The impact of nineteenth century science and biblical criticism on expressions of faith and theology, with especial reference to the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterial Churches of New Zealand

This thesis deals with aspects of the history of the faithscience interaction in New Zealand in relation to the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, during the Victorian era. 1. Chapter one gives a general introduction to four factors received from the British scientific tradition that were to play a significant part in the early discussions about science and faith during the missionary and early colonial period. These are: (a) the Baconian ideal of science; (b) the status of Newton and Newtonianism; (c) the development of geology and biology and their relationship to natural theology; (d) the initial reception of Darwin's The Origin of Species. 2. Chapters two and three focus upon the contributions of the missionaries and early settlers to the faith-science interaction, with particular emphasis on W. Colenso and R. Taylor, the leading missionary scientists of the period. Note is taken of the underlying tension generated between reconciling the new findings of geology and the Biblical account of creation. Chapter three explores aspects of the emerging social context for science and faith during the early settler period, especially concentrating on the class settlements of Dunedin and Christchurch, both of which had strong religious affiliations. Samuel Butler's notable work in drawing attention to Darwin's The Origin of Species is highlighted. 3. Chapter four details the way in which the new theories of Biblical criticism, coming to prominence coterminously with Darwin's theories, combined to cause various controversies over what constituted Biblical truth, scientific truth, and called into question the status of both revealed religion and natural theology. Theological reaction to the ascendency of science, sometimes characterised by a retreat into Biblical literalism and the appeal to miracle, is analyzed. The range of clerical opinion about science is revealed in the writings of various church leaders, notably A.R. Fitchett, S.T. Nevill, R. Waddell, and W. Salmond. 4. In chapter five the formation, life and some of the personalities of the New Zealand Institute are discussed with particular reference to three major debates: the status of natural theology, the status of speculative geometry, and the status of the book of Genesis in relation to scientific knowledge. The popularity of astronomy, with its influence on the symbolic language of faith, is also considered. A contrast is drawn between declining clerical interest in science and mathematics, and the concept of the mathematization of nature as an objective of modern science

In Touch with Things: Tourist Arts and the Mediation of Maori/European Relationships

This study re-evaluates theoretical approaches to the study of art forms and the mediation of social relationships in anthropology, through exploration of the emergence of tourist art forms in the Rotorua region of New Zealand, ancestral lands of the Arawa Maori people. Tourism began in Rotorua in the mid-nineteenth century, when Europeans visited to experience geothermal scenery, witness Maori social life and collect cultural artefacts as souvenirs. Returning to the scene of encounter to consider Maori/European negotiations surrounding the creation and acquisition of cultural artefacts, the research reconsiders items in museums and private collections in Britain and New Zealand as 'artefacts of encounter', to reveal ways in which acquisition was locally enabled and constrained. A case study of gifts presented to imperial authorities by Maori groups as a means of political negotiation points out the incommensurability of cross-cultural understandings of property, and the inequitable power relations that rendered such negotiations ineffectual. Throughout the twentieth century, the effects of European patronage relations upon Maori art forms are considered through comparative analyses of carved, woven and other souvenir forms and tour guiding services, concluding that whilst European patrons were frequently mean and belittling, their commissions opened up a space for a degree of innovation and experimentation not possible under customary Maori patronage. Engagements with new forms and technologies are explored through consideration of Maori adoption of photographic portraiture, popularised through the circulation of postcards since the late nineteenth century. Portraiture is compared to fibre arts, explored as a collective oeuvre formed between weavers linked through the transmission of skills passed down from the ancestral past into the present, a network which incorporates museum collections and non-Maori weavers. The concept of network is then deployed to query conventional approaches to art and material culture in anthropological thinking and museological practice

Aesthetic justice and communal theatre : a new conceptual approach to the community play as an aspect of theatre for empowerment

This study re-conceptualises the community play as an aspect of contemporary British theatre. In the context of the idea of an arts entitlement which has two components, participation and enjoyment, it examines three antecedents to current practice. These are: theatre and empowerment, which looks at the work of Brecht and Boal on conceptions of the audience; outreach work, which examines the de-mystification of art by looking at the relationship between theatre and education and community arts, which focuses on harnessing the creative potential of ordinary people. The lines of development which link these three areas to the community play are investigated. The history and origins of the form are outlined and Ann Jellicoe's work with the Colway Theatre Trust is examined. The study offers a new conceptual vocabulary for the analysis of community playmaking which has three principal terms: aesthetic materialism - a development of Marxist principles as they relate to a consideration of the aesthetic circumstances of the people; aesthetic justice - an application of Beardsley's concept to contemporary society and current theatre practice; and communal theatre - a new term developed as a result of this study which clarifies the differences between participation and collaboration in the making of community theatre. These three concepts are united by their relationship to the rejection of bourgeois control of cultural capital which underpins the investigative stance of the study. Contemporary society is characterised by the study as aesthetically unjust and the main questions it asks relate the search for aesthetic justice to the developing form of the community play. The theoretical investigations of the study are contextualized by fieldwork which consisted of a participant observation case study of the community department of the Belgrade theatre, Coventry. This spanned two years and focused on the 1992 Coventry community play Diamonds in the Dust. The study concludes with a comparison of the main forms of participatory theatre in the 1990s which offers a means of identifying the heuristic value of the various models of community playmaking with respect to their potential for empowerment and contribution to aesthetic justice. The implications of the study are that the participatory element of the arts entitlement needs to be strengthened into true collaboration between the professionals and the non-professionals involved in order to ensure equality of access to, and popular control of, the cultural capital which is symbolised by the community play. Communal theatre projects of this sort are assessed as being able to promote the kind of shared experience which is necessary for the development of a more aesthetically just society