagement with Constantinianism and theological accommodationism with Stanley Hauerwas, with a special focus on the churches in Japan." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2016. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=231632.

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This thesis aims to show how Hauerwas's ecclesiology, especially its critique of Constantinianism and liberal politics, offers a biblically defensible and christianly faithful way of being a church for the churches of the developed world, including Japan. The first part (Ch. 1-5) outlines a definition of the term Constantinianism as well as Hauerwas's counter-Constantinian theology. It clarifies one of the most frequently used terms by Stanley Hauerwas, Constantinianism, and sets out his counter-Constantinian ecclesiology (Ch. 1-4). Chapter five defends his position from one of its central critics and of the most ardent and robust Constantinian proponents, Peter Leithart, by showing how the kind of theology that pursues power and control in the world must do so by bypassing Jesus' servanthood as revealed in his death on the cross, and how this elision clouds the eyes of Christians and entices the church to renounce her obedience and faithfulness to her Lord for securing a safe haven for her in this world. The second half of the dissertation (Ch. 6-9) deploys these theological considerations in order to analyze Japanese Christianity and suggest that there are strong cultural trajectories named basso ostinato by Maruyama Masao that render Japanese churches especially vulnerable to Constantinian temptation. The concise Christian history narrated in Ch. 7-9 substantiates the relevancy of Maruyama's analysis and reveals how the Japanese church was turned into a docile servant of the Empire of Japan with merging the Lordship of Jesus Christ with that of tennō, the kingdom of God with the tennō's empire. I conclude that Hauerwas's warnings about Constantinianism remain pertinent today in reminding the Japanese church, along with all the churches of the developed world, that the business of the church is the creation of a new people who live out the politics of Jesus.

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Huckins, Kyle David. "Religion, politics and journalism : testing theoretical constructs of framing /." Digital version accessible at:, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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Mansfield, Stephen Lee. "Government in a "post-Christian age" religion in American public life /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1988. http://www.tren.com.

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Booyse, Adonis Carolus. "The relationship between the congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in Piketberg, 1903-1972." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2004. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&amp.

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This thesis investigated the factors contributing to the tense relationship between the congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in Piketberg during 1903-1972. It investigated the reasons why two congregations of colour in a small town as Piketberg were established. The problem that was investigated was a social, historical and religious one of determining which factors contributed to such tension.

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Linneman, Thomas John. "Political climates, perceptions of risk, and contemporary activisms /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8850.

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Noh, Seong Lim. "Religion and cultural policy in North Korea : the significance of Protestantism in politics, culture and international relations from the 1970s to the early 1990s." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/86997/.

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This thesis explores the significance of Protestantism in North Korean politics, culture and international relations from the 1970s to the early 1990s. It focuses on the activities of the Korean Christian Federation (KCF), against the background of inter-Korean and international relations as well as domestic changes in the Protestant sphere. In the early 1970s, in pursuit of an advantageous position over the South Korean government on issues surrounding inter-Korean relations, the North Korean government began to demonstrate a certain degree of flexibility in foreign policy. However, in the mid-1970s, long-running disputes on inter-Korean issues in the UN General Assembly ended in stalemate, with no clear plan for achieving a generally acceptable compromise. At this point, the DPRK regime turned its attention towards international non-governmental organisations. In order to form a united front against the South Korean government, the DPRK government established several non-governmental organisations, of which the KCF was an example, in order to make contact with these external groups. Two main findings emerged from my analysis of the KCF’s policies. First, the revival of the KCF and Protestant community in North Korea was based on political necessity. In other words, the KCF’s exchange activities with Protestants outside North Korea were political despite their religious identity. Through examining the exchanges between the KCF, overseas Korean Protestants, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the National Council of Churches in [South] Korea (NCCK), this thesis provides evidence that the DPRK government revived the KCF for the political purpose of gaining the upper hand over the South Korean government in dealing with inter-Korean issues. In particular, what the North Korean regime expected to gain from the KCF’s exchanges with Protestant organisations outside North Korea was moral ascendancy over the South Korean government. Second, from an ecumenical standpoint, the thesis also argued that the political association between the KCF and other Protestant organisations outside North Korea was made possible thanks to their common Protestant identity. In order to associate the KCF with Protestant organisations outside North Korea, the DPRK regime understood that the authenticity of North Korean Protestantism must first be acknowledged by the outside world. To establish the ties of religious kinship, the DPRK not only revived a proper ecclesiastical form, including the establishment of two churches in western style, but also made changes to its legal regulations and even to the national Juche culture, in order to accommodate Protestant activities in North Korea. In this thesis, Gramsci’s theory of hegemony was employed as a research framework to reveal how the DPRK’s policies towards Protestantism were confined not only to the religious sphere, but were often intertwined with politics. Religious policies are therefore considered as a form of implicit cultural policy; that is, an intangible political strategy that produces relevant normative values for stabilising a political regime.

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Sookhdeo, Patrick. "The impact of Islamization on the Christian community of Pakistan." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313351.

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Egan, Anthony. "The National Catholic Federation of Students : a study of political ideas and activities within a Christian student movement, 1960-1987." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21836.

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Bibliography: pages 191-212.
This is a study of the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS), an organisation that sought to bring together Catholic students on South African university campuses, examining specifically NCFS' political ideas and activities from 1960 to 1987. The underlying supposition of this thesis is that church history ought to be an integral part of the discipline of history, and that there is a need to write church history from "below" from the perspectives of the "people's church", the church that comprises the religious experience of the majority of its members rather than its hierarchy.

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Rhodes, Jeremy R. Dougherty Kevin D. "Evangelical Democrats and role conflict." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5167.

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Savage, James Peter Tyrone. "The ambiguity of God : a post-colonial inquiry into the politics of theistic formulation in South Africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14747.

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Bibliography: leaves 115-131.
This thesis sets out to locate a post-apartheid perspective within what might be described as postcolonial Religious Studies, drawing on the genealogical method of Michel Foucault. Roughly stated, I understand the methodology to represent a shift away from preoccupation with the actual truth or otherwise of an idea, towards concern with the agitation - the discord, the discrepancies - that characterizes the appearance of an idea. Within the parameters, paradigms and possibilities imposed by this method, I inquire into the politics of theistic formulation in South Africa prior to the Union of South Africa (1910). Part One of the thesis discusses the politics of the advent of the Christian God in Southern Africa. In the three chapters that comprise this section, I situate colonial beliefs about God within colonialism as a discursive genre; in particular, evidence is provided of the deployment of religious (and in particular theistic) sensibility as a strategic category in the Othering discourse by which European expansion into Southern Africa was promulgated. Chapter Two opens by observing that colonial constructions of Otherness served not only to "erase" (Spivak) autochthonic identity, but also to eulogize and assert the colonial Self. Contextualizing my argument in the debate about the ambiguous effects of colonial missionary activities, I examine the mythically imbued, Othering discourse of Robert Moffat as a particularly conspicuous instance of the missionary qua colonial Self. Chapter Three gathers the concerns of Part One around the problem of theistic formulation in a colonial context, by discussing John Colenso's discovery of a theistic sensibility indigenous to autochthonic Africans as an example of a transgression of the Christian discourse that colonialism made function as truth. Part Two makes use of the categories established in Part One, and applies them to Afrikanerdom: its Othering in British colonial discourse; its religiously imbued, mythic history; and its beliefs in God. Having brought to theistic formulation a Foucauldian suspicion of systems of truth, my argument turns in Part Three to bring a particular theology, theologia crucis, alongside Foucault: accepting that the "dogmatic finitization" (Wolfhart Pannenberg) of Christian belief is inherently susceptible to the play of power, I observe that theistic formulation cast in terms of the cross - the "Crucified God" (Jurgen Moltmann) - holds a subversive potential in which may lie possibilities for an alternative to "truth".

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Gault, Timothy D. "The Christian's responsibilites to a participatory democracy." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1995. http://www.tren.com.

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Lehman, Thomas E. "The politics of Christianity : an analysis and comparison of the economic and social views of the Christian right." Virtual Press, 1994. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/897527.

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Studies have suggested that the Christian Right, composed largely of Protestant fundamentalists, is a political movement characterized by an extreme right-wing (conservative) ideological bias. The general assumption by students of religion and politics has been that the Christian Right reflects a consistently conservative position with regard to both economic and social policy issues. However, minimal quantitative research has been employed to lend substance to such theories. The goal of this study was to employ quantitative research data to determine the political biases and ideology of Protestant fundamentalists on bothChristian Right is indeed conservative on issues policy, but much less so (even somewhat liberal) on economic or social welfare policy.This study was conducted using survey data collected by the National Opinion Research Center, General Social Surveys (NORC). The Protestant respondents were separated from the non-Protestant respondents, and indexes were computed to reflect the composite scores of the Protestant respondents on issues of social policy and social welfare policy. Although the results were somewhat inconclusive with regard to social welfare issues, the findings generally supported the hypothesis: There is a statistically significant positive relationship between social policy conservatism and degree of Protestant fundamentalism, strong enough to be of theoretical importance. Conversely, there is, in some instances, a statistically significant positive relationship between support for social welfare and degree of Protestant fundamentalism. The prevailing theory that Protestant fundamentalists are economic conservatives was shown to be a questionable if not a false theory.The conclusion of the present study was that the Christian Right is acutely aware of and politically motivated by social policy issues, concerned that the fundamentalist's perception of the proper morality is carried out in public policy. The Protestant fundamentalist position on issues of social policy reflects a conservative ideological bias. The economic issues, however, are of much less importance to members of the Christian Right, and perhaps may be unrelated to any type of religious position or religious intensity. Where relationships were found to exist, the Christian Right was shown to be moderate or even liberal, reflecting some degree of support for government-provided social welfare programs, a position at variance with the general conservative political movement. Some speculations as to the dichotomy of the Christian Right as a conservative political movement are offered, and several reasons for this dichotomy between social and economic policy issues are offered in light of the religious beliefs held by Protestant fundamentalists.
Department of Political Science

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Scott-Coe, Justin M. "Covenant Nation: The Politics of Grace in Early American Literature." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/45.

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The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of "covenant" in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek's theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more "secular" forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an overview of recent attempts to integrate theology and theory, specifically comparing Jacques Derrida and Zizek to better understand the latter's theology of materialism which relies on as well as informs the Reformed Protestant covenantal dichotomy of grace and works. The second chapter establishes the complicated architecture of the covenant concept within seventeenth-century New England Reformed Protestantism, and uses church membership transcripts along with Ann Hutchinson court trial documents to demonstrate how this inherently unstable theology created unintended slippage between God's grace and mankind's works, resulting in a theological formulation remarkably open to Zizek's analysis of political ideology. The third chapter demonstrates how Jonathan Edwards, through his ingenious counter-argument in Freedom of Will, provides a theoretical foundation for an uneasy but necessary alignment of the covenants of works and grace, releasing the subjunctive potential of grace to operate through history as a predeterminer of meaning and, potentially, freedom. In the last chapter, I argue that Emerson finally converts the covenant from a politically conceptualized theological framework for radical grace into a personal institutionalization of grace itself. Stanley Cavell's exploration of Emerson's "constitution" in light of the covenant motif demonstrates the political (im)possibilities inherent in America's self-conceptions of personal liberty and civic equality. In the end, complexities inherent in the concept of the covenant, especially its creative failure to control the radical nature of "grace," are determinative factors in our contradictory American egalitarian ideals.

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Barrett, Rob. "Disloyalty and destruction : religion and politics in Deuteronomy and the modern world /." London : T & T Clark, 2009. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9780567614148.

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Elliott, Janis. "The Last Judgement scene in central Italian painting, c.1266-1343 : the impact of Guelf politics, papal power and Angevin iconography." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2000. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36355/.

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The dissertation recontextualizes the iconographical developments of the Last Judgement scene in Central Italian mural painting in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries by exploring the theological and political contexts in which these scenes were produced. Two striking events mark the evolution of the Late Medieval Last Judgement scene: first, the revival of the 'complete' Last Judgement after a period of contraction, and second, the separation of Heaven and Hell from the Last Judgement. Both of these features reflect an increasing anxiety about the fate of the soul in the afterlife: a fate which, by the end of the thirteenth century, had moved from the end of time itself to the moment of an individual's death. The first chapter concerns Pietro Cavallini's fresco in S.Cecilia in Trastevere (c.1293), its place within the Roman tradition of Last Judgement scene, and its role as the earliest surviving monumental example of the 'complete' Last Judgement. Chapter II concerns the frescoes of S.Maria Donnaregina in Naples (c.1317-23), patronized by the Angevin queen, Maria of Hungary. In 1266 the Papacy conferred on Charles I of Anjou the Kingdom of Naples in exchange for defense of the Papal States, and the Angevins became the chief administrators of civil and penal justice throughout the Papal States and independent Guelf city-states. A discussion of Angevin iconography establishes a connection between Angevin self-image and the Last Judgement scene. Chapter III is devoted to Giotto's Last Judgement at the Arena Chapel in Padua (c.1305) and its imitator at S.Maria Maggiore in Tuscania (c.1320). The chapter includes a discussion of thirteenth-century papal decrees concerning the fate of the soul in the afterlife, the appearance of the penitent patron at the foot of the cross, and the possibility of a Papal-Angevin-Guelf influence on the production of both of these frescoes. Chapter IV on the "Angevin Connection" begins with a reinterpretation of the iconography of the Florence Baptistery mosaics (c.1271-1330) in terms of their patronage by the Church and the exclusively Guelf Guild of the Calimala. The first instance of the separation of Paradise and Inferno from the Last Judgement, in the Magdalen Chapel of the Bargello in Florence (c.1322), is discussed in light of the civic function of the chapel and of Angevin control of the office of podesta. The relief panels of the façade of Orvieto Cathedral (c.1290-1330) are also considered in view of Papal and Angevin domination of that city. In Chapter V the influence of the Magdalen Chapel's separation of Heaven and Hell is linked to the increasing secularization of the Last Judgement scene as evidenced in the Campo Santo, Pisa (c.1330) and the nave of S.Croce, Florence (c.1330). The revival of the 'complete' Last Judgement scene in Late Medieval Central Italy was the result of theological changes concerning the afterlife, the rise of the penitential movement, and the formation of the Papal-Angevin-Guelf alliance for whom the triumphant scene of judgement became emblematic. The individual's anxiety about the fate of his soul at the moment of death and the appropriation of the Last Judgement for use in secular contexts affected the separation of Heaven and Hell from the Last Judgement and brought about the secularization of a traditionally sacred scene.

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Kabala, James Stanley. "A Christian nation? : church-state relations in the early American republic, 1787--1846." View abstract/electronic edition; access limited to Brown University users, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3318336.

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Lazar, John. "Conformity and conflict : Afrikaner nationalist politics in South Africa, 1948-1961." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5f5ea531-d869-478f-ac8d-678bd5e66f8a.

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One of the principal themes of this thesis is that it is incorrect to treat "Afrikanerdom" as a monolithic, unified ethnic entity. At the time of its election victory in 1948, the National Party (NP) represented an alliance of various factions and classes, all of whom perceived their Interests in different ways. Given, too, that black resistance to exploitation and oppression increased throughout the 1950s, apartheid ideology cannot be viewed as an immutable, uncontested blueprint, which was stamped by the NP on to a static political situation. The thesis is based on four main strands of research. It is grounded, firstly, in a detailed analysis of Afrikaner social stratification during the 1950s. The political implications of the rapid increase in the number of Afrikaners employed in "white-collar" occupations, and the swift economic expansion of the large Afrikaner corporations, are also examined. The second strand of research examines the short-term political problems which faced the nationalist alliance in the years following its slim victory in the 1948 election. Much of the NP's energy during its first five years in office was spent on consolidating its precarious hold on power, rather than on the imposition of a "grand" ideological programme. Simultaneously, however, intense discussions - and conflicts - concerning the long-term implications, goals and justifications of apartheid were taking place amongst Afrikaner intellectuals and clergymen. A third thrust of the thesis will be to examine the way in which these conflicts concretely shaped the ultimate direction of apartheid policy and ideology. Nationalist politics was also affected by the legacy of the aggressive Christian-Nationalism of the 1930s. The final main task of the thesis is to trace how and why the key tenets of Christian-Nationalism - especially those pertaining to republicanism and education - developed after 1948.

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Belton, Douglas. "The Massachusetts Bay colony experience the Puritan hope /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2006. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p001-1161.

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Wyneken, JonDavid K. "Driving out the demons : German churches, the Western Allies, and the internationalization of the Nazi past, 1945-1952 /." View abstract, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3282701.

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Surufka, Michaels G. "Franciscans at the United Nations toward an ethic /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1991. http://www.tren.com.

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42

Whitt, Jason D. Harvey Barry. "Transforming views of Baptist ecclesiology Baptists and the New Christendom model of political engagement /." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5217.

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Song, Robert. "Some twentieth-century Christian interpretations of liberal political thought." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1990. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b768a401-ce08-47ea-8f09-afed0be3f6e2.

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A study of Christian interpretations of liberalism is important for social theology for two reasons: first, liberalism is the dominant political ideology of modernity, and (especially in the form "liberal democracy") is the most prominent form of public self-definition in the West, its claims often being taken to be self-evidently true. Second, liberalism is historically indebted to Christianity, and the two are susceptible of mutual confusion. A critical theological analysis of liberalism is necessary to ensure the authentically Christian nature of contemporary political theology. This analysis is conducted principally through a discussion of the criticisms of liberalism made by three Christian thinkers of the twentieth century, the American Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), the French Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), and the Canadian George Grant (1918-1988). After an introductory chapter, chapter two presents an interpretation of liberalism, mapping the historical contours and varieties of liberalism from five liberal writers, and elaborating a loose framework of the conceptual structure of liberal thought. Chapter three examines Reinhold Niebuhr's criticisms of liberalism's alleged facile progressivism and optimistic conceptions of human nature and reason, and chapter four looks at George Grant's claim that John Rawls' liberal theory fails to provide the ontological affirmations necessary to defend human beings and liberal values against the dynamics of technology. Jacques Maritain's account of pluralism and the ideal of the secular state, and the contribution he can make to the current debate between liberals and communitarians, are the subjects of chapter five, while chapter six attempts to secure some theological purchase on the issues of Bills of Rights, judicial review, and the constitutional restraint of democratic majorities, with special reference to the British context. In the concluding chapter it is argued that the liberal account of justice is impossible to realize, and that central insights must be borrowed from the Augustinian tradition.

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Kim, Sung-Gun. "Korean Christianity and the Shinto Shrine issue in the war period, 1931-1945 a sociological study of religion and politics /." Thesis, Online version, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.292679.

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Durden, William. "From public/private spheres to tout autre est tout autre: christianity and politics in Carl Schmitt's The concept of the political and Jacques Derrida's The gift of death /." Online version, 2008. http://content.wwu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/theses&CISOPTR=289&CISOBOX=1&REC=4.

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Shin, Rebecca C. "The Christian Influence Over Secular Understandings of Marriage in the United States: A Critical Analysis of Augustinian Theology." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/516.

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In this thesis, I seek to contextualize the exclusivity of traditional marriage in the United States. I investigate the use of Christian beliefs applied to the American legal system, consequently becoming the foundation of American commonsense. I draw out the ways in which Augustinian thoughts on marriage have inadvertently been used to justify institutional favoritism toward heterosexual, monogamous couples. Through examining the Christian-American lens that shapes our understanding of traditional marriage, I argue that previous and current secular opposition to non-traditional marriage is fundamentally grounded in Christian faith, furthermore, American cultural understanding of marriage is unconsciously lined with Augustinian thought.

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Baker, Terry Hunter Hankins Barry. "Christianity, secularism, and America an exploration and critique of the historical, legal, social, and philosophical implications of secularism from an American perspective /." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5134.

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Stewart, Matthew D. ""A continuing survey of the farce" "The New Pantagruel" and the carnivalesque tradition /." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2009. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1939351851&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Davis, Allan N. "A Hell House Divided: Performing Identity Politics through Christian Mediums of Proselytization." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2514.

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Every year, during the month of October, hundreds of Christian churches throughout the United States open the doors of their Hell House to surrounding communities. Hell Houses are Christian haunted houses designed to literally scare the Hell out of visitors so they will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. In the place of vampires or zombies, Hell Houses portray the sins Satan is mostly likely to tempt teenagers to commit. Scenes include young girls receiving abortions, young men believing lies that they were born gay, and careless individuals drinking and driving. As para-theatrical performances, Hell Houses lead guests from one vignette to the next until they reach Heaven and Hell to show the eternal consequences of one's behavior. A Hell House is a medium of proselytization. Believers within the larger USAmerican Evangelical Christian community organize these events to facilitate the conversion of others. In this thesis, I explore how the use of Hell Houses and other mediums of proselytization are justified within religious-based communities through the implementation of what I refer to as a discourse of neutrality. According to religious-based communities because mediums of proselytization simply convey spiritual truth and reality to those outside of the community, they depict "how things really are." However, I argue that the use of each medium both reflects a perception of reality and contributes to the creation of that reality. Describing and discussing the mediums as "neutral" to the processes of creating reality and meaning generates an authoritative power to legitimately define the politics and boundaries of the religious community's identity. Furthermore, it masks the role each medium plays in the creation of reality as well as the tensions within the community to authoritatively define the "Evangelical Christian" identity. In this thesis, I explore Hell Houses as mediums of proselytization where Evangelical Christians perform their identity politics. To conduct this analysis, I examine how other mediums of proselytization associated with Hell Houses (i.e., the physical body, conversation-based evangelism, and the Internet) each depend upon their own discourse of neutrality to thrive in the community. Because each medium is seen as neutral, those who champion its usage garner an authoritative legitimacy to define the community's identity and Christianity along the lines of reality as informed by the supposedly neutral medium. Here, I detail the dynamics of the tensions within a significant and complex religious group in contemporary America and how performative practices within the community inform its identity politics.

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Horne, Emily A. "Sexual Education across the United States: Are we doing it right?" Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/676.

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Since the early 20th century, students across the United States have been learning sexual education in public classrooms. Although American society has made many advancements and social changes since then, the curriculum of sexual education has remained stagnant. It continues to stress the concept of “social hygiene,” promoting white, heterosexual norms while demoralizing adolescent sexuality (McCarty-Caplan 2013). Since the 1980’s, the federal government has created three federally funded programs to promote abstinence-only sexual education. Although there are no federal laws or policies that dictate states or districts must provide sexual education, the programs have pressured the boards and districts to teach what the federal government is promoting. Most importantly, these ideologies are being pushed on to the government by the Religious Right. This study examines the attitudes towards sexual education and the attitudes towards topics that are associated with the curriculum. The findings imply that religion and political identification play the largest role in influencing these attitudes, which explains the current state of sexual education.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Christianity and politics'

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