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Discusses the comfort and continuity provided by the Catholic Church in contrast to the lack of history and tradition within many Protestant churches.
In 1517, Martin Luther set off what has been called, at least since the nineteenth century, the Protestant Reformation. Can Christians of differing traditions commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of this event together? How do we understand and assess the Reformation today? What calls for celebration? What calls for repentance? Can the Reformation anniversary be an occasion for greater mutual understanding among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants? At the 2015 Pro Ecclesia annual conference for clergy and laity, meeting at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, an array of scholars—Catholic and Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran and American Evangelical as well as Methodist—addressed this topic. The aim of this book is not only to collect these diverse Catholic and Evangelical perspectives but also to provide resources for all Christians, including pastors and scholars, to think and argue about the roads we have taken since 1517—as we also learn to pray with Jesus Christ “that all may be one” (John 17:21).
What is the significance of the Protestant Reformation for Christian ethical thinking and action? Can core Protestant commitments and claims still provide for compelling and viable accounts of Christian living. This collection of essays by leading international scholars explores the relevance of the Protestant Reformation and its legacy for contemporary Christian ethics.
This volume of essays centers on the theme of doing Christian theology in the present postmodern context, a consistent theme of the teaching of John D. Castelein. The work will celebrate and honor John's years of service by representing reflections of his teaching in the thought of his students and colleagues. The essays range over such topics as theological reflections on the postmodern philosophical themes, the relations between Christian theology and culture, the contributions of philosophical hermeneutics for Christian theology, and the challenges of engaging in ministry in a postmodern context. The seventeen contributors to the volume are former students and both present and former colleagues involved in various ministries, be they in a college setting or in a local church.
What constitutes the unity of the church over time and across cultures? Can our account of the church's apostolic faith embrace the cultural diversity of world Christianity? The ecumenical movement that began in the twentieth century posed the problem of the church's apostolicity in profound new ways. In the attempt to find unity in the midst of the Protestant-Catholic schism, participants in this movement defined the church as a distinct culture—complete with its own structures, rituals, architecture and music. Apostolicity became a matter of cultivating the church's own (Western) culture. At the same time it became disconnected from mission, and more importantly, from the diverse reality of world Christianity. In this pioneering study, John Flett assesses the state of the conversation about the apostolic nature of the church. He contends that the pursuit of ecumenical unity has come at the expense of dealing responsibly with crosscultural difference. By looking out to the church beyond the West and back to the New Testament, Flett presents a bold account of an apostolicity that embraces plurality. Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.
One of the slogans of the reformation was ecclesia reformata semper reformanda – 'the reformed church always reforming'. Churches throughout the western world are currently engaged in reform and renewal programmes through internal structural reforms as well as movements such as 'emerging church'. This book presents a challenging theology of church reform and renewal that offers a contemporary understanding of this historic slogan. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Bradbury discerns processes and practices which are perpetually reforming and renewing the identity of the church. It examines doctrinal and confessional conceptions of the church, re-examines texts concerned with covenantal renewal and explores Jewish-Christian dialogue as an example of renewal. A constructive theology is offered utilizing the categories of collective memory and mimetic practice. This upholds fundamental Christian identity, whilst driving the process of reform and renewal under God in the context of a three-way relationship between God, the church and the world.
No Strings Attached is the story of a Mennonite congregation in Indiana that existed for eighty-six years. The congregation began during the social and religious turmoil of the 1920s when some Mennonites in North America held to rigid doctrines and ethics implemented by central authority, and others operated with a congregational polity and became more assimilated into secular culture. The struggle between these two different understandings of faithfulness was most passionately played out in northern Indiana. Placing the narrative of this congregation within the context of 500 years of Mennonite history illustrates the grace and the tension that has both beset and empowered a unique group of people who began as radical reformers. Although no strings attached refers to the women's headwear during the 1920s, which had no strings, it could also be the story of the pastor eating lunch on the peak of the steep roof of the church building! Reflecting on stories of these Mennonite people is an invitation to move into the future with courageous hope. Believing and behaving differently has not prevented Middlebury Mennonites from treating each other respectfully, living in a community of love, joy, and peace, and offering God's healing and hope to each other and to the world.
"The first two articles in Part I by John Howard Yoder, written respectively in 1958 and 1964, were unpublished documents from the Yoder Papers in the Mennonite Archives at Goshen College. The third article was originally prepared by John Howard Yoder and Paul Lederach as part of a committee charged with the responsibility to articulate a philosophy of education for the Mennonite Church. It was published as an appendix to the book Mennonite Education: A Philosophy of Education for the Mennonite Church byDaniel Hertzler (Herald Press, 1971). The articles in Part 2 of this book were first printed in the Concern pamphlet 13 in 1966 under the editorship of Virgil Vogt."--Editor's Note, p. vi.
