Called and Ordained
Called and Ordained

Author: Todd W. Nichol

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2004-03-15

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1592445810

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What is ministry? And how are we to understand the distinctive ecclesiastical office known as ordained ministry? With clarity and insight, this book takes the discussion behind the current impasse between functional and ontological definitions. The contributors provide a distinctively American and ecumenical proposal that is consistent with the confession of justification by faith alone.

Authority Vested
Authority Vested

Author: Mary Todd

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 9780802844576

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Like other major Protestant denominations in the United States, the 2.6-million-member Luther Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847, has struggled with issues of relevance and identity in society at large. In this book Mary Todd chronicles the history of this struggle for identity in the LCMS, critically examining the central--often contentious--issue of authority in relation to Scripture, ministry, and the role of women in the church. In recounting the history of the denomination, Todd uses the ministry of women as a case study to show how the LCMS has continually redefined its concept of authority in order to maintain its own historic identity. Based on oral histories and solid archival research, Authority Vested not only explores the internal life of a significant denomination but also offers critical insights for other churches seeking to maintain their Christian distinctives in religiously pluralistic America.

The Church as Koinonia of Salvation
The Church as Koinonia of Salvation

Author: Randall R. Lee

Publisher: USCCB Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9781574556339

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This important document proposes new clarifications and pastoral steps that will serve the pilgrimage toward full unity. It provides the biblical, historical, and theological foundations for a common Catholic-Lutheran understanding of the church. The text carefully links the biblical doctrine of justification to the development of the church in the New Testament as a community of salvation whose structures and ministries serve the church's mission to the human family. A detailed exposition is given to the development of the ministries and structures in the church: councils, dioceses, parishes, bishops, presbyters, and the Petrine ministry. Book jacket.

Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History
Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History

Author: Peter-Ben Smit

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-08-25

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 9004206477

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This study researches the development of the self-understanding of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente during the 20th century, with special attention for their ecclesiologies of the local and national church.

The Real Church
The Real Church

Author: Harald Hegstad

Publisher: James Clarke & Company

Published: 2013-06-27

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0227901878

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What does it mean to believe in the church? What is the relationship between the church we believe in and the church we experience? Is there an invisible church that is different from the visible? This book is an argument for an ecclesiology of the visible. The only church, the real church, is a concrete reality made up of people, just like any other fellowship. What distinguishes it as church is the presence of the triune God among those who gather in the name of Jesus, making it a sign and anticipationof the fellowship of the kingdom of God. From this premise Dr. Hegstad analyzes such issues as the relationship between church and world, mission and diakoni, church as fellowship and organization, ministries in the church, worship, and the unity of the church, as well as discussing the relationship between a sociological and a theological understanding of the church.