The countries of Europe are seeking to redefine themselves, both individually and in relation to each other. This volume examines the role of the Christian churches at various levels of that process. The Charta Oecumenica, a ground-breaking document from the Conference of Churches in Europe and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, aimed to set forth the ecumenical response of the European Christian Churches to the living out of faith in today’s world. Four theologians, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran, respond to this document, assessing its strengths and the areas where further development is required. At least implicitly this discussion raises questions about the nature of catholicity and communion, a topic the following four essays address. What is catholicity, what happens when there is too strong an emphasis on the national church, and are there models of gradual church communion to which the churches could assent? Gradual communion sets out to attain full, including sacramental, unity and the final two essays explore how sacramental theology might assist in this process.

This is a rich collection of fifteen articles by European, North American and Asian theologians who are concerned with the concept, life, unity and future of the church. It offers a wealth of broad perspectives on ecclesiology by scholars from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox backgrounds. The first section, 'Perspectives on Ecumenical Ecclesiology', comprises reflections on postmodern ecclesiologies as well as on the development and problems concerning ecumenical methods and models of unity. The second section, 'Communion Ecclesiology and Otherness', provides some pertinent deliberations on how an ecclesiology of communion can integrate otherness. In particular, Zizioulas' communion ecclesiology is critically examined, the possibility for a retrieval of Eucharistic theology between Catholics and Orthodox is put forward, and Tillard's communion ecclesiology is appraised as offering resources for innerdenominational otherness. The final section, 'Ecclesiology in Global Contexts', considers critically the possibility of evangelical ecclesiology as an answer to ethnic impaired Christian community. The role of the (Catholic) Church and its values in Europe and vis-à-vis the European Constitution is examined. The Church of Nigeria's Constitutional Revision (2005) and its ecclesial- ecumenical implications comes into focus, and three notable concepts of unity, as developed by three Indian scholars, S.K. George, John Sadiq and Karem David, are evaluated. Finally, the Japanese diaspora in the States is appraised as a place where a particular Japanese Christian vision could emerge through the "internationalist ecclesiology" developed by Japanese Christian missionaries.

A criticism often leveled at Baptists is that they have no theology of ecclesial reality beyond the local. In this book Keith Jones describes the history and current reality of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), which brings together over fifty national Baptist groups in Europe and the Middle East and seeks to demonstrate that there is an ecclesial reality within the organization, expressed in its communal life, mission activity, working on theological education, in relationship to other Christian world communions and in its decision making processes. The role of the pivotal figure of the General Secretary of the EBF is examined with particular reference to two significant figures. The relationship of European Baptists during the cold war era is explored, as is the relationship to two key mission agencies from the USA who have done much work in Europe. This represents ground-breaking work in terms of an examination of how Baptists in Europe work together trans-nationally.

A comprehensive collection of Seventh-day Adventist texts and statements on interchurch and interfaith relations. With more than 16 million baptized members and about 30 million adherents in total today, this church is a global Christian movement. It attempts to document a phenomenon found in other less ecumenically inclined denominations as well.

People worldwide find themselves part of overlapping communities of identity and belonging--racial, political, cultural, sexual, ideological. Some identities, like brand loyalties, are chosen; some, like class identity, are fimposed. As followers of Jesus Christ, those called to live in between the age that is and the age to come, Christians ask what it means to be part of the body of Christ, God's new creation from among the nations, in a world filled with other nations. "Who--and whose--are we?" There is no easy answer, no time at which Christians got it completely right. Yet such questions must be addressed, and the stakes are high. Matters of war and peace, exclusion and inclusion, who starves and who does not, the credibility of the gospel itself--all are caught up in the whirl of identities, allegiances imposed or refused, and questions about what "the church" might possibly mean in such circumstances. In this book, a distinguished group of scholars from five continents asks, "How can the church respect the diversity of its members--many nations, cultures, and communities--while maintaining a coherent witness to the kingdom of God that is not undermined by more parochial ideologies or priorities?" Chapter Contributors: Braden Anderson Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer Michael Budde Matthew Butler William Cavanaugh Jose Mario Francisco Peter Galadza Stanley Hauerwas Daniel Izuzquiza Slavica Jakelic Pantelis Kalaitzidis Eunice Karanja Kamaara Emmanuel Katongole Dorian Llywelyn Martin Menke Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator A. Alexander Stummvoll

Written by an international team of distinguished scholars, this comprehensive book introduces students to the fundamental historical, systematic, moral and ecclesiological aspects of the study of the church, as well as serving as a resource for scholars engaging in ecclesiological debates on a wide variety of issues.

Both Alexander Schmemann and Joseph Ratzinger insist that the human person remains shrouded in mystery without God’s self-disclosure in the person of Jesus Christ. Like us, Jesus lived in a particular time and location, and therefore time and temporality must be part of the ontological question of what it means to be a human person. Yet, Jesus, the one who has time for us, ascended to the Father, and the bride of Christ awaits his return, and therefore time and temporality are conditioned by the eschatological. With this in mind, the ontological question of personhood and temporality is a question that concerns eschatology: how does eschatology shape personhood? Bringing together Schmemann and Ratzinger in a theological dialogue for the first time, this book explores their respective approaches and answers to the aforementioned question. While the two theologians share much in common, it is only Ratzinger’s relational ontological approach that, by being consistently relational from top to bottom, consistently preserves the meaningfulness of temporal existence.

Theology after Heidegger must take into account history and language as constitutive elements in the pursuit of meaning. Quite often, this prompts a hurried flight from metaphysics to an embrace of an absence at the center of Christian narrativity. In this book, Conor Sweeney explores the "postmodern" critique of presence in the context of sacramental theology, engaging the thought of Louis-Marie Chauvet and Lieven Boeve. Chauvet is an influential postmodern theologian whose critique of the perceived onto-theological constitution of presence in traditional sacramental theology has made big waves, while Boeve is part of a more recent generation of theologians who even more wholeheartedly embrace postmodern consequences for theology. Sweeney considers the extent to which postmodernism a la Heidegger upsets the hermeneutics of sacramentality, asking whether this requires us to renounce the search for a presence that by definition transcends us. Against both the fetishization of presence and absence, Sweeney argues that metaphysics has a properly sacramental basis, and that it is only through this reality that the dialectic of presence and absence can be transcended. The case is made for the full but restless signification of the mother's smile as the paradigm for genuine sacramental presence.

The twentieth century witnessed a renewed interest in a Roman Catholic theology of the word. The beginning of this renewal is marked by the work of Karl Rahner who, before the Second Vatican Council, decried the fact that Roman Catholicism, in contrast to the Protestant theological tradition, lacked an adequate theology of the word. Rahner's contributions, as well as those of sacramental theologian Louis-Marie Chauvet, demonstrate the Roman Catholic conviction that the word is fundamentally sacramental: it has the capacity to bear God's presence to humanity. Rooted in patristic and medieval sacramental tradition, and engaged in dialogue with Reformation theologies. Rhodora Beaton examines the further advances in Rahner and Chauvet to articulate the relationship between word and sacrament within the context of language, culture, and an already graced world as the place of divine self-expression, as well as analyzes the implications for Trinitarian theology, sacramentality, liturgy, and action.

What happened to the mystical body? A theology that stoked much theological creativity in the first half of the twentieth century both in Europe and in the United States had receded by the latter half of the century. One in Christ explores the theology of the mystical body of Christ as developed by Virgil Michel, OSB, examines the reasons for its decline, and traces it throughout the work of Louis-Marie Chauvet, a surprising custodian of the mystical body’s “French stream.” By delineating three major streams of mystical body theology, Timothy R. Gabrielli helps readers understand it more clearly and, in so doing, lays the groundwork for harvesting its potential for contemporary theology.