A Listening Church

AIDS. Famine. Ethnic strife. Refugees. Poverty. Debt. Environmental degradation. These form the wounded face of Africa today, the reality confronting the church of Africa. To heal Africa, Spiritan Father Elochukwu Uzukwu argues that the church in Africa must become a credible and effective agent of change by making full use of African resources--natural and sociohistorical--including traditional patterns of social organization. In order to renew itself, the church must remember that it does not exist for itself but for the people--to bear witness in Africa to the risen Lord. Focusing on the Catholic Church in Africa today, A Listening Church proposes a fresh approach to ecclesiology. Following closely on the African Synod of Bishops, Uzukwu proposes the initiation of serious theological discussion on the structure of the Church in Africa that came out of that historic occasion. Simply speaking, the African churches must listen to their people, and the Church in Rome must listen to the churches in Africa..

Listen to the Heartbeat of the Church resurrects the concept of episcopal visitation, an age-old and rarely used practice in Catholic parishes and dioceses. Using information gleaned from a survey of 100 Benedictine monasteries along with a nine-month experience of facilitating a parish goal-setting process, Baroch describes how visitation can strengthen parishes and dioceses by closing the communication gap that sometimes exists between the laity and the hierarchy. Her fictional account of St. Anonymous Catholic Church, the heart of the book, shows how a struggling congregation can accomplish its goals when parishioners, the pastor, and their bishop engage in shared ministry. It can happen--one parish, one diocese, at a time..

In October 2021, the Catholic Church officially began the largest consultative process in human history. The entire people of God, some 1.34 billion Catholics worldwide, were asked to participate in a process of listening and engagement together over the course of two years. Why embark on this incredibly novel, time-consuming, and expensive task? Because your church wants to hear from you. This booklet explains and explores why the leaders of the Catholic Church have discerned that the synodal path is what “God expects of the church of the third millennium.” This Synod on Synodality is not just another meeting. It is the beginning of a conversion process that is essential to the life of the church and its mission. And the Church needs you to carry it out..

This book explores the doctrine of ascension, and Barth's ascension thought in particular. First, it examines the doctrine of Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven, presenting a sustained discussion of Karl Barth's approach to this doctrine and the significance of the doctrine within his theology as a whole. Secondly, through examining Barth's ascension thought and dialoguing with three other theologians (Torrance, Farrow and Jenson), a clearer understanding of Barth and his theology is achieved. The treatment of issues related to Christ's ascension across a broader (protestant) perspective increases the relevance and usefulness of this unique study. Andrew Burgess presents the doctrine of the ascension as an important and undervalued doctrine and encourages Christians to see how, like Barth, they might benefit in their ability to think coherently about the present age and about Jesus in relation to this age, enabling further thought about the work of the Holy Spirit, the church, and Christian ethics..

From its inception in the early 1900s, The United Church of Canada set out to become the national church of Canada. This book recounts and analyzes the history of the church of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination and its engagement with issues of social and private morality, evangelistic campaigns, and its response to the restructuring of religion in the 1960s. A chronological history is followed by chapters on the United Church’s worship, theology, understanding of ministry, relationships with the Canadian Jewish community, Israel, and Palestinians, changing mission goals in relation to First Nations peoples, and changing social imaginary. The result is an original, accessible, and engaging account of The United Church of Canada’s pilgrimage that will be useful for students, historians, and general readers. From this account there emerges a complex portrait of the United Church as a distinctly Canadian Protestant church shaped by both its Christian faith and its engagement with the changing society of which it is a part..

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The idea of a state religion is seldom connected to religious freedom and liberal, modern, and democratic states. However, such a situation existed in Norway until 2012, when the Lutheran Church was the state church of Norway. A large majority of the population belonged to the church, even though the percentage in 2013 had fallen to well over seventy-five. The relationship between the church and minority religious movements demanded adaptation and compromises from the minority churches. The Salvation Army's enculturation and accommodation during its 128-year history in Norway illustrates such a situation. The book examines how The Salvation Army accommodated itself both doctrinally as well as practically to the situation of a dominant state church. The study reveals such a close affiliation of Salvationists to the Norwegian Church as a state institution, that it raises the question of whether a concept of civil religion was implicitly present in Salvationists' view of the state church and their own adherence to the church. This situation also raises the question of what constitutes a real church. The book indicates the tension between Lutheran and Salvationist ecclesiology as well as the influence from the Lutheran Church..

Corruption is alive and well in Nigeria—and it must be eliminated. Moreover, the Nigerian church can no longer watch it go unchecked. Though conscious of his limitations as a priest and theologian, the author takes an in-depth look at how corruption has taken hold of Nigeria and its people in this scholarly work. He challenges the church as a socio-moral actor and the civil authorities that govern Nigeria, arguing that the nation will collapse if corruption continues. He notes that even though the Nigerian people have lashed out against corruption, it has only gotten worse—either because morality has been relegated to the background or not enough has been done to inculcate morality into Nigeria’s politics. The author employs a holistic approach in examining issues such as: bishops and their vision of Nigeria vis-à-vis Nigerian politics; democracy and the power equation among the various arms of government; principal biases that characterize Nigerian politics; and class affiliation and its impact in Nigerian politics. Find out how corruption is ruining Nigeria, and discover how the church and government can work together to fix the problem in Nigerian Politics and Corruption..

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Following on from his bestselling The Invisible Church, Steve Aisthorpe finds inspiration for his new book in the ecological concept of rewilding, an approach to the environment that allows nature to break free from the dulling effects of strategic control and bring wonder back into our lives. Applying this thinking to the Church, Steve Aisthorpe imagines what might happen if we put less faith in our strategies and plans, which inevitably depend on our own capabilities and resources, and allow the Spirit to lead us beyond our capacity to imagine. Rewilding the Church explores afresh the compelling invitation of Jesus to ‘Follow me’ and the call to ‘throw off everything that hinders and entangles’. It poses provocative questions and issues a call to contribute to the great rewilding of the Church – and to be rewilded ourselves. The same human instincts that have disrupted our natural environment have also constrained and domesticated the Church and Rewilding the Church commends a rediscovery of the adventure of faith. Steve Aisthorpe is one the freshest and most original voices in the church today..

This book shows how the UCKG utilizes rituals that are locally meaningful and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance..

America gets more diverse than ever before, and it is our responsibility to respect this diversity before us. Although many people claim that diversity matters, there are so many marginalized people who have not been heard yet. Korean-speaking young people are one of them. They have been marginalized not only by the main culture but also by their own community. This study illuminates this hidden population and their stories as emerging adults with socially, emotionally, and spiritually unstable status. With a practical theology approach, this study provides not only about who are the Korean-speaking young adults but also what is the current praxis and how the immigrant community can have different imaginations about their future with these young people. Including data gathered survey and in-depth interviews, Ignored is the first comprehensive study that addresses Korean-speaking young people. By sharing unheard stories, this book invites us to understand our diverse community. Furthermore, this book brings new imagination of listening others who have been ignored..

How did people think about listening in the ancient world, and what evidence do we have of it in practice? The Christian faith came to the illiterate majority in the early Church through their ears. This proved problematic: the senses and the body had long been held in suspicion as all too temporal, mutable and distracting. Carol Harrison argues that despite profound ambivalence on these matters, in practice, the senses, and in particular the sense of hearing, were ultimately regarded as necessary - indeed salvific -constraints for fallen human beings. By examining early catechesis, preaching and prayer, she demonstrates that what illiterate early Christians heard both formed their minds and souls and, above all, enabled them to become 'literate' listeners; able not only to grasp the rule of faith but also tacitly to follow the infinite variations on it which were played out in early Christian teaching, exegesis and worship. It becomes clear that listening to the faith was less a matter of rationally appropriating facts and more an art which needed to be constantly practiced: for what was heard could not be definitively fixed and pinned down, but was ultimately the Word of the unknowable, transcendent God. This word demanded of early Christian listeners a response - to attend to its echoes, recollect and represent it, stretch out towards it source, and in the process, be transformed by it..

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