Title: Who is the church? : an ecclesiology for the twenty-first century /
Authors: Peterson, Cheryl M.,
Year: 2013
Subjects: Mission of the church; Church
Abstract: Many congregations today focus on strategy and purpose--what churches "do"--but Cheryl Peterson submits that mainline churches need to focus instead on "what" or "who" they are--to reclaim a theological, rather than sociological, understanding of themselves. Peterson suggests that we understand the church as a people created by the Spirit to be a community, and that we must claim a narrative method to explore the church's identity--specifically, the story of the church's origin in the Acts of the Apostles. Finally, here is a way of thinking of church that reconciles the best of competing models of church for the future of mainline Protestant theology.
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.