Contextuality in Reformed Europe

The Mission of the Church in the Transformation of European Culture
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-90-420-1801-3
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 23, 316 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 562 g

Reihe: Currents of Encounter

The scope of this volume is how churches experience themselves and their mission in their context. The discussions in this volume provide ample material to substantiate the claim that the church should not be an ecclesia incurvata in se ipsa, (a church curved into itself) but welcoming and directed not only to personal needs but to social needs as well—but not bound to what people often feel the needs are and delving deeper to the real roots of sin and selfishness, be it personal, social or national. Contextualization in itself is part of the mission of the churches, but it is on the edge: should the church adapt to its context and lose both its identity and witness or should it find a way between the Scylla of easy adaptation to the changing contexts of "this world that is passing" and the Charybdis of a preservation of forms and identities of bygone times that have lost the freshness of the message of liberation of bondage, conversion and freedom, freedom to be what the church is called to be, a sign of hope, peace, reconciliation, justice and love?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Lienemann-Perrin, Christine

Vroom, Hendrik M.

Weinrich, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Missionswissenschaft, Missionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christliche Kunst und Kultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Parts I: General Perspectives
Hendrik M. VROOM: Introduction
Choan-Seng SONG: Freedom of the Human Spirit from Captivity: The Task of Religious Communities in the Postmodern World
Hendrik M. VROOM: Understanding the Gospel Contextually: Legitimate and Suspect?
Part II: Mission, Secularization, and Pluralism
Runar ELDEBO: A Transformed Church Through A Transformed Society: The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden in between a Transformed Established Lutheran Church
Martien E. BRINKMAN: The Emergence of a New Kind of Christianity in West European Cities: A Dutch Reformed Assessment
Benedict SCHUBERT: City Churches: Mission with a New Face in a Transforming European Cultural Context? Reflections on the Example of the „Offene Kirche Elisabethen“ in Basel
Laszlo MEDGYESSY: Mission of Proselytism? Temptations, Tensions and Missiological Perspectives in Eastern European Christianity: A Case Study of Hungary
Christine LIENEMANN-PERRIN: Emerging Contextual Missiologies in Europe: Reflections on Part II „Mission, Secularization, and Pluralism“
Part III: Church and the National Communities
Ferenc SZUCS: National Church? The Reformed Churches in an Ethnic Community in the Carpathian Basin
Piet Hein DONNER: Unity and Diversity
Iain TORRANCE: From Established Church to Minority Church: A Scottish History
Annelore SILLER: The Late Modern Congregation: Reformed Reactions to the Modern Approaches
Michael WEINRICH: Times of Change: Some Reflections on Part III
Part IV: Justification, Freedom and Solidarity
Michael WEINRICH: On the Way into Psychology? On a Modern Change in the Understanding of Justification
Roman LIPINSKI: Individualism and the Sense of Solidarity as Seen from the Perspective and Experiences of the Polish Reformed Church
Jakub S. TROJAN: Identity and Self-Realization in the Central European Context
Fleur HOUSTON: Freedom as Authorization
Hendrik M. VROOM: Justification, Freedom and Witness: Reflections on Part 4
Part V: A Comment from Geneva/Latin America
Odair Pedroso MATEUS: Intercontextual Metafragments
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Contributors