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Lynne Taylor 2020 imageSenior Lecturer
BSc(Canterbury), BA(Hons)(Canterbury), PhD(Flinders)

Room 4S1, Arts Building
Tel +64 3 479 5358
Email lynne.taylor@otago.ac.nz

Lynne Taylor is Jack Somerville Senior Lecturer in Pastoral Theology.

Lynne’s PhD explored the conversion experiences of previously unchurched Australians and her ongoing research interests include contemporary religious conversion and faith formation; spirituality and well-being; congregational studies (including church responses to COVID and other crises); pastoral care; chaplaincy; and research methodologies in practical theology and missiology.

Lynne teaches papers in pastoral and practical theology and ministry; papers that consider the work of the church and Christians in the world today.

Prior to and in conjunction with her academic role, Lynne has worked and volunteered in pastoral ministry, and engaged in congregational and denominational research.

Lynne is a Fellow, Psychology for Theologians (Cross Training), University of Birmingham.

Teaching

  • PAST 219 Christian Witness in a Secular World
  • PAST 319 Christian Witness in a Secular World (Advanced)
  • PAST 216 Current Perspectives on Pastoral Care
  • PAST 316 Current Perspectives on Pastoral Care (Advanced)
  • PAST 314 Cultures, Migration and Faith
  • PAST 321 Missional God, Missional People
  • MINS 408 Cultures, Migration and Faith (Advanced)
  • MINS 413 Missional God, Missional People (Advanced)

Current research interests

Current areas of research include:

  • Religious conversion and faith formation
  • Spirituality and well-being
  • Congregational studies (including church responses to local, national and international crises)
  • Pastoral transitions
  • Pastoral care

Current postgraduate students

  • Deborah Broome (PhD) Sociality in Augustine's City of God
  • Caroline Jewkes (PhD) Examination of Pākehā narrative to provide insight into Tiriti partnership for a Christian organisation
  • Lance Lukin (PhD) Theological Impacts of Adoption
  • Joshua Taylor (PhD) Speaking of Sin in 21st Century Aotearoa
  • Jacqueline Tuffnell (PhD) What part does advocacy play in the healthcare chaplain's role? How do and how might healthcare chaplains practice as 'agents of challenge'?
  • David Whitaker (MTheol) Preventing radicalisation

Recent postgraduate students

  • Jessica Bent (PhD) Church Family? How Familial Language is Understood and Used within Auckland Baptist Tabernacle Church: A Case Study
  • David Bosma (PhD) Finding Without Searching: A Theological Engagement with the Conversion Narratives of Young People in Canterbury, New Zealand
  • Hyeong Kim (PhD) The Adaptation of Three Religious Dimensions in Korean Church Context in New Zealand; Believing, Behaving and Belonging
  • Hilary Willett (MTheol) The Community of St. Julian: Explorations into a Sacramentally Anglican Online Church in Aotearoa

Publications

Whitaker, M., Lineham, P., Taylor, L., Mepham, T., & Lanner, L. (2023, November). Church Life Survey panel discussion. Faith and Belief: Exploring the spiritual landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings from the Faith and Belief Study, and the Church Life Survey New Zealand. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Public Seminar].

Taylor, L., & Bent, J. (2023). Theocentric therapeutic preaching: Good news during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, 23(2), 70-97.

Taylor, L. (2023, November). Faith and Belief: Local response. Faith and Belief: Exploring the spiritual landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings from the Faith and Belief Study, and the Church Life Survey New Zealand. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Public Seminar].

Marti, G., Ney, C., Taylor, L., Stone, S., & Tveitereid, K. (2023, September). The Wiley Blackwell companion to theology and qualitative research. Panel discussion at the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference, Durham, UK.

McDonald, B., Lineham, P., Mai, B., Owen, S., Scott, M., Taylor, L., … Brookes, N. (2023). Insights from the 2023 Church Life Survey New Zealand: The perspective, character and values of church attendees across Aotearoa New Zealand. (pp. 1-22). Auckland, New Zealand: Church Life Survey NZ. Retrieved from https://clsnz.org/

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