Pentecostal Ecclesiology and Eucharistic Hospitality: Toward a Systematic and Ecumenical Account of the Church

Pneuma ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Vondey

AbstractA systematic and ecumenical ecclesiology among Pentecostals is still in the making. The present article suggests that eucharistic hospitality is a suitable starting point for this endeavor. This notion exceeds the traditional confines of a sacramental approach to the nature of the church by rooting the Christian community more firmly in the foundational dimensions of companionship and hospitality. Central to these essential dimensions of the Christian life is the discipline of spiritual discernment, which continues to be neglected in most ecclesiologies. Moreover, the eucharistic meal itself has been entirely disregarded as an instrument of ecumenical discernment. From an analysis of the spiritual practice of discernment, in general, and in the context of the eucharistic meal, in particular, emerges an ecclesiology that emphasizes universal companionship among the faithful and hospitality to all creation. This perspective presents the greatest challenge and opportunity to Pentecostal eucharistic practice, ecumenical engagement, and ecclesiology.

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (292) ◽  
pp. 865-885
Author(s):  
Antonio José de Almeida

O artigo tem como ponto de partida a questão da mudança de época em que a Igreja é chamada a realizar, hoje, sua vida e missão; aponta as dificuldades teológicas e canônicas geradas pela eclesiologia “inacabada” do Vaticano II; e, finalmente, sugere reformas que, coerentes com os horizontes eclesiológicos abertos pelo Concílio e com as interpelações que vêm dos “sinais dos tempos”, certamente ajudariam a Igreja, no século XXI, a ganhar credibilidade no testemunho de Cristo e de seu Reino, a serviço da vida e da esperança dos homens e das mulheres de todos os povos e culturas, sobretudo dos pobres e esquecidos. Escrito no final do ano de 2012, após o Congresso de São Leopoldo, passou por algumas atualizações, à altura da revisão final, em setembro de 2013, dado o novo contexto criado pelo pontificado do Papa Francisco. Abstract: The present article has as a starting point the fact that the Church is now asked to carry out its life and mission in a different era; it points to the theological and canonical difficulties generated by the “unfinished” ecclesiology of the Vatican II; and finally, it suggests some reforms that - consistent with the ecclesiological horizons opened by the Council and with the challenges that come from “the signs of the times” - would certainly help the Church in this 21st century to gain credibility in the testimony of Christ and of His Kingdom, at the service of the life and hope of the men and women from all peoples and cultures and in particular of those who are poor and forgotten. Written in the last months of 2012, after the Congress in São Leopoldo, Brazil, it went through some updating at the time of the final revision in September 2013, given the new context created by Pope Francis’ pontificate.Keywords: Catholic Church. Ecclesiology. Signs of the Times. Reform.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Jacek Froniewski

This year in Wroclaw we experienced the European Youth Meeting organized by the Taizé Community. This great spiritual event is an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the importance of the heritage of Brother Roger of Taizé for the contemporary Church. As a starting point for this analysis, author took the biographical background, which will allow the reader to grasp the life context of Roger Schutz’s ecumenical research. Then, in the following points, he describes three essential elements of Brother Roger’s legacy, which are an ever-inspiring gift to the Church on the path of building unity. Firstly, it is a fully original form of Christian life in a monastic ecumenical community. Secondly, on the basis of this concrete experience of the Taizé Community, Brother Roger indicated a deeply existential way of building the unity of divided Christians. And thirdly, in his teaching he outlined a theology of forgiving love as the key to building reconciliation between the Churches. Undoubtedly the most spectacular fruit of his evangelical life are the crowds of young people from various Christian Churches that have invariably gathered around the Taizé Community for decades.


Author(s):  
Jana Marguerite Bennett

Christians ought to be the people who most support singleness, given what scripture and tradition suggests—but they do not. Despite the fact that almost half of all Americans are single, singleness remains an often-overlooked oddity in American culture and in Christian communities. This book examines a variety of forgotten ways of being single: never-married, casual uncommitted relationships, committed unmarried relationships, same-sex attracted singleness, widowhood, divorce, and single parenting. Each chapter focuses on a different way of being single that draws together cultural commentary and Christian debate. Each chapter also features a holy guide—a person who lived that way of being single—who offers a new perspective on singleness, the church, and what it means to be a single Christian disciple. By considering all these states of single life, perhaps the contemporary church can learn how to be more appreciative and responsive to Christian singleness. A good theology of singleness is crucial for the well-being of Christian community. I argue that, in fact, for much of Christian tradition, Christians have been thinking about singleness in far more diverse ways than contemporary Christians think about singleness. This book therefore provides a starting point for restoring singleness, in all its amazing varieties, to its rightful place in Christian tradition.


Diacovensia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-637
Author(s):  
Silvio Košćak

The author of the paper discusses Christian testimony as a fundamental position from which a believer and Christian community start the proclamation of the Truth that is recognized as fundamental for life. Testimony is examined from biblical positions and put in the context of modern society and the context of Christ’s Paschal Mystery in order to develop a reflection on the form and content of contemporary witnesses. In reflecting on the testimony, the author leans on the thought of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and, based on his insights, the author develops some elements of testifying that stem from the Cross of Christ. From the Cross, which represents kenosis, we can read the form of testifying as well as the contents of the testimony, which involves every act of humility of Christian life. The author concludes with some specific expressions of the form and contents of Christian testimony in the contemporary context from the position of contemplating the Cross, all with the aim to present this thought out testimony as a dialogical and integrating element of the Church and the contemporary society.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-101
Author(s):  
Constantin Prihoancă

Abstract This article is a critical engagement with D. Stăniloae’s and J. Ratzinger’s ecclesiological thought as shaped by the description of church as the body of Christ and the Trinitarian roots of this ecclesiology. Starting from practical problems of prayer and living a Christian life, the authors argue that God’s relationship to the Christian community has primacy over God’s relationship to individual believers. When one conceives of the Christian community as being the body of Christ, one can uphold the elevated Christian ideal of Eucharist Communio without making it unattainable. The authors show that the being of the church is given to the Christian community not as a possession or property, but as a task to be fulfilled through the power of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. One can discover that in becoming the church, the Christian community is elevated to the Trinitarian life in communion. Communion ecclesiology has the potential to bridge the divide between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Rebecca F. Carhart

In Christian books today readers can find dozens of spiritual practices. One resource of the Protestant tradition, however, that has largely been forgotten is the Puritan practice of conference. This article describes how for the English Puritans conference exemplified the importance of communal spiritual life, then considers applications for the contemporary church. Conference refers to intentional conversation among believers about spiritual matters. Conference particularly expresses the value of Christian community and the need for the body of Christ to function together on the journey of faith. Understanding this practice not only illuminates the past but also offers valuable insights for the church today.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.O. Klar

The thesis of a single pillar or axis around which the longer Medinan suras are structured has been highly influential in the field of sura unity, and scholarship on the structure and coherence of Sūrat al-Baqara has tended to work towards charting the progress of a dominant theme throughout the textual blocks that make up the sura. In order to achieve this, scholars have divided the sura into discrete blocks; many have posited a chain of lexical and thematic links from one block to the next; some have concentrated solely on the hinges and borders between these suggested textual blocks. The present article argues that such methods, while often in themselves illuminating, are by their very nature reductive. As such they can result in the oversight of important elements of the sura. From a starting point of the Adam pericope provided in Q. 2:30–9, this study will focus on the recurrence of a number of its lexical items throughout Sūrat al-Baqara. By methodically tracing the passage of repeated, loosely Fall-related, vocabulary, it will attempt to widen the contextual lens through which the sura's textual blocks are viewed, and establish a broader perspective on its coherence. Via a discussion of the themes of ‘gardens’, ‘parable’, ‘prostration’, ‘covenant’, ‘wrongdoing’ and finally ‘blindness’, this article will posit ‘garments’, not as a structural pillar, but as a pivot around which many of the repeated lexical items of the sura rotate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Edmund Kee-Fook Chia

The phenomenon of religious pluralism is a fact that needs no further discussion. How society and institutions are negotiating its impact, however, certainly needs further scrutiny. Schreiter's call for the construction of local theologies invites us to explore how the preaching of the Gospel has to adapt to the realities of new situations. The present article focuses on Catholic educational institutions and how they are dealing with the multi-cultural and multi-religious communities that are now found not only outside of the schools and universities but also within them as well. Its concern is with how the identity and mission of these Catholic institutions are expressed and measured in the new contexts, taking seriously the teachings of the Church on the role they play in its evangelizing mission.


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kurowiak

AbstractAs a work of propaganda, graphics Austroseraphicum Coelum Paulus Pontius should create a new reality, make appearances. The main impression while seeing the graphics is the admiration for the power of Habsburgs, which interacts with the power of the Mother of God. She, in turn, refers the viewer to God, as well as Franciscans placed on the graphic, they become a symbol of the Church. This is a starting point for further interpretation of the drawing. By the presence of certain characters, allegories, symbols, we can see references to a particular political situation in the Netherlands - the war with the northern provinces of Spain. The message of the graphic is: the Spanish Habsburgs, commissioned by the mission of God, they are able to fight all of the enemies, especially Protestants, with the help of Immaculate and the Franciscans. The main aim of the graphic is to convince the viewer that this will happen and to create in his mind a vision of the new reality. But Spain was in the seventeenth century nothing but a shadow of former itself (in the time of Philip IV the general condition of Spain get worse). That was the reason why they wanted to hold the belief that the empire continues unwavering. The form of this work (graphics), also allowed to export them around the world, and the ambiguity of the symbolic system, its contents relate to different contexts, and as a result, the Habsburgs, not only Spanish, they could promote their strength everywhere. Therefore it was used very well as a single work of propaganda, as well as a part of a broader campaign


1982 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Connors

S. Andrea al Quirinale was Bernini's architectural masterpiece. A detailed account in the Jesuit Archives now allows a more exact chronology and shows how the design evolved over a fourteen-year period, 1658-1672. The church, which is often compared to a jewelbox, is used as the starting point for a discussion of various attitudes to wealth on the part of baroque architects and patrons. The issue of Bernini's classicism as an architect is discussed with reference to his use of geometry and his development as a designer of church façades. The famous rivalry between Bernini and Borromini is seen as a result of fundamental differences of principle, though some examples are presented from the late 17th and early 18th centuries which show attempts to reconcile the styles and approaches of the two unfriendly geniuses.


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