“But God meant it for good”: Inter-personal conflict in an African Caribbean Pentecostal congregation – a pastoral study

Hall, Delroy (2013). “But God meant it for good”: Inter-personal conflict in an African Caribbean Pentecostal congregation – a pastoral study. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines conflict within a UK Black Majority Church. It uses personal observation and journals, with the work of academic historians of the Black churches, to establish that Black Majority Churches have a tendency to conflict that is usually unacknowledged yet often pervasive and damaging. The thesis locates this within a Black cultural history (almost entirely untold in the academy until after the present author’s schooling ended) that involves deep-seated past causes for present conflict among post-colonial Christians.
The thesis then proposes a model for the pastoral analysis, practical management, and spiritual resolution of conflict. The key methods for this (drawing on psychology and counselling as well as theology) are autoethnography, transpersonal analysis and pastoral journal records. The final stage of the pastoral model is resolution by scriptural teaching and active faith in the Holy Spirit; key passages of scripture show that conflict has been crucible for making Christianity, and has often been integral to the discovery and transmission of God’s word. Finally, the thesis offers a training plan for Pastors in the CoGoP – a plan combining the practicalities of work in that church with the historical and theological conclusions drawn from the present academic research.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):