Who Is the Church? an ecclesiology for the twenty-first century / Cheryl M. Peterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, Cheryl M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church.

Mission of the church.

Physical Description:

viii, 153 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2013.

Summary:

In response to their diminishing influence and dwindling numbers, many congregations focus on strategy and purpose-what churches "do." Cheryl Peterson submits that mainline churches need to focus instead on who they are-to reclaim a theological, rather than sociological, understanding of themselves. She places the question of the church's identity and mission into a conversation with the primary ecclesiological paradigms of the past century: the neo-Reformation concept of the church as a "word event" and the ecumenical understanding of the church as "communion." Arguing that we instead understand the church as a people created by the Spirit to be a missional community that God is sending out, she offers a way of thinking of church which reconciles the best of competing ecclesiologies for the future of mainline Protestant theology. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: asking the right question

1. Ecclesiology and context in Protestant America

2. The Church as word-event

3. The Church as communion

4. Ecclesiology post-Christendom: the missional Church

5. Starting with the Spirit: a narrative method for ecclesiology post-Christendom

6. An ecclesiology that "starts with the Spirit": the ecumenical creeds

Epilogue: a vision for revival.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and an index.

ISBN:

9780800698812

0800698819

9781451426380

1451426380

OCLC:

798615973