Pro Ecclesia Series
Скачать книги из серии Pro Ecclesia SeriesLife Amid the Principalities
"We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness" (Eph 6:12). So Paul warns his Ephesian readers. And yet Paul also says that these principalities and powers were created in and for Christ (Col 1:16) and cannot separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38). What are the principalities and powers of our time? How do we understand them as created, fallen, and disarmed? How does the Christian today engage these powers? These are the questions speakers and participants addressed at the 2014 Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.
Heaven, Hell, . . . and Purgatory?
What is our destiny? The final end of humanity and the universe is a subject of perennial interest, especially for Christians. What are we promised? Will anyone finally be left out of God's intentions to bless humanity? What sort of transformation will be needed to enter the presence of God? These questions have been at the heart of Christian teachings about last things. The 2013 Pro Ecclesia Conference of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology focused such issues on the theme «Heaven, Hell . . . and Purgatory?» The six essays in this volume cover a range of topics of interest to Catholic, Evangelical, and Orthodox theology.
What Does It Mean to “Do This”?
Jesus' best-known mandate–after perhaps the mandate to love God and neighbor–was given at the Last Supper just before his death: «Do this in memory of me.» Indeed, a case can be made that to «do this» is the source and summit of the way Christians carry out Jesus' love-mandate. Of course, Christians have debated what it means to «do this,» and these debates have all too often led to divisions within and between them–debates over leavened and unleavened bread, reception of the cup, real presence and sacrifice, «open» or «closed» communion, this Supper and the hunger of the world. These divisions seem to fly in the face of Jesus' mandate, causing some to wonder whether this is «really» the Lord's Supper we celebrate (compare 1 Corinthians 11). Everything turns on just what it means to «do this.» The purpose of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology's 2012 conference was to address at least some of the many aspects of this question–to address them together, as Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox pastors and theologians, and all participants in the Supper.
Who Do You Say That I Am?
No question is more central to Christian living, preaching, and theology than Jesus' question to his disciples: Who do you say that I am? Some would have it that pastors and theologians, biblical exegetes and historians, dogmatic and moral theologians, Catholic and Evangelical have more differences than similarities in the way Christians with such diverse vocations respond to Jesus' question. And there is little doubt that there sometimes seem to be unbridgeable gulfs between the way historians and believers, Internet gossipers and preachers, classical christological debates and present-day praying and pastoral care implicitly or explicitly address the Lord's question. But the authors here address these and other issues in ways that are remarkably convergent, as if a «Catholic and Evangelical theology» for proclaiming and following Jesus today has emerged, or is indeed emerging.
The Morally Divided Body
At the same time as Catholic and evangelical Christians have increasingly come to agree on issues that divided them during the sixteenth-century reformations, they seem increasingly to disagree on issues of contemporary «morality» and «ethics.» Do such arguments doom the prospects for realistic full communion between Catholics and evangelicals? Or are such disagreements a new opportunity for Catholics and evangelicals to convert together to the triune God's word and work on the communion of saints for the world? Or should our hope be different than simple pessimism or optimism? In this volume, eight authors address different aspects of these questions, hoping to move Christians a small step further toward the visible unity of the church.
The Emerging Christian Minority
An increase in secularization throughout the Western world has resulted in Christian communities finding themselves in a new context: emerging as a minority group. What does this changing landscape mean for existing Christian communities? Are there biblical or historical precedents for this situation? What should we expect in the future? These were the issues taken up by the speakers at the 2016 conference, «The Emerging Christian Minority,» sponsored by the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.
Contributors
David Novak William T. Cavanaugh Paige Hochschild David Novak Kathryn Schifferdecker Anton Vrame Joseph Small
Remembering the Reformation
In 1517, Martin Luther set off what has been called, at least since the nineteenth century, the Protestant Reformation. Can Christians of differing traditions commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of this event together? How do we understand and assess the Reformation today? What calls for celebration? What calls for repentance? Can the Reformation anniversary be an occasion for greater mutual understanding among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants? At the 2015 Pro Ecclesia annual conference for clergy and laity, meeting at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, an array of scholars–Catholic and Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran and American Evangelical as well as Methodist–addressed this topic. The aim of this book is not only to collect these diverse Catholic and Evangelical perspectives but also to provide resources for all Christians, including pastors and scholars, to think and argue about the roads we have taken since 1517–as we also learn to pray with Jesus Christ «that all may be one» (John 17:21).