ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issue of the way in which a religious functionary’s beliefs define and orientate his activities. Many texts in the sociology of occupations seem to start from the position that the three base professions which have served as models over the past century are medicine, law and the clergy. In recent years there has been an accelerating interest in types of theological classification and how different categories of theological belief operate to condition and affect other beliefs and attitudes. It is not customary to use the term ‘churchmanship’ in the context of the Methodist Church. The majority of ministers identify themselves as either Evangelical or Ecumenical in theological disposition, whilst 10.6 per cent identified with both positions. The terms liberal, radical and conservative tended to be used as adjectival qualifications of positions like Evangelical or Ecumenical; only 9.7 per cent identified themselves in terms like Catholic, Ritualist or Sacramentalist.
