Church and Religious 'other'

This volume brings together the prestigious speakers at the inaugural Church in Our Times Lecture Series at Liverpool Hope, throughout the first 4 months of 2006, and invited contributors from and addressing wider international contexts - Africa, Sri Lanka, India and the United States. The volume explores themes such as questions of ecclesial and religious identity in these post-modern times, the advent of neo-exclusivism, divisions within the contemporary Roman Catholic and Anglicans churches, inter-faith relations and dialogue, questions of sexuality and Christian ministry, contemporary understandings of ecclesial authority, teaching and tradition, the inter-relation between the church and the kingdom of God today, an Asian appraisal of Pope Benedict's first sermon, inculturation and the rhetoric and reality of the notion of Church as Christianity's most distinctive and defining feature and constructive proposals for ecumenical ways forward in the future. The commonality and coherence of the papers, along with the manner in which a number of them together contribute towards making a cumulative case upon similar issues of concern for the 'church in our times', constitute a major strength of this collection. This volume will interest faculty and students engaged in the study of the contemporary church, ecumenism, global Christianity, secularity and inter-religious dialogue, as well as appealing to ministers and pastors as well as the general reader excited by the most pressing debates pertaining to the church in these times. >

Ecclesiological Investigations: A New International Research Network - Gerard MannionAcknowledgementsContributorsForeword: Church: The Distinctive and Definitive Idea of Christianity - Keith WardIntroduction: Church and the Grace of Otherness: Exploring Questions of Truth, Unity and Diversity - Gerard Mannion Part I. Ecumenical and Pluralist Contexts and Questions Ecumenical Questions on Women and Church - Phyllis ZaganoThe Whole Household of God (oikos): Some Ecclesiological Perspectives - Ernst ConradieCulture, Worship and Power: A Cast Study of South India - Paul M. CollinsThe Quest for Pakistani Christian Identity: A narrative of Religious Other as Liberative comparative Ecclesiology - John O'BrienChristianity, Feminism and the Religious Other: Beyond Eurocentrism - Jenny DaggersRoman Catholicism and its Religious 'Others': Contemporary Challenges - Gerard Mannion Part II. Church, Inclusivity and Diversity A Community of the question: Inclusive Ecclesiology - Steven Shakespeare'Being Nice in Church': rituals of Propriety and the Sin of Oblivion - Mary McClintock FulkersonThe Eucharist: A Meal with Friends - Steve Summers'By Schisms Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distrest': Anglicanism after the Windsor Report - Mark ChapmanChurch: Law, Community and Witness - George Pattison Part III. Constructive Explorations for the Future Should the Church Change? - Bernard HooseThe Church Theologian and the Kingdom of God: An Uneasy Relationship? Some Musings - David McLoughlinDialogue as Tradition: The Collective Journey towards Truth - Jayne HooseA Question of Balance: Unity and Diversity in the Life and Mission of the Church - Ola TjohornHoping to Learn: An Approach to Ecclesiology - Kenneth Wilson Index