Search results for ""author the rev. professor paul avis""

"Contesting 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. "Contesting 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'.

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What is church's true foundation? Was the Christian church founded by Jesus, or does ‘the Eucharist make the church’? Paul Avis sets out his own answer to these questions. Gathering a wide range of critical scholarship, he argues that there is something solid and dependable at the foundation of the church's life and mission. Avis argues that Jesus wanted a church in a sense, but not as we know it. Christ proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom and his disciples proclaimed the gospel whose content was Jesus himself, the Kingdom in person. The church is battered and divided, but at its core is a treasure that is indestructible – the gospel of Christ, embodied in word and sacrament. A central theme of the book is the relationship between the church and Christ, the church and the gospel, the church and the Kingdom. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the sole foundation of the church, but he cannot be without his people.

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A unique work of Fundamental Theology, Revelation and the Word of God explores key issues of divine revelation as open questions. They include: Why is revelation so elusive? Existential and philosophical problems of revelation in the context of apologetics. The self-revelation of God in mystery. What does it mean to say, as the Bible does, that God speaks' and acts'? How does revelation relate to the Bible, history, religious experience and the church? The relational and personalist dimensions of revelation. What the biblical Wisdom tradition contributes to our understanding of revelation. The threefold form of the Word of God: Jesus Christ the incarnate Word (Logos) and Wisdom (Sophia) of God; the Scriptures that witness to him; and the church's proclamation (kerygma) in preaching, sacraments and other ways. The role of hermeneutics, cultural constraints and imagination in the reception of revelation. Critique (including Feminist Theology) of claime

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Challenging the common assumption that the Enlightenment of the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries was an essentially secular, irreligious and atheistic movement, this book critiques this standard interpretation as based on a narrow view of Enlightenment sources. Building on the work of revisionist historians, this volume takes the argument squarely into the theological domain, whether Anglican, Dissenting, Lutheran or deistic, whilst also noting that the Enlightenment deeply affected Roman Catholic and Jewish theologies. It challenges the stereotype of ‘Enlightenment rationalism’, and the penultimate chapter brings out the biblical and ecclesial roots of the image of enlightenment and reclaims it for Christian faith.

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