Diakonia studies : critical issues in ministry / John N. Collins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, John N. (John Neil), 1931- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Diakonia (The Greek word).

Clergy--Office--History of doctrines.

Clergy.

Pastoral theology--History.

Pastoral theology.

History.

Clergy--Office.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 277 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Summary:

Diakonia Studies closes the account on John N. Collins's 40 years of involvement in groundbreaking linguistic research and argumentation concerning the nature and functioning of Christian ministry. Dispute has swirled around the Greek term diakonia for 50 years. Once seen as enshrining the New Testament value of loving Christian service-what Jerome Murphy-O'Connor called "one of the dogmas of New Testament scholarship"-the word was exposed by Dieter Georgi in 1964 as arguably meaning something quite different. In 1974 John N. Collins published his first paper on the issue, pointing to inadequacies in Georgi's brief account. Then in 1990 Collins published his exhaustive semantic survey, Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources. His re-interpretation was variously hailed as "devastating," "provocative," "unfashionable," and "a scholarly avalanche whose conclusions are inescapable." Since then, the book has stood at the center of "the Collins-Debate." Meanwhile Collins's findings have been incorporated in the authoritative Danker Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Diakonia Studies examines, in a non-technical way (i.e., without appeal to particulars of Greek), the reasons why theologians need not only to review cherished readings of leading New Testament passages but also to reassess what some passages might really be saying about the nature and delivery of ministry. These third-millennium issues are the matter of the final papers in the volume, reminding churches of the ministry they have received and of their filed-away commitments to an ecumenically-charged ministry. Among the topics considered are ordained and lay ministries, the tension between office and charism, and prospects for deacons when a diakonia of loving service no longer defines their call.

Contents:

From diakonia to diakonia today: historical aspects of interpretation

Re-interpreting diakonia in Germany: Anni Hentschel's Diakonia im Neuen Testament

The problem with values carried by diakonia/diakonie in recent church documents

How ancient Greeks thought of diakonia

Diakonia in the teaching of Jesus

The mediatorial role of Paul as minister/diakonos

Ministry as office

Ministry among gifts

Paul, delegate to Jerusalem

The diakonia of the seven

Theology of ministry in the twentieth century: ongoing problems or new orientations?

Ordained and other ministries: making a difference

Fitting lay ministries into a theology of ministry

Ties that bind: deacons today in the grip of yesteryear.

Notes:

"Selected publications by John N. Collins": pages 265-268.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199367573

0199367574

OCLC:

869266806