Mysticism and Witness in Koinonia
Mysticism and Witness in Koinonia

Author: Maria Clara Bingemer

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-11-10

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1666752649

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Testimony until the end in a radical donation of life and blood can be communitarian and not only individual. That is the case for the two communities of Trappists and Jesuits, so different in their form and so close in their radicality. One is contemplative, the other active; one is in Africa, the other in Latin America. Both are religious Catholic orders. Nevertheless, the cause of their violent death is secular. For one, there is love and dialogue with otherness: other cultures, other religions, other beliefs. For the other, there is justice for those who are the victims of iniquitous economic and political systems: the poor. Assuming secular causes into their religious consecration and commitment, those communities teach today to the plural society we live in how to be open to otherness, to difference, and to the various vulnerabilities that clamor for justice. They also teach to the churches a new radical way to live the gospel—not with a unique institutional point of view but with an unlimited openness to all hungers and thirsts of the world. Their martyrdom is a liturgy celebrated publicly, instigating reflection and action.

Be My Witnesses
Be My Witnesses

Author: Darrell L. Guder

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780802800510

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What is the church's mission in the world? What message does it proclaim, and who is to proclaim it? The mission, says Darrell Guder in this book, is to complete the work of salvation that God began in the incarnation of his son Jesus Christ. The message is the gospel -- the good news of the incarnate Christ. And the messengers are the Body of Christ -- the church -- who have been called to be his witnesses. Only as we understand Christ's incarnation and the church's role in proclaiming its meaning, according to Guder, can we understand our calling to be witnesses of God's salvation.

On the Way to Fuller Koinonia
On the Way to Fuller Koinonia

Author: Thomas F. Best

Publisher: World Council of Churches

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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On the Way to Fuller Koinonia - Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith & Order

The Authentic Witness
The Authentic Witness

Author: C. Norman Kraus

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-03-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1725227339

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Traditional Protestant theology has long answered the question, "What is the true church?" by pointing to the visible church--its location, nature, and structure. The recent increase of interest in missions, however, has raised the issues of the church's role and identity--its mission in the world. It is no longer enough to use orthodoxy as the criterion for the genuineness of the church, identifying the body of Christ by organization or clerical structure, perfection in lifestyle, or ecstatic experience of the Holy Spirit. Rather, says Norman Kraus, the mark of the true church is its authenticity--its ability to remain true to its original prototype in character and purpose. Thus, the church's mission is to be the authentic community of witness to the world. The Christian community affirms each individual as a person in Christ, and its objective for the world is the same as for itself: it calls the world to peace in Christ. The church in mission, then, must be a sign to the world of the kingdom of God. As an authentic community, it is a healing community, characterized and organized around its mission of reconciling witness rather than creeds, various practices, or preaching. Following Christ as its model, its message is salvation and reconciliation.

Faith, Reason, and Theosis
Faith, Reason, and Theosis

Author: Aristotle Papanikolaou

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2023-10-03

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1531503047

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Theosis shapes contemporary Orthodox theology in two ways: positively and negatively. In the positive sense, contemporary Orthodox theologians made theosis the thread that bound together the various aspects of theology in a coherent whole and also interpreted patristic texts, which experienced a renaissance in the twentieth century, even in Orthodox theology. In the negative sense, contemporary theologians used theosis as a triumphalistic club to beat down Catholic and Protestant Christians, claiming that they rejected theosis in favor of either a rationalistic or fideistic approach to Christian life. The essays collected in this volume move beyond this East–West divide by examining the relation between faith, reason, and theosis from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives. A variety of themes are addressed, such as the nature–grace debate and the relation of philosophy to theology, through engagement with such diverse thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John Wesley, Meister Eckhart, Dionysius the Areopagite, Symeon the New Theologian, Panayiotis Nellas, Vladimir Lossky, Martin Luther, Martin Heidegger, Sergius Bulgakov, John of the Cross, Delores Williams, Evagrius of Pontus, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The essays in this book are situated within a current thinking on theosis that consists of a common, albeit minimalist, affirmation amidst the flow of differences. The authors in this volume contribute to the historical theological task of complicating the contemporary Orthodox narrative, but they also continue the “theological achievement” of thinking about theosis so that all Christian traditions may be challenged to stretch and shift their understanding of theosis even amidst an ecumenical celebration of the gift of participation in the life of God.

A Future Full of Hope?
A Future Full of Hope?

Author: Gemma Simmonds

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 0814638023

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"Are we looking at the imminent death of religious life in the church, at a future full of hope, or at something in between? This book, based on papers given at a colloquium run by the Religious Life Institute (Heythrop College, University of London), addresses urgent questions around the renewal and survival of religious life from a British and Irish, religious and lay perspective. Who is looking at religious vocation today? What are they seeking, and what are they finding? With a foreword by former Dominican Master General Timothy Radcliffe, leading authors on religious life, with lay and religious colleagues, explore these questions and propose answers in a book offering material for group and personal reflection"--Provided by publisher.