Title:
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Writing the body of Christ : a study of an Anglican congregation
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This thesis is submitted by Frances E. F. Ward for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy and entitled `Writing the Body of Christ: A Study of an Anglican
Congregation".
Month and Year of Submission: January 2000.
On the basis of ethnographic research and data collected from interviews, this
thesis presents an analysis of the relations of power within an Anglican
congregation, and explores the ways in which Christological reflection might arise
from the context of the local congregation, and inform the practices of the same.
The introduction places the work within the disciplines of Congregational Studies
and practical theology, and problematizes the practice of writing. The first chapter
describes the research methods used, and the congregation concerned. Chapters
two and three analyse different theories of power, and particularly the work of
Michel Foucault on power. Chapters four and five offer a detailed description and
analysis of the liturgical practices and preaching of the congregation, arguing that
a dominant discourse subordinated members of different cultural origins. Chapters
six offers a critique of the ways in which congregations have been written about
within Congregational Studies, and the lack of attention that issues of power
concerning race and gender receive within that discipline. Chapters seven and
eight develop the theme of the practice of writing, and the function of the author
as the regulator of data, by drawing upon contemporary ethnography. Chapter
nine analyses how congregational members registered `silent' discontent,
particularly by an analysis of gossip. Chapters ten and eleven suggest ways in
which the Body of Christ can be thought to be embodied within the local
congregation by drawing upon the metaphor of `hybridity' and developing the
idea of the Body of Christ as hybrid.
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