Ecclesiology

As an introduction to ecclesiology, this course seeks to provide a fundamental understanding the Church’s origin, nature, structure, and mission. An overview of the New Testament and historical sources for the theology of the Church will develop into two primary tracks: 1) an introduction to the major ecclesiological models, images, themes and issues; 2) a special consideration of the Church of Rome and its relationship to the universal Church, particularly the question of primacy and collegiality.

The irrelevancy of "the church" is more than a trivialization of this or that kind of religious group or gathering - it's a widely held supposition both inside and outside circles. Of the several recent efforts to revive relevancy, few account for the utilitarian call for value and simply default to the crowded space of claims and counter-claims to fealty.

Using the notions of chaplaincy, ministry, and missional assertions to justify "the church" this conversation offers a glimpse of our alternatives as we observe the obvious - "the church" must add value or suffer irrelevancy.

This thesis explores a theology of a three-fold form of proclamation of the Word of God, in which "proclamation" is both direct (i.e., sermon and sacraments) and indirect (i.e., witness in acts of love and mission), and seeks to identify whether the life of the Church, thanks to its communicative union with Christ, is a true form of proclamation. Simply stated, communicative union is the shorthand term for the Church's and the individual believer's participation in the proclamation of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This project reclaims Calvin as a resource for establishing a fitting and appropriate ecclesiology that naturally participates in proclamation through union with Christ, moving from worship to the missio Dei.

The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western Europe. The role of monasteries and their relationship to the social world around them was transformed during this period as monastic institutions became more integrated in social and political power networks. This collected volume of essays focuses on one of the central figures in this process, the Irish ascetic exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (c. 550-615), his travels on the Continent, and the monastic network he and his Frankish disciples established in Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy.

The post-Roman kingdoms through which Columbanus travelled and established his monastic foundations were made up of many different communities of peoples. As an outsider and immigrant, how did Columbanus and his communities interact with these peoples? How did they negotiate differences and what emerged from these encounters? How societies interact with outsiders can reveal the inner workings and social norms of that culture. This volume aims to explore further the strands of this vibrant contact and to consider all of the geographical spheres in which Columbanus and his monastic communities operated (Ireland, Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, Lombard Italy) and the varieties of communities he and his successors came in contact with — whether they were royal, ecclesiastic, aristocratic, or grass-roots.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Contributors
Foreword Walter Pohl
Part I: Columbanus in Context
Chapter 1: Introduction: Columbanus and Europe Alexander O'Hara
Chapter 2: Columbanus and the Language of Concord Damian Bracken
Part II: The Insular Background
Chapter 3: The Political Background to Columbanus's Irish Career Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Chapter 4: Movers and Shakers? How Women Shaped the Career of Columbanus Elva Johnston
Chapter 5: Columbanus's Ulster Education Alex Woolf
Part III: The Frankish World
Chapter 6: Columbanus in Brittany Ian Wood
Chapter 7: Columbanus and Shunning: The Irish peregrinus between Gildas, Gaul, and Gregory Clare Stancliffe
Chapter 8: Orthodoxy and Authority: Jonas, Eustasius, and the Agrestius Affair Andreas Fischer
Chapter 9: Columbanus and the Mission to the Bavarians and the Slavs in the Seventh Century Herwig Wolfram
Part IV: On the Fringe: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia
Chapter 10: Between the Devil and the deep Lake Constance: Jonas of Bobbio, interpretatio Christiana, and the Pagan Religion of the Alamanni Bernhard Maier
Chapter 11: Drinking with Woden: A Re-Examination of Jonas's Vita Columbani I. 27 Francesco Borri
Chapter 12: Between Metz and Überlingen: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia Yaniv Fox
Chapter 13: Quicumque sunt rebelles, foras exeant! Columbanus's Rebellious Disciple Gallus Philipp Dörler
Part V: Lombard Italy and Columbanus's Legacy
Chapter 14: Columbanus, Bobbio, and the Lombards Stefano Gasparri
Chapter 15: Disputing Columbanus's Heritage: The Regula cuiusdam patris (with a translation of the Rule) Albrecht Diem

This document (accepted by the Board of Ordained Ministry in 2020) includes some revisions, making it more accessible to the laity. In addition, it may provide some direction for certified candidates in the UMC seeking to be commissioned and ordained.

Post-modern theology is highly suspicious of social theory and its secular origins. After all, the founder who gave us the word “sociology” also coined the term “positivism.” An alternative strategy is that of Bernard Lonergan, a theologian with a highly developed sociological imagination. He was quite aware of the secularity but devoted a life-time in trying to think through some of the key issues. His was a mind on the move and perhaps it is not surprising that his contribution has yet to be assimilated.
In this paper I shall take a look at a key text from Lonergan’s magnum opus, Insight. I will suggest that, in a sense, this may be regarded as “social physics” (another phrase from Auguste Comte). As we shall see, Lonergan’s thought wrestled with many issues of concern to the other founders of sociology: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber, but his vision is quite original, and in fact, he will draw on Arnold J. Toynbee.
I do not believe Lonergan’s work is beyond criticism—as his later developments suggest—so I will try to identify some difficulties by examining closely some of those later changes. Before offering my appraisal, then, I will look at Lonergan’s social theory from five periods. First, I shall simply record his interest in the 1930s by referring to some work he retained in a file but never published. Then I shall give a more careful exposition of a chapter written in the early 1950s. I will suggest that Lonergan’s deployment of mathematical analogies to understand social theory underwent some changes and so I will look at that transition in the 1960s. I will then be able to take a glance at the new way Lonergan presented his ideas in Method in Theology (1972) and go on to sample a few developments in the last decade up to 1980. In my appraisal we will be able to see some of the strengths and weaknesses Lonergan encountered in his project of social physics and perhaps make a small increase to the stock of ideas myself.

This article appears in _Asian Missions Advance_ 35 (Jan. 2013): 3-7. It describes perhaps the largest "denomination" (which never will become due to their theological conviction) in Asia, perhaps double the combined membership of all Christendom/denominations (incl. Roman Catholicism) in Asia!

ISBN 978-606-37-0372-0

Acest amplu proiect de cercetare, pe care autorul îl propune cititorilor săi, dorește surprinderea unei perioade controversate din punct de vedere istoric și zbuciumate din punct de vedere eclezial, respectiv perioada secolelor XIX-XX, reprezentând, mai ales în Țările Române, nu doar pentru dreptul canonic ortodox, ci și pentru alte discipline teologice momentul apariției lor ca științe teologice, moment ce necesita un sistem, o doctrină, o viziune unitară, dar mai ales o identitate. Trebuie să precizăm, de asemenea, că există, din păcate, puține abordări ortodoxe care să chestioneze tocmai această natură a disciplinelor teologice. Din dorința de a depăși această polarizare a teologiei ortodoxe, autorul a ales această temă din mai multe motive. În primul rând, studierea problemei naturii dreptului canonic și a canoanelor poate reprezenta, după cum arată autorul, o cheie de dialog inter-ortodox și inter-ecumenic.

Ephesians 2:11–22 is often thought to promote a tertium genus (“third race”) ecclesiology that entails the belief that the Torah has been abolished. If the Torah is abolished, this leads to the view that torah observance is rendered problematic for baptized Jews. I argue, however, that the assembly, the locus of participation in the Messiah’s salvation, should be understood as a dyadic unity (a nonhomogenous sociopolitical reality). Eph 2:11–22 renders the dissolution of torah-observant Jews within the assembly (church) soteriologically problematic. If baptized Jews are discouraged from remaining torah-observant (and therefore become functionally gentile), this leaves gentile believers in an ecclessial reality in which there is no genuine ongoing association with the torah-observant “circumcision,” thereby leaving them in the ironic state of being “estranged from the commonwealth of Israel” (2:12) yet again—the very condition the text claims Jesus overcomes by his blood (2:13).

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Podcast Interview with The Bible Project on this article here. I also talk about how my work intersects with Willie Jennings's work on the connections between White Supremacy and Christian supersessionsism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bibleproject/id1050832450?i=1000509068152

Estas páginas suponen por tanto una visita guiada, una invitación a la lectura, una puerta de entrada a los mismos textos conciliares, que pueden ser plenamente comprendidos por el lector o la lectora contemporáneos.

Comienzan por el contexto histórico-religioso del concilio, con especial alusión a las ideas filosóficas y teológicas; después describen el desarrollo de las tareas conciliares, sobre todo desde el punto de vista histórico; en fin, realizan una consideración particular de los documentos conciliares desde el punto de vista teológico.

Paper delivered at the American  Academy of Religion, Atlanta 21
th-24th November 2015, at the seminar 'What is  point of Synods?'
organized by the Ecclesiological Investigations Group.

The theology and the practice of synodality in the Catholic Church are reviewed in the light of Pope Francis’ encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, of his recent declaration that “The path of synodality is that which God expects of the Church of the third millennium” and of his highly symbolical gestures in connection to the two sessions of the recent synod on family. Pope Francis is slowly overcoming a one-sided approach to collegiality through a practice of synodality which re-establishes the link between conciliarity and local churches and tries to root ecclesial discernment in the prophetic character of the whole people of God.

This paper seeks clarity on an issue that has plagued many churches with doubt and discord: that of women’s role within the local church. It is limited only to that issue, and does not discuss the often related topic of women’s role within marriage. While I will challenge some of the traditional complementarian positions, I will argue that women should flourish in every area of church life except that of the position of elder, which Scripture assigns only to men.

A 50 anni dalla promulgazione della costituzione dogmatica Lumen Gentium, il documento più importante del Concilio Vaticano II dal punto di vista dottrinale, è forse possibile cominciare a recepirne senza timori la novità e le potenzialità per una autentica riforma pastorale e missionaria della Chiesa. Piuttosto che un commento capitolo per capitolo, il presente contributo opta per una presentazione tematica e trasversale del documento volta a coglierne le linee di forza teologiche in maniera accessibile e sintetica, con particolare attenzione alla dinamica trinitaria, comunitaria e missionaria. Quest’ultima è completata con un commento del decreto Ad Gentes.

Nota bene: I no longer hold the second thesis defended here, at least in the way in which it is stated. The change in my position is not substantial, but terminological. The same acts of papal teaching (e.g. Ordinatio sacerdotalis) that I described in this work as infallible acts of the ordinary papal magisterium, I would now simply classify as extraordinary definitions. The term 'ordinary' magisterium, when applied to the magisterium of the pope, is best understood as synonymous  with 'non-infallible' magisterium.

This work defends two theses: 1. That the infallibility of the papal magisterium extends not only to divinely revealed dogmas of faith or morals (de fide divina et catholica credenda), but also to each and every truth of Catholic doctrine which pertains to faith or morals (de fide definitive tenenda). 2. That the pope speaks infallibly not only in his solemn judgments (de fide divina et catholica credenda), but also in his ordinary and universal teaching, when he proposes a doctrine of faith or morals as definitively to be held by the whole Church (sententia fidei proxima).

Cristina Lledo Gomez seeks to bring a more realistic
model of motherhood into theological discourse, focusing on
the motherhood of the church. she argues that the image of
mother church needs to reflect the realities of mothering in
order to foster a more mature understanding of faith in the
context of the maternal church, in which all the people of God
are called “to become mothers to others themselves.”

The theological virtues namely, faith, hope, and love (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13) are implicit in the affirmation of Mysterium Fidei. Christian understanding of faith is therefore the unity of knowing, hoping, and loving and are reciprocally related aspects of an existential genuine Christian way of Being. Christian faith not only includes the knowledge of certain content but also the response which justifies the decisions to believe. In the New Testament, the character of Mary is apt example of how the unity of faith, hope and love are manifested in their true meaning. However, comparing the character of Mary with the character of Peter in the Gospel of Mark, one can see the challenge of Christian discipleship poses for Christian way of living.

The Article is about the question of the apostolic succession in the present catholic-lutheran ecumenical dialog. It tries to summarise what does the Catholic Church teach about the episcopal succession and what is the real problem in the dialog with the Lutheran communities in the question of the apostolic succession of ministers. The Article is in hungarian language.

The article reflects on the theologian’s identity today through the prism of him/ her “being grounded in the Church”. The author analyses the faith of the theologian (sensus fidei) in the context of belonging to the faith of the Church (sensus fidelium), while limiting his analysis to some emphases and challenges that theology is facing. The starting point of the article is the objective pole of the sense of faith and an analysis of sensus fidelium as a theological place (locus theologicus) of the theologian’s activity. In his analysis, the author utilises the most recent documents of the International Theological Commission that engaged with this topic: La teologia oggi: prosspetive, principi e criteri, published in 2012, and Il sensus fidei nella vita della Chiesa, published in 2014. By going about this task, the author’s goal is not to provide an overview and an analysis of these documents, but to situate them in a wider context of critical exploration of the identity of the theologian. Hence, the author presents criteria for understanding sensus fidelium in the work of the theologian. The second part of the article discusses the subjective pole of sensus fidei, but limits the discussion to the epistemological aspect of this issue. This aspect is related to the theologian’s responsibility to study foundations of theological knowledge – the Divine revelation. In this sense, the role of sensus fidelium in the theologian’s work is manifested in the transition from scientia to sapientia of faith through the theologian’s “unrest of thought”. The third part of the article reflects on the issue of distinct charisma that the theologian bears in his/her ecclesiastical office, but, again,limits the reflection to the theologian’s responsibility for dialogue with the people of God and the Magisterium of the Church, as well as with other scientific disciplines. As a conclusion, the author presents eight functions of sensus fidei that demonstrate its importance for the ecclesiastical dimension of the theologian’s faith.

Keywords: theology, theologian, sense of the faith, sensus fidei, sense of the faithful, sensus fidelium, ecclesiality of theology as a science, theologian’s faith, discernment.

In this essay, my aim is to extend the discussions in that seminar and to
reflect on how applying the perspectives, postures, and practices of ethnography might help academic theologians and pastors better understand the world we live in and better discern the varieties of theology and culture within our congregations, communities, and denominations. Based on my reading of the literature on “ethnographic theology” and my work as a pastor, theologian, and ethnographer of religion, I propose ethnography as theological practice helps pastors and theologians more holistically understand the diverse, overlapping, and sometimes
contradicting religious experiences and perspectives of our congregations,
communities, and church bodies. Moving beyond a focus on texts and traditions, as well as timeworn modes of thinking about the relation between theology and culture, ethnographic theology brings a fresh perspective to our theological discourse by summoning together the everyday and the academic, to create new conversations around worship and living. In the end, I suggest that to effectively discern how to navigate the “diversity and difference” of the world and the contexts we live and work in, we need to become better ethnographers.

This article deals with the missional self-understanding of the so-called Danish folk church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark). It argues that especially two important factors have hindered such a self-understanding: first, the church adherer to the Lutheran tradition, which for centuries had a weak emphasis on mission; and second, that the Danish folk church in centuries was a state church, which encompassed all citizens of the nation, and mission was therefore not a pressing issue for the church. Then, the article argues by referring to several theological statements and initiatives in the church that a new missional self-understanding seems to evolve these years. The article argues that the church seems to be adjusting to a new pluralistic societal situation, and the new missional self-understanding can be understood in light of this.

Although the quest for God’s Wisdom is something very personal for Augustine, the paper sets the ecclesiological context of his doctrine. Augustine’s way to the wisdom is not a way accessible to intellectuals only: it is open to anybody who does not remain closed to other man and is willing to love with charity, laid to his heart by God to whose image and likeness he was created. The paper lays the ecclesiological background of Augustine’s search for wisdom and his spirituality. The Bishop of Hippo Regius teaches that it is only through the mediation of the Church, where man can find God’s Wisdom: and the way is Christ himself that allows his believers, parts of his Body, to accept God’s Wisdom as a gift and grow in it through charity. This anti-individualistic way of charity remains a credible way for today where “only love remains credible”.