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Faithful and effective church leadership requires preparation in prayer, theological reflection and a wide range of pastoral, prophetic and practical skills in order to ensure that what the Church discerns as necessary the Church does. Faithful Improvisation? is both a contribution to a current and sometimes vigorous debate on how the Church trains its leaders and also a practical and theological resource for discerning what the Spirit is saying and then acting upon it in local church contexts. Part One includes the full text of the Senior Church Leadership report from the Faith and Order Commission. Part Two offers reflections by Cally Hammond, Thomas Seville, Charlotte Methuen, Jeremy Morris and David Hilborn, on practices, models and theologies of leadership in different periods of church history which informed the FAOC report. Part Three opens up a broader discussion about present and future leadership within the Church of England. Mike Higton sketches out a dialogue between Senior Church Leadership and Lord Green’s report, Talent Management for Future Leaders; Tim Harle offers a personal reflection from the perspective of the community of leadership practitioners; and Rachel Treweek concludes with an exploration of the essentially relational character of leadership.
How do the arts inform and cultivate our service to God? In this addition to an award-winning series, distinguished philosopher Bruce Ellis Benson rethinks what it means to be artistic. Rather than viewing art as practiced by the few, he recovers the ancient Christian idea of presenting ourselves to God as works of art, reenvisioning art as the very core of our being: God calls us to improvise as living works of art. Benson also examines the nature of liturgy and connects art and liturgy in a new way. This book will appeal to philosophy, worship/liturgy, art, music, and theology students as well as readers interested in engaging issues of worship and aesthetics in a postmodern context, including Christian artists and worship leaders.
This book ventures a new interpretation of revelation. The author discusses the major themes in the narrative of revelation, engaging critically with four of the century's giants in theology: Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner and Carl Henry. These represent the four major phases in the narrative of revelation and Fackre addresses these alternative views in twentieth-century theology through in-depth inquiry and critical analysis. The Doctrine of Revelation challenges reductionist views and strives for an ecumenical understanding that appropriates the insights from a variety of schools of thought.
Observing a strange disappearance of doctrine within the church, Kevin Vanhoozer argues that there is no more urgent task for Christians today than to engage in living truthfully with others before God. He details how doctrine serves the church--the theater of the gospel--by directing individuals and congregations to participate in the drama of what God is doing to renew all things in Jesus Christ. Taking his cue from George Lindbeck and others who locate the criteria of Christian identity in Spirit-led church practices, Vanhoozer relocates the norm for Christian doctrine in the canonical practices, which, he argues, both provoke and preserve the integrity of the church's witness as prophetic and apostolic.
The post-Christendom era in the English-speaking world has seen a significant reduction in access to political power by the churches, a slow loss of their social and cultural influence, and a shredding of their moral standing from abuse scandals and other public failings. Community Engagement after Christendom directly addresses these challenges, proposing a different approach to the relationship between church and society. Church agencies today are often entangled in contracting with the state and its private partners to deliver government policy and services. This means they can be increasingly vulnerable to external pressure. So what resources can they and their agencies draw upon to reshape community engagement in a difficult, unsettling context? Community Engagement after Christendom proposes a multifaceted approach. It begins by reading Scripture afresh through questions shaped by the present situation. Douglas Hynd then explores the story of Anabaptist public servant Pilgram Marpeck, identifying how his critique of Christendom can help reshape our understanding today. Finally, he looks at the current experience of church-related agencies and Christian advocacy, suggesting fresh, imaginative ways forward.
What is the nature and purpose of the church for a twenty-first-century world? What is the church's calling in an age of globalization? Twenty-one pastors and theologians in the Reformed tradition offer insightful perspectives by bringing into conversation the treasures of liturgical and missional theology. These authors see the church's essential character to be as worshipping-witnessing communities, gathered and sent by the triune God. Topics that are explored include the relationship between worship and mission, baptism and the Eucharist, the formative role of community, the catholicity and ecumenicity of the church, multiculturalism, and hymnody.
Have we really heard the message of Colossians? Is this New Testament book just another religious text whose pretext is an ideological grab for dominating power? Reading Colossians in context, ancient and contemporary, can perhaps give us new ears to hear. In this innovative and refreshing book Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat explain our own sociocultural context to then help us get into the world of the New Testament and get a sense of the power of the gospel as it addressed those who lived in Colossae two thousand years ago. Their reading presents us with a radical challenge from the apostle Paul for today. Drawing together biblical scholarship with a passion for authentic lives that embody the gospel, this groundbreaking interpretation of Colossians provides us with tools to subvert the empire of our own context in a way that acknowledges the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
In Defense of Doctrine is an apologetic for the ongoing, constructive theological task in Protestant and Evangelical traditions. It suggests that doctrinal development can be explained as a hermeneutical phenomenon and that insights from hermeneutical philosophy and the philosophy of language can aid theologians in constructing explanatory theses for particular theological problems associated with the facts of doctrinal development. Joining the recent call to theological interpretation of Scripture, Putman provides a constructive model that forwards a descriptive and normative pattern for reading Scripture and theological tradition together.
In this book Pentecostal theologian Veli-Matti Karkkainen develops a constructive theology of triune revelation and the triune God in dialogue with Christian tradition, with contemporary theology in its global and contextual diversity, and with other major living faiths. Karkkainen's Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World is a five-volume project that aims to develop a new approach to and method of doing Christian theology in a pluralistic world at the beginning of the third millennium. With the metaphor of hospitality serving as the framework for his discussion, Karkkainen engages Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism in sympathetic and critical mutual dialogue while remaining robustly Christian in his convictions. Never before has a fullscale doctrinal theology been attempted in such a wide and deep dialogical mode.
Leading scholars from around the world engage with key facets of N. T. Wright's most important work, providing a window onto major debates and developments in New Testament studies in recent decades. These essays focus on N. T. Wright's contribution to New Testament theology and interpretation over the past four decades. The structure is three-fold, corresponding to the three areas of classic Jewish theology that Wright views as starting points for discerning the shape of New Testament theology: monotheism, election, and eschatology. Working within these broad categories, the contributors critically engage with Wright's work from both biblical and theological perspectives.