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Critical Issues in Ecclesiology

Author: Alberto L. Garcia

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780802866714

Engages important issues faced by the Christian church in witness and ministry Renowned for his unique slant on ecclesial affiliation by his own confession "evangelical without being Protestant, catholic without being Roman, and orthodox without being Eastern" Lutheran theologian Carl E. Braaten has long been a respected voice in ecclesiological discourse. In Critical Issues in Ecclesiology eleven authors from a variety of church traditions come together to honor Braaten. The contributors share a common theological vision: the renewal of the church so that it may bear a clearer catholic evangelical witness to the apostolic faith. By stimulating fresh thinking on several critical issues, this volume will advance ecumenical dialogue concerning the restoration of unity and the renewal of a "passion for mission" within the Great Tradition. Contributors: James M. Childs, Gabriel Fackre, Alberto L. Garca, Timothy George, Robert W. Jenson, Joseph L. Mangina, Cheryl M. Peterson, Michael Root, Leopoldo A. Snchez M., Frank C. Senn, Susan K. Wood

Exploring Ecclesiology

Author: Brad Harper

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2009-03

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1587431734

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This evangelical and ecumenical ecclesiology survey text provides a comprehensive biblical, historical, and cultural perspective and addresses contemporary issues in church life.

Diakonia Studies

Author: John Neil Collins

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0199367574

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In this collection of papers John N. Collins closes his account on 40 years of involvement in linguistic research and argumentation concerning the nature and functioning of Christian ministry (diakonia). Using original philosophical and lexicographical research, Diakonia Studies offers an engaging conclusion to Collins's groundbreaking 1990 book Diakonia.

Church, Ecumenism and Politics

Author: Joseph Ratzinger

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2011-07-13

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 168149101X

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This work features the most discussed topics of the life of the Church, treated with unique frankness and depth by the Church's spiritual and theological leader. In this collection of essays, theologian Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, tackles three major issues in the Church today-the nature of the Church, the pursuit of Christian unity, and the relationship of Christianity to the secular/political power. The first part of the book explores Vatican II's teaching on the Church, what it means to call the Church "the People of God", the role of the Pope, and the Synod of Bishops. In part two, Ratzinger frankly assesses the ecumenical movement-its achievements, problems, and principles for authentic progress toward Christian unity. In the third part of the work, Ratzinger discusses both fundamental questions and particular issues concerning the Church, the state and human fulfillment in the Age to come. What does the Bible say about faith and politics? How should the Church work in pluralistics societies? What are the problems with Liberation Theology? How should we understand freedom in the Church and in society? Beneath a penetrating analysis on these important topics by this brilliant teacher and writer, both concise and also surprising, is revealed the passion of a great spiritual leader. The result is an exciting and stimulating work, which can be provoking, but never boring.

A Critical Evaluation of the Suitability of Karl Rahner's Sacramental Ecclesiology for a World Church

Author: James J. Woolever

Publisher: Mellen University Press

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 9780773499416

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This study examines the critical issues, both internal and external, confronting the post-Vatican II Church. It evaluates Karl Rahner's sacramental ecclesiology for a world Church, and includes an analysis of the historical and theological roots of Rahner's ecclesiology and its development and appropriateness as a strategic theology for a world Church. The book aims to treat Rahner's complex writings in a clear, straightforward fashion, and to clarify the insights of this theologian understandable to the informed Christian.

An Introduction to Ecclesiology

Author: Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-08-20

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0830874399

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Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen provides an up-to-date survey and analysis of the major ecclesiological traditions, the most important theologians, and a number of contextual approaches to both the unity and the diversity of ecclesiastic understandings and practices.

Who Is the Church?

Author: Cheryl M. Peterson

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0800698819

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Many congregations today focus on strategy and purpose—what churches "do"—but Cheryl Peterson submits that mainline churches need to focus instead on "what" or "who" they are—to reclaim a theological, rather than sociological, understanding of themselves. Peterson suggests that we understand the church as a people created by the Spirit to be a community, and that we must claim a narrative method to explore the church's identity—specifically, the story of the church's origin in the Acts of the Apostles. Finally, here is a way of thinking of church that reconciles the best of competing models of church for the future of mainline Protestant theology.

Reshaping Ecumenical Theology

Author: Paul Avis

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-02-11

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0567575195

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Reshaping Ecumenical Theology is a major contribution to the study of the Church. It provides clear and authoritative orientation for the student, while probing deep into a range of key issues in ecclesiology and ecumenical dialogue from a critical standpoint that will stimulate discussion among scholars and ecumenists. It reclaims some old orthodoxies, while challenging some new ones, and points to a deeper and more personal engagement with the major traditions of the Christian Church as the way to fuller unity and more effective mission. Reshaping Ecumenical Theology argues that the values of difference and diversity and the priority of mission and evangelisation must shape our picture of unity. It transcends old arguments about 'establishment', by showing that all churches are compelled to develop a constructive relationship to the modern state, wherever possible, if they are to be effective in mission. The central ecumenical notion of 'reception' is re-interpreted, not as the faithful unquestioningly receiving the teaching of church authorities, but as the process whereby the whole Church discerns the truth of new developments. The mantra 'baptism is complete sacramental initiation' is challenged, and the place of confirmation is secured within a total process of initiation. The ministry of the episcopate is affirmed, but only by being related to the gospel on which the Church is founded. The nature of communion is examined and the imperative of maintaining it against divisive tendencies is affirmed. 'The hermeneutics of unity' shows that we are shaped by each other through the conflict or rivalry of traditions: 'We are what we are because you are what you are'.

Ecclesiology in the Trenches

Author: Sune Fahlgren

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1498208657

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The field of ecclesiology is rapidly expanding as new material, theories, methods, and approaches are being explored. This raises important and challenging questions concerning ecclesiology as an academic discipline. This book takes the reader into the trenches of ecclesiological research where the actual work of reading, writing, interpreting, and analyzing is being done. The authors reflect on fundamental questions concerning theory and method in ecclesiology in relation to concrete and actual research projects. Ecclesiology is dealt with as a systematic, empirical, historical, and liturgical discipline. Essays explore theology in South Africa as shaped by apartheid, liturgical theology, the diaconate in an ecumenical context, Free Church preachership, suburban ecclesial identity, medieval church practices, liturgical texts, church floor plans, and ecclesiology as a gendered discipline. Ecclesiology in the Trenches is a book for anyone who is interested and involved in ecclesiological research. It is also an example of a reflective approach to academic work. The book can be read as an overall argument for ecclesiology as a theological discipline with great potential for studying the church as a theologically defined empirical phenomenon.

Comparative Ecclesiology

Author: Gerard Mannion

Publisher: T&T Clark

Published: 2008-08-13

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780567032416

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This volume will explore issues such as the nature, method and development of comparative ecclesiology; critical assessments as well as appreciations of Roger Haight's Christian Community in History. The Jesuit, Roger Haight, has written extensively in the fields of systematic theology, liberation theology, Christology and, of course, ecclesiology itself. He champions the need for the church to embrace a dialogical mission. This represents his most extensive work to date in ecclesiology and is a monumental volume study in comparative ecclesiology, volume 3 coming in 2008, building upon the insights developed in recent years in the more general sub-discipline of comparative theology. In all, Haight's pioneering work in this emerging field of comparative ecclesiology encourages us to immerse our contemporary explorations in, first, historical consciousness, thereby inculcating the disposition of humility - both in methodological terms and, when one realises how far short we fall of some of our ecclesial forebears, in terms of ecclesial life and practice as well. Second, as indicated, he commends the positive appreciation of pluralism. Third, a whole-part conception of church, neither placing universal over and above local nor vice-versa. Four, we should be attentive to embracing the gifts and human challenges of religious pluralism. And, of course, five, Haight reassures those fearful that such undertaking might entail any loss for the churches: he reminds us how such ecclesiological encounters are and should be undertaken from within a particular confessional or ecclesial identity. We have assembled a range of noted ecclesiological scholars to discuss not simply Professor Haight's work, but also to engage with the issues he raises in a wider context, such as the respective methodological debates surrounding ecclesiology 'from above' and 'from below', to the nature and promise of comparative ecclesiology in itself, to the prospects for a 'pluralistic ecclesiology' in the world today, and the challenges such an undertaking presents to the Christian churches. Roger Haight will be invited to offer his own reflections upon the various chapters.