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Amid the mid-twentieth-century post-war relief and rebuilding efforts, reconsideration of views on nonviolence and civic engagement was also underway for North American Mennonites. What peace theology was adequate to the task of recasting the church's role in the world as it was emerging, including its economic and political systems? Essays in this volume explore these questions through intentional dialog across diverse viewpoints, including some in tension with the Mennonite hierarchy and broader Mennonite majority of the time. The writings--both their themes and their approach of intentional conversation across differences--provide a resource for Christians today wrestling anew with such issues amid the unprecedented upheaval marking the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
From its first issue in 1954, CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal ran statements identifying it as an independent publication whose purpose was to stimulate study and discussion through intentional juxtaposition of viewpoints. What constitutes the church? Do existing structures engender or hinder the church's ever-present need for renewal? What approaches or formats might more effectively "structure" its renewal? CONCERN's Mennonite editorial board and the essays gathered here address these themes in reference to a Believers' Church or Anabaptist framework, reflecting differing viewpoints but a shared sense that community and discipleship are essential. Two contemporary responses reflect current iterations of these questions, which are shaped by pronounced concerns for the exercise of power within the community, and the role response to structural, systemic inequalities plays in discipleship.
CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal was born in the 1950s of shared concerns over a gap between an Anabaptist vision and contemporary, North American Mennonite reality. The initial group views the increasingly hierarchical denominational structure, the emergence of centralized, professionalized, pastoral ministry, and the resultant changes in polity and practice as fundamentally incompatible with a Believers' Church ecclesiology. Essays here present that critique and discussion of the reconfiguration of pastoral and communal authority, as well as the assertion that reclamation of a disciplined priesthood of all believers is the path of Christian renewal. Today the question of what institutional forms best structure the leadership, authority, and shared life of congregations persists, marked by particular concern to attend to the exercise of power within actual communities of faith.
This volume performs a critical and vibrant reconstruction of Anabaptist identity and theological method, in the wake of the recent revelations of the depth of the sexual abuse perpetrated by the most influential Anabaptist theologian of the 20th century, John Howard Yoder. In an attempt to liberate Anabaptist theology and identity from the constricting vision appropriated and reformulated by Yoder, these essays refuse the determinative categories of the last half century supplied by and carried beyond Harold Bender's The Anabaptist Vision. While still under the shadow of decades of trauma, a recontexualized conversation about Anabaptist theology and identity emerges in this volume that is e...
In the 1950s, a conversation among a handful of American graduate students considering the place of Mennonites in the modern world blossomed into a published forum, CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal. The CONCERN writings here consider the global, missional, experiential, contextualized realities of such a "place," past and present. The writings explore the role of culture and context in the church's mission, lived faith, and theological articulation through various avenues of approach: the global church and the ecumenical movement, Christendom's legacy of colonialism and cultural accommodation, critique of rigid and outdated ecclesial structures and forms, the complexities of the unavoidably enculturated nature of faith as proclaimed and lived. Two contemporary responses offer postcolonial critique and development, demonstrating that such topics continue to be of critical concern in today's globally interconnected yet fragmented and divided world.
“What the Kingdom of God requires is a radical Christian movement in our own time which has a vigor and depth that equals that of those radicals who have gone before us.” These words introduce a Radical Reformation Reader, first published in 1971 by a group confident that the past could—and did—offer practical, theological guidance for following Jesus in the contemporary world. What forms of church are appropriate to the ecclesial heirs of such a radical tradition, especially in settings marked by individualism, escalating violence, and growing economic disparity? The essays republished here explore divergent contextual responses and invite readers to do the same.
In the 1950s, a conversation among a handful of American graduate students considering the place of Mennonites in the modern world blossomed into a published forum, CONCERN: A Pamphlet Series for Questions of Christian Renewal. The CONCERN writings here consider the global, missional, experiential, contextualized realities of such a “place,” past and present. The writings explore the role of culture and context in the church’s mission, lived faith, and theological articulation through various avenues of approach: the global church and the ecumenical movement, Christendom’s legacy of colonialism and cultural accommodation, critique of rigid and outdated ecclesial structures and forms, the complexities of the unavoidably enculturated nature of faith as proclaimed and lived. Two contemporary responses offer postcolonial critique and development, demonstrating that such topics continue to be of critical concern in today’s globally interconnected yet fragmented and divided world.
Amid the mid-twentieth-century post-war relief and rebuilding efforts, reconsideration of views on nonviolence and civic engagement was also underway for North American Mennonites. What peace theology was adequate to the task of recasting the church’s role in the world as it was emerging, including its economic and political systems? Essays in this volume explore these questions through intentional dialog across diverse viewpoints, including some in tension with the Mennonite hierarchy and broader Mennonite majority of the time. The writings—both their themes and their approach of intentional conversation across differences—provide a resource for Christians today wrestling anew with such issues amid the unprecedented upheaval marking the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
For many of us, the connection between the ecological crisis and humanity's detachment from the land is becoming increasingly clear. In biblical terms, adam (humanity) has severed itself from the adamah (soil), and we (creation) are reaping the consequences. This collection of essays, and the conference from which it took shape, calls the church to root itself more deeply in the agrarian biblical text and ecclesial tradition in order to remember and freshly imagine ways of living on and with the land that are restorative, reconciling, and faithful to the triune God's invitation to new life in Christ. When we listen attentively to and patiently learn from the biblical text, church history, and theology, the land itself can become a conversation partner, and we are summoned to recognize that the gospel is reserved not simply for humanity, but for the whole of creation.
The essays in Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education: The Just University discuss diverse ways that Paul Ricoeur’s work provides hopeful insight and necessary provocation that should inform the task and mission of the modern university in the changing landscape of Higher Education. This volume gathers interdisciplinary scholars seeking to reestablish the place of justice as the central function of higher education in the twenty-first century. The contributors represent diverse backgrounds, including teachers, scholars, and administrators from R1 institutions, seminary and divinity schools as well as undergraduate teaching colleges. This collection, edited by Daniel Boscaljon and Jef...