Perpetually Reforming: A Theology of Church Reform and Renewal

Description

One of the slogans of the reformation was ecclesia reformata semper reformanda - 'the reformed church always reforming'. Churches throughout the western world are currently engaged in reform and renewal programmes through internal structural reforms as well as movements like 'emerging church'. This book presents a challenging theology of church reform and renewal that offers a contemporary understanding of this historic slogan. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Bradbury discerns processes and practices which are perpetually reforming and renewing the identity of the church. It examines doctrinal and confessional conceptions of the church, re-examines texts concerned with covenantal renewal and explores Jewish-Christian dialogue as an example of renewal. A constructive theology is offered utilizing the categories of collective memory and mimetic practice. This upholds fundamental Christian identity, whilst driving the process of reform and renewal under God in the context of a three-way relationship between God, the church and the world. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Foreword Chapter 1 Introduction The problem with ‘Church’ The Church in the twenty-first century context The Church, theology and the theologian An outline of the work as a whole Chapter 2 Visible and Invisible? The contours of a problem John Calvin: The dualism of election Karl Barth: The dualism of time and eternity Locating the ‘Problem’ of ecclesiological dualisms Chapter 3 Confessional Identities The practice of confessing Attending to a confessional voice: The Basis of Union of the United Reformed Church Re-formation and confessional identities Chapter 4 Confessional Re-formation: The Example of the Church and the Jewish People Calvin and the classic reformed confessional texts Karl Barth and contemporary reformed confessions of faith The process of re-formation The implications of re-formation Chapter 5 Biblical Re-formations Covenantal re-formations A covenant with all: Noah and the first covenant The covenant with Abraham: The election of a sociality The Sinai covenant: The centrality of the practice of law New covenants? Renewing the canon: Scripture re-reading scripture Chapter 6 The Covenantal Identity of the Church The ‘New’ covenant in Christ Jesus and the extensive ecclesial movement Orientations to the future Why the Church? Chapter 7 The Practices of Identity Renewal The mediation of social identity: The contribution of ‘collective memory’ Practices of remembrance: Collective memory in the Deuteronomic tradition The reformatory practices of the Church Chapter 8 Toward the Reformation of the Church The Church and the world Finding our orientations Reforming and renewing scriptural practices Perpetual reformation Bibliography Bible Index Author Index