Abstract

Rev. Chase Hunter Burns April 2023

The Theological Praxis of Developing Relationships and Empowering Voices Within the Community: A Practical Method for the Church to Reflect on and Participate in the Kin-dom of God.

Jesus calls his disciples to follow his teachings of being ambassadors of God’s love, developing relationships beyond social barriers, and working toward peace, reconciliation, and equality. This dissertation explains the process of theological praxis – a means of developing relationships, peace, reconciliation, and equality within the local community.

This dissertation aims to promote a theological structure for transformative “Praxis.” This theological structure provides a means for disciples of Jesus Christ to engage in internal reflection of self and the local church. The reflection concentrates on the individual and shared theological tasks of developing relationships within the community, working alongside the developed relationships, and empowering the voice within the community.

The theological structure begins with the church engaging in a bible study focused on understanding and defining the kin-dom of God. The second action of the theological structure is reflecting on how one and one’s church demonstrate their understanding and definition of the kin-dom of God. The third action of the theological structure is adapting practices to indicate the new understanding of the kin-dom of God.

The process of praxis, as exemplified in the evolving project of Ready, Set, READ, is continuous as the fourth action of praxis is to start the process again – reflection, adaptation, and engagement. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this theological structure offers space for individual and communal transformation to reflect the fullness of the kin-dom of God.

Degree Date

Spring 4-1-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

D.Min.

Department

Ministry

Advisor

Dr. Harold J. Racinos

Second Advisor

Dr. Susanne Johnson

Subject Area

Theology/Religious Education

Number of Pages

88

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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