This evangelical and ecumenical ecclesiology survey text provides a comprehensive biblical, historical, and cultural perspective and addresses contemporary issues in church life.
The word koinonia has gained prominence in recent ecumenical discussions. In this original and substantial work Lorelei Fuchs proposes the theological idea of koinonia, commonly translated as "communion" or "fellowship," as the key to moving fractured churches toward a future unity. Fuchs challenges churches to move beyond mere dialogue and to apply ecumenical insights at the local level. She begins by relating the exegetical meaning of koinonia to its ecumenical meaning, tracing the place of koinonia both within the churches and between the churches. She then examines the concept of koinonia in the extensive and fruitful dialogues that have taken place between Lutherans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics, finally articulating a "symbolic competence for communionality" that provides a rich and workable way forward for church unity at all levels. Encompassing the latest in ecumenical thought, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology provides a broad, thoughtful framework for realizing Christ's prayer "that all may be one . . . so that the world may believe."
A rich collection of fifteen articles by European, North American and Asian theologians, concerned with the concept, life, unity and future of the church.
Widely considered the most important Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, Dumitru Staniloae (1903-1993) contributed significantly to an ecumenical understanding of these themes. Because of his isolation by the Romanian Communist regime, his work still awaits its merited reception, especially given its potential contribution towards Christian unity. In Staniloae's understanding the Church is a communion in the image of the Trinity. Because there is a continuum of grace between the Trinity and the Church, the same relationships that exist among trinitarian persons are manifested in creation in general, and the Church in particular. In this way, the Trinity fills the world and the Church, determining their mode of existence. Intratrinitarian relationships are manifested in the relationships between humankind and non-human creation, the Church and the world, local and universal aspects of the Church, clergy and the people, and among various charisms.
Carl Braaten here issues an energetic call for a truly ecumenical church, including a Lutheran rationale for recovery of the historical episcopacy and papal primacy as servants of the gospel. Braaten writes of the church's place in the divine scheme of things and of the various modern isms that distort or hide the classical Christian tradition. Tracing his own ecumenical journey, he outlines an ecclesiology of communion and advances specific proposals for enhancing Christian unity in liturgy, spirituality, and church polity. The confessing movement named after Martin Luther he views in terms of its basic intent to reform and renew the church, not to start a new Christianity in a multiplicity of separate denominations.
This unique work analyzes the crisis in modern society, building on the ideas of the Frankfurt School thinkers. Emphasizing social evolution and learning processes, it argues that crisis is mediated by social class conflicts and collective learning, the results of which are embodied in constitutional and public law. First, the work outlines a new categorical framework of critical theory in which it is conceived as a theory of crisis. It shows that the Marxist focus on economy and on class struggle is too narrow to deal with the range of social conflicts within modern society, and posits that a crisis of legitimization is at the core of all crises. It then discusses the dialectic of revolutionary and evolutionary developmental processes of modern society and its legal system. This volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary Society by a leading scholar in the field provides a new approach to critical theory that will appeal to anyone studying political sociology, political theory, and law.
Pentecostal Theology and Ecumenical Theology: Interpretations, Intersections, and Inspirations brings together globally recognized and newer scholars to address the complex relationship between Pentecostalism and the Ecumenical Movement. Historical essays address topics such as early Pentecostal responses to and participation in ecumenism, explicit convergences between Pentecostal and ecumenical initiatives, and the particular contributions of Pentecostals and ecumenists outside North America and Europe. Constructive theological essays address intersections between ecumenical theology and systematic loci in Pentecostal perspective, in the hope that mutual exchange and criticism will lead to ways to improve both. Never before have this many scholars of Pentecostalism combined their efforts in order to focus on the relationship between Pentecostal theology and ecumenical theology past, present, and future.
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.
What is Lutheran ecclesiology? The Lutheran view of the church has been fraught with difficulties since the Reformation. Church as Fullness in All Things reengages the topic from a confessional Lutheran perspective. Lutheran theologians and clergy who are bound to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions explore the possibilities and pitfalls of the Lutheran tradition’s view of the church in the face of contemporary challenges. The contributors also take up questions about and challenges to thinking and living as the church in their tradition, while looking to other Christian voices for aid in what is finally a common Christian endeavor. The volume addresses three related types of questions faced in living and thinking as the church, with each standing as a field of tension marked by disharmonized—though perhaps not inherently opposite—poles: the individual and the communal, the personal and the institutional, and the particular and the universal. Asking whether de facto prioritizations of given poles or unexamined assumptions about their legitimacy impinge the church Lutherans seek, the volume closes with Anglican, Reformed, and Roman Catholic contributors stating what their ecclesiological traditions could learn from Lutheranism and vice-versa.
In Visible Church-Visible Unity Ola Tjorhom explores central questions in current ecclesiological and ecumenical debates from the perspective of an evangelical catholicity of "the Great Tradition of the Church." Tjorhom shows how the fundamental visibility of the Church and the similarly visible nature of church fellowship is a corrective cover against "invisible" perceptions of these entities. This theme of visibility is developed in view of the sacraments, the ministries, and the mission of the Church. Visible Church-Visible Unity includes "Chapter 1: Toward the End of the Reformation Project? The Riddle of Protestantism," "Chapter 2: The Great Tradition of the Church'-An Old Way Forward?" "Chapter 3: The Church-Mother of Faith and Priest of Creation," "Chapter 4: The Goal of Visible Unity-Reaffirming Our Commitment," and "Chapter 5: Life in the Spirit-Toward a 'Materialist' Spirituality."