How the Story of Jesus is Aiding This Generation of UCC Clergy to Make Sense of their Vocation in a Secular Age

This dissertation, an exercise in practical theology, undertakes two tasks. First, it explores the Christology of fourteen active United Church of Canada (UCC) clergy trained and/or ordained/commissioned in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Secondly, given that their training, and the first years of their ministries, have taken place against a background of overwhelming secularism and unprecedented church decline, it also examines how their understanding of Jesus Christ and his story are aiding them to make sense of their vocation in a secular age. Charles Taylor’s 2007 magnum opus, A Secular Age provides the backdrop for this study. Using a Narrative Inquiry methodology, the primary data will involve a series of interviews with UCC clergy, exploring how the narrative of secularization is impacting their experience of ministry and their faith in Christ. The literature review briefly examines what the United Church has taught about Christology, as revealed both in its official doctrinal statements and in more popular writings like the United Church Observer, which was the denomination’s national magazine during most of the time under investigation. Drawing especially on the pastoral theology of Andrew Root and his six-volume series on the Church in a secular age, and against the backdrop of Taylor’s thesis on the malaise of modernity, it looks at the Church’s confrontation with secularization. In addition, two other theoretical approaches for this topic will be included: Intersectional Theology and Carnal Hermeneutics. It is my hope that the findings in this dissertation will serve as an aid to clergy who find themselves flummoxed by the secular age in which we live.