Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGuided by an editor at once theologically critical and ecumenically compassionate, these authors follow her lead in bringing historically informed theory to bear on the contemporary contexts and practices of ecclesial bodies. The volume delivers what the best of such collections achieve: a range of provocative questions sure to incite further academic inquiry with confidence and newfound ecumenical purpose. -- Bruce T. Morrill, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
Those with a serious interest in theology, but who think that ecumenism has become a boring and interminable debate among clerics, will be pleasantly surprised by this volume. It shows that internal divisions, especially in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, have now reached the stage of ecumenical problems in their own right, though in both cases the resources are there to tackle them. New light is shed on ‘communion' ecclesiology in Orthodoxy and the sharp disagreements to which it gives rise. Running through these more classical themes are the tensions caused by gender, ethnicity and inculturation, with striking examples from Korea and Japan. Starting from the core notion of the ecumenical, the book exemplifies its relevance to a wide range of contemporary issues. -- John D'Arcy May, Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Ecumenical Ecclesiology is a useful and insightful guide through the complex contemporary debate on how the church could be one without losing its many faces and particularities. It offers a rich variety of contributions from diverse denominational and cultural backgrounds committed to the re-evaluation of older models of ecumenism while sharing their desire for the church's celebration, witness and service in the world not to be disrupted by divisions. -- Ivana Noble, Protestant Theological Faculty, Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic
The idea for the volume was kicked around at various international conferences on religion during the years leading up to the centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, which is recognized as the birth of the modern ecumenical movement. Theologians from Europe and the US offer perspectives on contemporary ecumenical ecclesiology, communion ecclesiology and otherness, and ecclesiology in global contexts. Among their topics are reflecting on methods in contemporary ecumenical dialogues, theological resources for divided denominations, questions of ecclesial and divine communion, retrieving eucharistic ecclesiology, instruments of faith and unity in canon law in the Church of Nigeria constitutional revision of 2005, and the ecclesiological matrix of Japanese Christian activists in Japan and the US diaspora. -- Eithne O'Leyne * BOOK NEWS, Inc. *
The essays vary widely in accessibility, style and scope, though the quality is high. They seek not to provide a single coherent perspective but to showcase the range of thinking from those who believe that serious study of ecclesiology can change the shape both of the Church's internal divisions and of its contribution to dangerously fragmented world. In that they succeed. -- David Goodbourn * Baptist Quarterly *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Contributors Preface
Linda Hogan Introduction
Gesa E. Thiessen Part I: Perspectives on Contemporary Ecumenical Ecclesiology 1. Driving the Haywain: Where Stands the Church 'catholic' Today?
Gerard Mannion 2. Seeking Unity: Reflecting on Methods in Contemporary Ecumenical Dialogue
Gesa E. Thiessen 3. The Struggle for an Organic, Conciliar and Diverse Church - Models of Church Unity in Earlier Stages of the Ecumenical Dialogue
Miriam Haar 4. Church and Covenant: Theological Resources for Divided Denominations
Edwin C. van Driel 5. Comprehensive Vision: The Ecumenical Potential of a Lost Ideal
Andrew Pierce 6. Integrity, Alternative Aggressions, and Impaired Communion
Wendy Dackson Part II: Communion Ecclesiology and Otherness 7. The Church and the 'Other': Questions of Ecclesial and Divine Communion
Paul M. Collins 8. Being Church: A Critique of Zizioulas' Communion Ecclesiology
Travis E. Ables 9. Retrieving Eucharistic Ecclesiology
Radu Bordeianu 10. Communion Ecclesiology and Ecumenical Experience: Resources for Inner-Denominational Otherness
Brian P. Flanagan 11. Evangelical Ecclesiology as an Answer to Ethnic Impaired Christian Community? An Inquiry into the Theology of Miroslav Volf
Eddy Van der Borght Part III: Ecclesiology in Global Contexts 12. On Being a European Catholic: The Politics of Inclusion Encounters an Ecclesiology of Exclusion
Julie Clague 13. Instruments of Faith and Unity in Canon Law: The Church of Nigeria Constitutional Revision of 2005
Evan Kuehn 14. Sacral Authority and Pastoral Ministry: A Shamanistic Inculturation of the Protestant Church in Korea
Hak Joon Lee 15. Confucianism, Internationalism, Patriotism and Protestantism: The Ecclesiological Matrix of Japanese Christian Activists in Japan and the U.S. Diaspora
Madeline Duntley Index
