The Great Escape: A Modern Charismatic Movement within the Presbyterian Church

The present thesis examines the relationship between Youth Conference Ministries (YCM) and the Presbyterian Church. YCM is a charismatic organization that organizes youth retreats for students in middle school and high school, with the goal of charismatically educating the youth of America. The focus of this thesis is on the Great Escape Southwind, a middle school retreat that caters to the southern portion of United States. My thesis first traces the biblical and historical underpinnings of charismatic Christianity. Next it provides an ethnographic case study of the Great Escape, focusing on its ability to foster spiritual growth of students through an enthusiastic response to the Holy Spirit. Finally it examines the relationship between YCM and the Presbyteries that populate its retreats. Overall this thesis shows how YCM provides a charismatic service to the local Presbyterian Churches, allowing for its adolescent parishioners to remain enthusiastically active as they progress towards adulthood.

Blessed are the Peacemakers: Transnational Alliance, Protective Accompaniment and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how Christian networks enable strategies of transnational alliance, whereby groups in different nations strive to strengthen one another’s leverage and credibility in order to resolve conflicts and elaborate new possibilities. This research does so by analyzing the case of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC). The project examines the historical development of the IPC from the initial missionary period of the 1850s until the present. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to consider how the historical struggle to articulate autonomy and equality vis-à-vis the U.S. Presbyterians (PCUSA) and paternalist models of ecclesial relations has affected recent political strategies pursued by the IPC. Despite the paternalism of the early missionary model, changing conceptions of social transformation during the 60s contributed to a shift in relations. Over time the IPC and PCUSA negotiated relationships in which groups both acknowledge a problematic history and insist upon an ethnic of partnership and respect. Today, PCUSA groups, in concert with the IPC, collaborate on a range of transnational political strategies aimed at strengthening the IPC’s leverage in local struggles for justice and peace. A review of this case suggests that long-established Christian networks may have an advantage over other civil society groups such as NGOs in facilitating strategies of transnational alliance. Although civil society organizations often have better access to important resources needed for international advocacy initiatives, Christian networks, such as the one established between the IPC and U.S. Presbyterian communities, rely on a history of negotiating power-disparity in order to elaborate relationships based on listening and partnership. Such findings prove important not only to how we conceptualize transnational alliance but also to the ways that we think about the history and future of Christian networks.

Re-processing The Mystical Rose

This essay explores the animation practice of Australian filmmaker Michael Lee, whose career spans the late 60s to the present. His notoriously dissident and innovative feature length work The Mystical Rose (1976, 65 minutes) is the primary focus, the fulcrum point of an analysis balanced by a review of his earlier shorter formative films, his cultural milieu, the thinkers that shaped his youth and particularly his changing relation to the Catholic Church. This relationship with Christianity has gone full circle through a critical rejection, worked through in The Mystical Rose, to a re-embrace in his later films Turnaround (1983, 60 mins) and The Contemplation of the Cross (1989, 27 minutes). This trajectory is understood here in relation to Magic Realism, Michael Bakhtin’s conception of the ‘Carnivalesque’ and Surrealism. What is of particular interest historically for animation is Lee’s pioneering innovative combination of animation with live action documentation, conveying both inner and outer realities, and mapping the relationships between them.

Re-imagining the theology of human sexuality in the Methodist Church: the use of narrative in theological methodology

This thesis proposes the development of a narrative methodology in the British Methodist Church. Such a methodology embraces and communicates both felt experience and critical theological thinking, thus producing and presenting a theology that might have a constructive transformative impact on wider society. In chapter one I explore the ways in which the Church speaks in public, identify some of the challenges it faces, and consider four models of engagement. If the Church is to engage in public discourses then I argue that its words need to be relevant and connect with people’s experiences. To ground the thinking I focus on the context of the British Methodist Church and explore how the Church engages in theological reflection through the lens of its thinking on issues of human sexuality. Chapter two reviews how theological reflection is undertaken in the British Methodist Church. I describe how the Methodist Quadrilateral of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience remains a foundational framework for theological reflection within the Methodist Church and consider the impact of institutional processes and the ways in which the Methodist people actually engage with theological thinking. The third and fourth chapters focus on how the British Methodist Church has produced its theology of human sexuality, giving particular attention to the use of personal and sexual stories in this process. I find that whilst there has been a desire to listen to the stories of the Methodist people, there has not been a corresponding interrogation or analysis of their stories so as to enable robust and constructive theological reflection on these experiences. Using resources from Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, I critique key statements and the processes involved in their production, offering an analysis of this body of theological thinking and indicating where possibilities for alternative ways of thinking and acting arise. The proposed methodology draws upon resources from social science methodologies, and in chapter five I look at the use of personal experience and relevant strategies of inquiry that prompt reflection on the hermeneutical process and employ narrative approaches in undertaking, analysing and presenting research. The exploration shows that qualitative research methodologies offer resources and methods of inquiry that could help the Church to engage with personal stories in its theological thinking in a robust, interrogative and imaginative way. In chapter six an examination of story and narrative is undertaken, to show how they have been understood as ways of knowing and how they relate to theological inquiry. Whilst acknowledging some of the limitations of narrative, I indicate how it offers constructive possibilities for theological reflection and could be a means for the British Methodist Church to engage in public discourse. This is explored further in chapter seven, which looks in more detail at how the British Methodist Church has used narrative in its theological thinking, and outlines areas requiring further attention in order for a narrative theological methodology to be developed, namely: attention to the question ‘whose experience?’; investigation of issues of power and the dynamics involved in the process of the production of theological thought; how personal stories and experiences are interrogated and how narrative is constructed; and how narrative might be employed within the Methodist Quadrilateral. The final chapter considers the advantages and limitations of such an approach, whether the development of such a method is possible in the Methodist Church today and its potential for helping the Church to engage in public discourse more effectively. I argue that this methodology can provoke new theological insights and enable new ways of being in the world

Issues to consider when developing mandatory reporting legislation and policy to improve discovery of child abuse

In the United Kingdom, recent investigations into child sexual abuse occurring within schools, the Catholic Church and the British Broadcasting Corporation, have intensified debate on ways to improve the discovery of child sexual abuse, and child maltreatment generally. One approach adopted in other jurisdictions to better identify cases of severe child maltreatment is the introduction of some form of legislative mandatory reporting to require designated persons to report known and suspected cases. The debate in England has raised the prospect of whether adopting a strategy of some kind of mandatory reporting law is advisable. The purpose of this article is to add to this debate by identifying fundamental principles, issues and complexities underpinning policy and even legislative developments in the interests of children and society. The article will first highlight the data on the hidden nature of child maltreatment and the background to the debate. Secondly, it will identify some significant gaps in knowledge that need to be filled. Thirdly, the article will summarise the barriers to reporting abuse and neglect. Fourthly, we will identify a range of options for, and clarify the dilemmas in developing, legislative mandatory reporting, addressing two key issues: who should be mandated to report, and what types of child maltreatment should they be required to report? Finally, we draw attention to some inherently different goals and competing interests, both between and within the various institutions involved in the safeguarding of children and the criminal prosecution of some offenders. Based on this analysis we offer some concluding observations that we hope contribute to informed and careful debate about mandatory reporting.

Tila tilassa : Liturgian ja tilan dialogi alttarin äärellä

This study examines the organisation and transformation of altar space in the modern Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in liturgical and architectural perspective. The research data consists of 65 altar spaces in The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church buildings. All of these were characterised in Church Government records as churches , built 1962 1999 and had been consecrated. The main data was collected by means of observation, photographing, and drawing sketches of altar spaces. The focus of this study concerns the organisation of modern Finnish Evangelical Lutheran altar spaces and, in particular, their changes also in relation to the liturgical movement. The challenge of this approach was especially in discovering the spatial identity of an altar space in terms of unequivocal boundaries. The analysis was realised in three stages. Interiors, the organisation of altar space, as well as architectonic qualities of altar spaces in terms of floor elevations, shapes of ceilings, lighting, and openings in the altar space were analysed. Moreover, attention was focused on furnishing and fixed versus movable pieces of furniture (such as the altar, altar rail, the pulpit, the baptismal font, and lectern). Finally, the potential qualitative and quantitative changes in altar space were examined. All in all, the majority of churches in the data featured elongated church halls with an altar at the end of the nave. To look at the data in chronological perspective, increasingly wide church halls had been built since the 1980s (yet there was only one central hall in which the altar was placed at the middle point of the church). Every third church altar was movable. As for the focal point of this study and the altar in particular, it was my aim to pay attention to the versus populum altar and its development in relation to the (Lutheran) liturgy. Hence, it was meaningful to determine, in terms of interior design, whether liturgists were able to celebrate facing the people attending the service. In the 1960s and 70s, a versus orientem altar featured in more than half of all new Finnish Lutheran churches, yet in 2000 two out of three churches featured a versus populum altar. For architectural and esthetic reasons (and not primarily due to liturgical ideas), also altars standing freely off the walls had been constructed. In terms of the liturgy, versus populum altars had been realised in expectation of increased communication between liturgist and worshippers. However, the analysis indicated that the altar could also become a divider of space. This aspect is a novel finding in relation to earlier and concurrent discussions concerning the liturgical movement. This study concluded, all in all, that altars had been increasingly constructed closer and closer to the worshiping parish and, accordingly, used increasingly often in the versus populum manner. Lecterns were often movable until the millennium this was the case in most altar spaces. Baptismal fonts did not have a permanent place in this data, and the data even included altar spaces with no baptismal fonts in the choir, nor the church hall. The position and status of fonts was generally weakened even if baptism in the Lutheran Church was regarded as one of the two sacraments together with the eucharist. The study concluded that even if baptism is regarded as a sacrament in the church, the position and status of baptismal fonts had weakened overall in newer church architecture. In other words, the tendency of the liturgical movement to emphasise the service and its celebration had obviously had its effect on the placement of baptismal fonts in the church hall. This research indicated that the pieces of furniture that mostly involved (many kinds of) visual and spatial changes included the altar and the lectern. In certain instances, fixed furnishings had been substituted by movable pieces or, moreover, new pieces of furniture and paraphernalia such as music instruments, pieces of art, tables, chairs and plants were brought in. In the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, liturgical changes were principally inspired by the Catholic Church, in which liturgical changes are essentially based on Canon Law. Unlike Finnish Lutheranism, Catholicism provides detailed rules and principles even regarding the design of an altar space. According to this study, in the Finnish Lutheran Church, the primarily functional nature of given guidelines and instructions characterises several practical solutions in furnishing.

Food biotechnologies in Italy: a social psychological study

This dissertation presents an analysis of the representations of food biotechnologies in Italy. The thesis uses the analysis of discourse to illustrate the articulated ways in which representations are instantiated in different contexts. The theoretical thrust of the work resides in its discussion of the basic tenets of both Social Representations Theory and Discursive Psychology. The thesis offers a detailed description of the two frameworks; affinities and difference are highlighted, and a serious effort is made to develop an integrated set of theoretical resources to answer the research questions. The thesis proposes to combine a discursive methodology with Social Representations Theory. After a description of the relevant legislative framework follows an illustration of the categories used for the textual analysis. The study proposes the textual analysis of the following data: the first declaration issued by a small Italian council rejecting biotechnologies; four texts which focus on positions taken by the Catholic Church in the matter of food biotechnologies; several transcripts from a public debate in a small community of the north west of Italy. The latter study, which included an ethnographic dimension, focuses on recordings from interviews, a focus group, a public meeting and newspaper articles. Particular attention is paid to ideological representations and to the relevance of citizenship and governance to debates about food biotechnologies.

Política y religión en la ayuda social del peronismo

Resumen: La laicidad de las instituciones de ayuda social durante el peronismo, pretende ser revisada, a partir de las características de los hogares de tránsito de la Fundación Eva Perón. Se ha hecho hincapié en la entrega o facilitación de bienes materiales pero poco o nada se ha dicho, de la labor netamente religiosa que se llevó adelante en ellos y de la impronta moral que tuvieron estas instituciones. Este trabajo propone repensar algunos aspectos y capturar algunos matices de la relación entre el peronismo y la Iglesia Católica. También, describir y analizar la manera en que se impartió la actividad religiosa en la institución benefactora por excelencia del gobierno, la FEP.

Sobre el embrión humano y la cuestión de la personeidad : un argumento de Luigi Ferrajoli y su discusión

Resumen: El texto analiza las afirmaciones defendidas sobre el estatuto entitativo del embrión y de la solución ética a la cuestión de la legitimidad del aborto provocado, en un trabajo del jurista y pensador italiano, Luigi Ferrajoli, defensor de lo que puede denominarse el bioderecho “liberal”, con una posición decisivamente tomada en favor de la eticidad del aborto. Se advierte que cada uno de sus argumentos parte de una premisa: considerar las afirmaciones de la Iglesia Católica como inexorablemente erróneas, especialmente en lo atinente a la relación entre moral y derecho. La consecuencia más grave de este tipo de argumentación es la deriva anti-humanista del pensamiento contemporáneo con la consiguiente pérdida de toda racionalidad lógica.

La historia de la Iglesia en Uruguay : balance historiográfico y estado de la cuestión

Resumen: La historia de la Iglesia Católica en Uruguay ha sido un tema controversial. Los cultores de la “historia oficial” y la gran mayoría de los historiadores profesionales lo relativizaron considerándolo un asunto menor, con relevancia exclusivamente en el ámbito de la historia de la cultura o de las ideas. Las iniciativas de la propia institución en pro del conocimiento de su pasado han sido exiguas. En este artículo ensayamos un revisión crítico-descriptiva de la producción sobre el tema, con los objetivos de: a) dar cuenta del estado de la cuestión a partir de un relevamiento exhaustivo y representativo de las publicaciones realizadas especialmente por religiosos uruguayos y extranjeros; y b) esbozar algunas explicaciones en torno al escaso interés que el asunto ha generado

Rafael Pividal y Alberto Duhau : aportes y debates en torno a la idea de democracia en el pensamiento político de intelectuales católicos

Resumen: A finales de la década del treinta, especialmente luego de la visita de Maritain en 1936 a la Argentina, surgieron con mucha fuerza una serie de debates dentro de los círculos intelectuales católicos argentinos. Uno de los temas tratados, entre otros, fue el valor de la democracia y, especialmente, su posible justificación como sistema político y su concordancia con las enseñanzas de la Iglesia. Sin embargo, aun aquellos que defendían la democracia no representaban un grupo homogéneo: tanto las fuentes intelectuales a las que recurrían como los fundamentos antropológicos de sus argumentaciones eran diversas. El presente artículo se propone desarrollar la defensa de la democracia que hicieron R. Pividal y A. Duhau, dos de estos intelectuales católicos. Como intentaré demostrar, aun cuando coinciden en resaltar el valor de la democracia y su plena concordancia con el catolicismo, la recurrencia a autores diversos (Maritain y a través de él la oposición a Maurras y Rousseau en un caso y Adam Smith y el Liberalismo escocés en el otro) generan que las argumentaciones de uno y otro difícilmente coincidan en mucho más que en esa positiva valoración que hacen del sistema democrático.

La política en la actualidad : ¿más cerca de la virtud o del vicio?

Resumen: En este artículo se expone en forma sucinta dos formas muy diferentes de concebir la política, a saber: la de algunos autores denominados clásicos, cuyos principales representantes son Platón, Aristóteles, Cicerón y Tomás de Aquino, y la forma moderna representada por Maquiavelo. Los primeros, salvando algunas diferencias, entienden la política como un saber moral práctico, como una noble actividad que debe ser ejercida por los mejores en vistas al bien de todos. Maquiavelo, por su parte, la entiende como una técnica, totalmente desarraigada de la moral, cuyo fin es obtener, mantener y acrecentar el poder. Al parecer, y es lo que se intentará demostrar en la exposición, hay indicios suficientes para afirmar que el maquiavelismo se ha «impuesto» a los clásicos. La perspectiva desde la cual se abordara esta pregunta, es la del Magisterio reciente de la Iglesia Católica

La Iglesia y el movimiento independentista rioplatense: incertidumbres, aceptación y acompañamiento (1810-1816)

En torno al sexenio comprendido entre las dos fechas distintivas del Bicentenario argentino, 1810 y 1816, el autor se propone una lectura histórica sobre los hombres y las ideas que rodearon a la Primera Junta de gobierno, la función propagandista del clero, el cuestionamiento por parte de dos obispos de la legitimidad de la revolución y el apoyo de un obispo patriota, el período de “interregno episcopal” y la continuidad religiosa, la obra cultural de la Junta y la celebración del Congreso de la Independencia en Tucumán. Se afirma, a partir de las fuentes, el lugar de aceptación que tuvo la IglesiaCatólica en esta época.

Mons. Enrique Angelelli, obispo de La Rioja (1968-1976) : recepción diocesana de su muerte: testimonios y valoraciones

Resumen: Este aporte intenta lograr una mirada sincrónica de la tragedia que se llevó de este mundo a Mons. Enrique Angelelli. La trama humana en su conjunto se desarrolla entre tristezas y alegrías y, también, lógicamente, la historia de la Iglesia posee los mismos condimentos. Pero, la clave está en la luz con la cual miramos estos acontecimientos que, en este caso, no sólo será científica o meramente sociológica sino, fundamentalmente, teológica. Así, al recoger los testimonios del pueblo de Dios, presentamos un hecho histórico reflejado a través del prisma de la fe.

"A casa dos ímpios se desfará, mas a tenda dos retos florescerá" : a participação da Frente Parlamentar Evangélica no legislativo brasileiro

Analisa, a partir do trabalho de campo empreendido nas atividades da Frente Parlamentar Evangélica do Congresso Nacional, como estes parlamentares participam de tempos e espaços do legislativo. Deste modo, trago a descrição etnográfica os discursos destes deputados religiosos que denotam, mormente, uma "guerra santa" entre os "ungidos" e o Inimigo que ocupa o mundo da política e o espaço público brasileiro. Assim, suspeito que presenciamos contemporaneamente uma maior dessectarização de grupos evangélicos na política quando estes agentes procuram não apenas se tornar a Igreja do amanhã (concorrendo com a Igreja Católica pela posição de religião civil). Mas, sobretudo, tornar, através da participação na política, o mundo dos ímpios o mundo dos justos. Ora, considero, por isso mesmo, as formas particulares de aquisição de sutilezas e de competências necessárias a fim de profissionalizar o político e as relações políticas nas quais estes políticos se engajam. Deste modo, os evangélicos também têm que aprender tais habilidades especialmente por que estão no processo de construção de uma herança histórica na política. Por fim, analiso como os evangélicos, enquanto políticos profissionais, agenciam uma forma de representação e participação políticas que considera tanto o exercício cotidiano da fé quanto uma espécie de investimento nas atividades do século, reinterpretando, assim, o histórico processo de secularização do Estado.