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This article delves into the topics of food allergies, disability theology, and liturgical differences. The author shares their personal experience of raising a child with severe food allergies and the challenges they face in social and public gatherings. They argue for a communal response to food allergies, emphasizing the need for a liturgical culture that values differences and prioritizes safety and justice within a community. The article also explores the concept of access intimacy, which involves understanding and meeting the access needs of disabled individuals. It connects this concept to the theological idea of the body of Christ and highlights the risks of failing to accommodate the needs of others. The text advocates for inclusive practices and justice for marginalized individuals, promoting a transformative and reflective approach to liturgical practices. It encourages a liturgical imagination that embraces spontaneity and fosters relationships within the Christian community. [Extracted from the article]

This article considers what the language of the body of Christ in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians implies about the nature of the church as an exercise in embodied solidarity, suggesting that it might helpfully be used to offer scriptural warrant for the relatively recent practice of receptive ecumenism. It suggests that the ecclesiological assumptions implicit in the practice of receptive ecumenism can be articulated as a recovery of a particular Pauline "ecclesiology as Christology." However, if this vision is to be of any use, it must address situations in which its basis in embodied solidarity appears to be under threat. Following a recent commentary on the epistle (and drawing in other reflections), it considers whether the language of pathology is a helpful way of articulating such threats and, if not, what alternative language might be preferable for this task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

St. Ap. Paul understands in the Epistle to the Colossians that the whole of creation must be seen and conceived as the Body of Christ, which is His Church, understood as an expression of the indissoluble unity between creature and Creator, the constitution of the world thus being ecclesial. What makes such a reality possible is the act of the saving sacrifice. In this regard, in the exposition of St. Ap. Paul we encounter the concept of the body in two senses: τῷ σώματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, in which the whole creation was recapitulated, and ἡ κεφαλὴ τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἐκκκλησίας, in which we are called to walk: “therefore,” states Ap. Paul says - as you have received (παρελάβετε) Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him (ἐν αὐτῷ περιπατεῖτε)”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that human flourishing is grounded in relationships of mutual judgement according to which we live and grow as characters in the stories of others. More specifically, it will make a theological case that true human flourishing emerges in a world governed by the judgement of the triune God who creates us to find fulfilment in Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, according to the will of the Father. In so doing, it contends that human flourishing is both grounded in and brought about by relationships of accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines shame that arises from living with a body that has been undone by cancer or other serious illness. It draws on first‐person narratives and social‐scientific studies of cancer patients to explore how bodies undone by illness often cease to conform to cultural standards of health as well as gendered expectations of bodies, and how experiences of shame arise from those shifts in how sick bodies appear and perform. Analysis of narratives by and qualitative data about those who are seriously ill also reveals how the undoing of the body by illness often precipitates an undoing of one's sense of self that leads to experiences of shame over an inability to fill roles and expectations in ways that were possible in life before serious illness. The paper then utilizes biblical and theological resources to explore ways religious communities can make space for those living with serious illness to lament what it's like to be undone by illness, to hold them up amid their experiences of vulnerability through public lament and acts of accompaniment, and to affirm their worth in the eyes of God and in the body of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a known fact that gender-based violence is an infringement on human rights. Gender-based violence takes place all over the world in almost every place. It is experienced in homes, workplaces, communities, and in the Church as well. Today, church members, as well as pastors are wounded, fragmented, and hurting as they suffer serious abuses in silence. Christian children have fallen victim to sexual abuse that is perpetrated by their parents. Parents too, have become victims of violence; sometimes maimed by children who have become violent enough to kill their Christian parents in their homes. Furthermore, many Christian couples have continued to experience intra gender violence in their families that is often attributed to marital infidelity. Beyond that, there is also a common secretive kind of abuse in the form of marital sexual violence which is a serious form of violence against women. This is a hidden type of abuse that has been perpetrated behind closed doors for too long by members of the body of Christ. Due to its prevalence sometimes the victims themselves, often pretend that the problem in not present by keeping a deafening silence. This article, therefore, makes an in-depth investigation into the causes of the pervasive forms of gender-based violence that occur in some Zambian Christian homes, with particular emphasis on the ways in which this multifaceted phenomenon is very much hidden. This article expounds on how Christian couples have continued to suffer silently as their voices are suppressed due to fear and shame. In the conclusion of the article, it is suggested that, unless the church, in its pastoral care role, awakens from its slumber and begins to address issues of gender-based violence in the church with sincerity, honesty, and openness by admitting that indeed, the body of Christ is yearning to be healed, gender-based violence shall remain a perennial occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging neurotechnologies promise to make possible the collection and analysis of users’ brain data, the connection of brains to machines or other brains, and modification of brain functions. This article explores questions about identity, agency, moral responsibility, and social justice raised by these technological prospects. The ethical analysis of these questions is framed in terms of the common good, understood as the conditions that make for the fullest possible flourishing of all. Within that perspective, our questions about neurotechnologies are explored by means of some key theological and ethical themes: the imago Dei, understood ‘performatively’ as recommended by Alistair McFadyen, the vision of human sociality set forth in the Pauline metaphor of the body of Christ, as explicated in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology, Bonhoeffer's concept of ‘vicarious representative action’, and the account of responsible life in his Ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small number of contemporary scholars have suggested that in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul speaks of the body of Christ as the one temple of the Holy Spirit, not the individual bodies of every Christian. This study contends that such a reading is historically likely, literarily plausible, and redemptive-historically coherent. It is also helpful in clarifying both the rest of the pericope and the entire letter. Historically, three considerations point in this direction: (1) The rest of the Pauline corpus speaks of the corporate church as the singular temple of God. (2) Other early Christian authors (especially Peter and even the Gospels) describe the corporate church as the singular temple of God. (3) Greek, not Jewish, sources describe human bodies as temples, and that of multiple gods. Literarily, two lines of argument are presented: (1) careful attention to the nouns and pronouns in the immediate context, and (2) the discourse through chapters 3--6, as well as the retrospectively illuminating chapters 12--14. Redemptivehistorically, it is significant that the true God has always had one dwelling place in the creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Thomas More's understanding of the role of the recipient's virtue in activating the full power of Christ's body in the Eucharist in his A Treatise on the Passion of Christe and A Treatise to receive the blessed body of our lorde, sacramentally and virtually bothe. Though passionately committed to the doctrine of the Real Presence, More writes that the body of Christ, while fully present, is not in and of itself entirely sufficient to complete the work of the sacrament if the recipient is not virtuous and receives the sacrament unworthily. An unvirtuous recipient receives only bodily, which is to say not completely — not, in More's terms, virtually. An unvirtuous recipient is not the only means by which the full power of the Eucharist may be compromised. Because the Incarnation and transubstantiation involve transformations of word and bodies into each other, it is not surprising that More's concerns with the sacrament, virtue, and the virtual also involve language. In the Dialogue Concerning Heresy, More strenuously criticizes Tyndale's translation of scripture. This essay also examines the ways in which More's objections to Tyndale's translation understand its destructive power as rooted in linguistic choices that disrupt the crucial nexus of virtue, the virtual, and the corporeal. In More's view, Tyndale's Bible thus deserves immolation along with the heretics themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vatican II Council was very much concerned about presenting us an idea of the Church which could serve as a reference point concerning her identity and mission in the world today. It wanted to express a vision of the Church which could elicit new enthusiasm among the faithful and offer a new alternative to the way the world perceived reality. In concretizing this vision, the Council chose trinitarian images and symbols of the Church, regarding them as basic for our time: the Church as the New People of God; the Church as the Body of Christ; and the Church as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The article elucidates these images in the light of the thoughts of the Italian theologian Bruno Forte. For him, the Church can best be understood from a trinitarian point of view. The Church is an icon of the Holy Trinity, and her communion is structured in the image and likeness of the trinitarian communion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently Christian worship has emphasised people coming together to participate as a community. The COVID pandemic has presented a challenge to this primary activity. It was no longer possible to attend church, receive the sacraments or to share faith in small groups. New means of sustaining faith communities had to be put in place in unprecedented ways. Researchers and authors have been swift to begin an analysis of the ways in which churches have responded. In particular the acceleration of the use of digital technology has been charted. We are fortunate that publishers have made research known more widely with books and research articles. Two of these, Ecclesiology for a digital Church: Theological reflections on the new normal edited by Heidi A. Campbell and John Dyer (SCM, 2022) and Holy Communion in contagious times: Celebrating the eucharist in the everyday and online worlds by Richard A. Burridge (Cascade Books, 2022) are discussed and analysed alongside others in this review article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecclesiology of Saint Paul is a subject that gains more and more attention in the present time. The scholarship on this issue would have a considerable impact not only on the theological level but also on the pastoral and ecumenical. Each strives to discover, whether there is the notion of the One and Universal Church or not in the Epistles, which no one doubts their genuineness. Besides, many ask about the necessary elements that allow the designation of a community as a Church. Furthermore, numerous studies still tackle the relation between the Church of God and the People of Israel in Romans 11. This study endeavors to elucidate the universal communal consciousness in the apostolic era by studying the term Church in its technical sense, including its theological connotations. Moreover, it inquires as to the essence of the Church's roots within the elected people of God. The aim is to prove that the Church encompasses all the branches of the olive tree in Romans 11, both from Jewish and Gentile origins. Finally, it aims to clarify the perplexity produced by Saint Paul's usage of the term Church, both in its singular and plural forms, to explain how the local churches may manifest the One Holy Universal and Apostolic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of the field of disability theology, questions have been raised about the place of disabilities in the resurrection. Some scholars contend that disability is a direct consequence of the fall of humanity and thus consider disability as incongruous with life in a perfect and redeemed creation. Other scholars, however, see disability as part of the natural diversity of humanity and allow for the retention of at least some disabilities in the future kingdom. In his 2019 volume Woundrously Wounded, Brian Brock attempts to redirect discussions about disability to the present kingdom encouraging believers to consider anew the place of people with disabilities in church communities. Brock proposes that using Paul's Body of Christ imagery serves as a useful model for church communities with its emphasis on valuing, including, and celebrating all members. The challenge of the Body of Christ is to recognize that all members are dependent and interconnected and that human abilities and disabilities do not hinder God's work in and through the Body to bring about his purposes. This paper will give a brief overview of both the elimination and retention models of disability as well as outlining Brock's challenge to refocus attention on the Body of Christ as the inclusive model for living for churches in the today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptions about remote theological education inevitably cluster around questions of embodiment, community, and unity. The letters of the apostle Paul have quite a bit to say about these themes. This essay examines Paul's treatment of distance in the formation and education of Christians, focused around the image of the "body of Christ" in 1 Corinthians and the "presence" of Paul's absence through his letter‐writing. Reflecting on distance education with reference to Paul's Corinthian correspondence proves useful in developing a biblical and theological grammar for understanding remote formation, including an alternative to traditional theological anthropology. The 2020–2022 global pandemic has underscored the importance and urgency of developing such a reassessment of theological formation. Following the lessons learned from Paul as distance educator, the essay concludes with a series of questions for institutions to ask themselves as they seek a way forward in the pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages David Fitch's idea of faithful presence with the lived experiences of autism to explore how the church can embody the concept of unity in diversity. To belong as God's family with people considered the least among us begins with seeing them as persons, not projects. Next, the power differential in a giver-receiver relationship needs to be addressed. Then, following the lead of the Spirit into Christ's presence, church members submit to one another mutually and equally, receiving each other as gifts of God. Finally, as the body of Christ, we tend to Christ in our shared life inside and outside the church. In the process, all in the body encounter Christ, who transforms our hearts towards loving one another, desiring to share each other's burdens and joy, thus becoming one in Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience and reflections of people on the autism spectrum act as a "context of discovery" about human communication and agency, in conversation with a robust theological account drawn from Paul's depiction of personhood in relationship to sin and salvation. I claim that autism is not an exception to understanding the self as a self-in-relation; it is a unique and therefore illuminating instantiation of self-in-relation. The testimonies of autistic people render visible two key aspects of human personhood that are shared by both so-called "neurotypical" and "non-neurotypical" people: the priority of embodied interpersonal connection for the development of human communication and agency, and the risk and vulnerability of such connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its multifaceted nature, India stands unique among nations in the world. Indian cultures accept and amalgamate differences, paradoxes, and contradictions in their own way. Based on the unwritten law of Dharma and the concept of collective whole, the fundamentalist groups project India as an organic Body. Even though Christianity works since the apostolic age, it struggles to influence the majority of Indian population and suffers threat, violence, and persecution at present. The Body of Christ must redefine its role in the Body of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Im Anschluss an Arbeiten von Ruben Zimmermann, die zeigen, welche Bedeutung der Verwendung von Metaphern für die Christologie des Johannesevangeliums zukommt, versucht der Beitrag die paulinische Rede von der Ekklesia als Leib Christi konsequent als Metapher auszulegen. Sobald dies geschieht, ist es unmöglich, eine „ursprüngliche" Bedeutung der Rede vom Leib Christi zu definieren: Je nachdem, mit welchen Elementen paulinischen Denkens man sie verbindet, ergeben sich neue fruchtbare Bilder. Der Beitrag geht von 1 Kor 12,27 aus und stellt solche Verbindungen her. Gleichzeitig versteht er sich als Dialogangebot zwischen Exegese und Systematischer Theologie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Spain in the sixteenth century, the colony was imagined as a sacred body, as the mystical body of Christ (corpus mysticum), in which millions of presumed Catholic Indigenous subjects figured as the body's wounded feet. Beyond the simple secularization of a theological concept and its appropriation toward political ends, the colonial corpus mysticum became living, enfleshed, and incarnate, both sustaining the colonial project and rebelling against it. The Mexican corpus mysticum was grounded in the vernacular theologies and affects of the mortandad, the violent death world of the colonial cataclysm. The 'mysterious materiality' of the New World corpus mysticum points to signs of Mexican Indigenous communities' theopolitical refusal to be subsumed into the Spanish colonial flesh-body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Virtual; body of Christ; real presence; Holy Communion; Covid-19 pandemic EN Virtual body of Christ real presence Holy Communion Covid-19 pandemic 18 24 7 12/05/20 20201001 NES 201001 I used to be a digital skeptic, dubious that virtual connectedness could foster any meaningful relating among us. In worship, Christians are "called in so that we can be the called-out ones" to serve the neighbor in need.[7] In this time of pandemic, members of the body of Christ are being "called in" to worship via Zoom and other platforms. Even though it will be tempting to return to exclusively in-person worship, especially for churches that are really struggling to adapt to online worship, if congregations want to provide access to all their members, it is likely that some form of online worship will be necessary for the foreseeable future. [Extracted from the article]

Starting with the laying to rest of George Tyrrell's body in an Anglican grave, outside the bounds of the Catholic Church, this article considers how Tyrrell could yet understand himself to be within the Church, within the body of Christ. Tyrrell developed a distinction between the visible and invisible Church in such a way that a person like himself could be included within the latter. In this, Tyrrell's theology anticipated later ideas of the anonymous Christian and the Church as sacrament, his thinking incorporated within the body of more orthodox, conciliar theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Paul, the powers pervade all aspects of human existence. Yet attempting to trace the connection between economic arrangements and the powers in Paul’s thought is not an easy task. This article will first show how the concepts of weakness and powerlessness serve as the hinge that holds together poverty and the powers in Paul’s thought. Christ’s confrontation with the powers on the cross is possible because Christ adopted a weak and powerless state. The very same concepts of weakness and powerlessness provide Paul with the linguistic and theological resources needed to sketch his economic vision for believers. In this vision the body of Christ (crucified and gathered) becomes the space where the powers are unmasked and defeated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilising theoretical concepts and approaches from the field of ritual studies, this article examines the meal practice of the Corinthian assembly, as prescribed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, as well as his criticism, in the same passage, of their performing of it. Verse 30: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep," functions as this study's starting-point and cue. Firstly, it is argued that Paul here refers to bodily affliction. As a microcosm, the body--signifying the whole person--is necessarily affected by the larger sphere of existence in which it participates, in this case the body of Christ: the Spirit-infused community of Christfollowers in Corinth. The term "body" is thus used holistically and multi-referentially. Secondly, in analogy with the Old Testament account of Achan in Joshua 7 this study puts forward the corporate nature of Corinth's affliction: the entire community is at risk of falling ill, not just the guilty members. A reading of the passage in terms of ritual theory, more specifically, sacrifice, underscores the bodily and corporate nature of the pedagogical judgment imposed on the Corinthians. Performing the Lord's Supper involves risk. Enacting the orderly sequence of ritual segments or sub-acts with a holy disposition is what is required for the proper performance of this sacrificial meal. The divisions and disorder in the assembly cause it to fail. Therefore, the outcome that is produced is negative: what emerges is a Corinthian body that is in a fractured state and in need of restoration--individually, corporately, and sacramentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is transforming the human body into a cyborg by making it a part of cyber networks. Transhumanists and posthumanists argue that technology will enable humans to overcome bodily limitation by reaching a technological immortality. The authors discuss recent literature on anthropological approaches and ethical implications about this technological promise. They suggest that the “Body of Christ” metaphor—by emphasizing embodiment, sacramentality, difference, and solidarity—can guide our reflection on corporeality and on the human because this metaphor refers not just to the human body of Jesus Christ but also to the Eucharist, the church, and the eschatological Body of Christ in creation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study is aimed to sketch the dispute which took place on the Council of Basle between the representatives of Czech Church and Roman Catholic Church, namely between John of Rokycany and Ivan of Dubrovnik. The theme of the discussion was mainly the question of communion under both kinds for the laity, which could be regarded just as a disciplinary matter. In: reality, both disputers show that there are ecclesiological consequences: How should the Church be understood? What is Jesus's relation to this church? The dispute thus reflected the Church reform initiated by John Wycliffe and advanced by John Hus. The question of communion under both kinds for laity provided an opportunity to rethink the nature of the Church, the role of authority in it and the relation between the Church and Eucharist. This would, however, presuppose a certain way of perceiving the Eucharist (a sacrament or a sacrifice?), which both theologians present to justify their notion of the Church. In: order to resolve these questions, it was necessary to face a methodological problem: How to interpret the Bible and who is the supreme authority to offer an authentic interpretation? According to John of Rokycany, it is the Church while Ivan of Dubrovnik claims that it is the authority of the Church. The dispute is thus an example of the relation between the mysteries which theology should pursue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article develops a theological concept of the evolution of sin. In dialogue with evolutionary biology, the article clarifies how sin evolves out of the shadow side of creation. Therefore, we need to acknowledge how sin, already before the evolution of human beings, influences life. What this means for the understanding of human sin, is worked out in dialogue with evolutionary psychology on the one side and the Pauline understanding of flesh on the other side. From this perspective, sin appears as the human failure to live up to one's divine calling by not transcending the evolutionary advance socialisation. Finally, the article addresses boundary cases in the dialogue, which undergird the specific potential of a theological understanding of sin. Theology can show how the power of sin endangers those cultural entities upon which the hopes of modernity rest in the struggle to overcome violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "post-secularism" was introduced in a 2004 Television debate between the German philosopher Habermas and Cardinal Ratzinger, the former Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. With this term Habermas ventured to identify a new paradigm in Western thought and social development which testifies to a renewed interest in religion and metaphysics. Several contemporary case studies reaffirm this notion. Zieberts & Riegel (2009:300), amongst others, say that a new, relevant kind of religion is emerging where religion is seen as a source of socio-moral commitment, because it proposes an ethical orientation. According to Cliteur (2010:1) religions are growing. Sigurdson (2010:177) identifies this phenomenon as a "re-enchantment" of society possibly with a reference to the view of the philosopher Taylor (2007:21) that secularism brought about "disenchantment" in the modernist society. In his recent empirical research Martin (2011:105) concludes that this revitalisation of religions is also evident in the Christian religion with certain exceptions in Western Europe. However, he adds that this resurgence does not necessarily imply a new interest in the main ecclesiastical traditions. This new development follows an era in Western Europe where the validity of Theology as a science, the authority of the Bible and ecclesiastical Creeds and Confessions have been questioned to a large extent. Post-Apartheid society in South Africa seems to follow the same route. The attempt by the Theologies of Secularism initiated by Cox (1967) and the Political Theologies of the seventies and eighties of the previous century to address the decline of Christianity did not stem the flow of secularism. How valid is it then to take the notion of an emerging post-secular paradigm seriously and to expect a revitalisation of Churches of the European Protestant tradition in South Africa? And, if so, what are the prerequisites for such a revitalisation? The central-theoretical argument of this research article is that such a change is possible. Churches in South Africa can be enriched by the post-secular paradigm when the confession of the church as the community of believers is revisited and explored in the various major ecclesiastical traditions. The emergence of post-secularism is a valid point of view and can be seen as a result of the post-modernist condition that Lyotard (1991:XXIII) identified in Western culture. Postmodernism scrutinised the dominance of reason and the existence of absolute truths. Spirituality became a plausible feature in modern life as well as the role of religions and religious experience. Postmodernism brought people and their deeper emotional and spiritual needs into view and created the humus for the development of personal identity, deep relations and true humanity. Western Christian Churches in South Africa are thus confronted by a new post-secular reality where people are in search of new answers, forms of worship, ways of relating and experiencing. Institutionalism, formalism and traditions are no longer answering the needs of the new spiritual environment proposed by post-modernism and post-secularism. This research proposes that the communion character of the church should be revisited and utilised in order to create a plausible religious climate for the post-secular society and its needs. The biblical metaphors of the church as the people of God; the body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit provide the foundation for such a climate. These metaphors emphasise the relational character of the church where people can experience a deep spiritual relation with God and with others. As a witnessing community the church can engage in dialogue with other moral agents in solving the major problems of the modern environment. As a communion of believers the church can function as a therapeutic community where the destitute, the poor and the suffering can find healing and hope by way of entering into living relationships. Furthermore, the church as a community of believers should act as a community of character (Hauerwas 1981:42), which, by way of example, can give moral guidance in the process of strengthening the moral fibre of the post-secular society. It may be possible that a re-assessment of the church as a community can provide the keys to open a new dynamic future for the church. As long as the church can nurture such a sense of community it will be relevant in the post-secular society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following is a sermon preached by Nathan Carlin at St. John's Church (United Church of Christ) in Houston, Texas, on January 27, 2013. In line with the conference theme-body/soul, spirit/flesh, self/other-the sermon focuses on several verses in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth in which Paul discusses the Church as the Body of Christ. The sermon text (1 Cor. 12:12-27) was not chosen because the author was still thinking about the conference theme (the conference, as noted, took place on October 17-19, 2012); this text simply happened to be the lectionary passage assigned to the date. In the sermon, the biblical text, the psychological concept of 'the narcissism of minor differences,' and a story from the author's childhood (a story about Bible quiz competitions) are interwoven. The author felt that such a topic was appropriate for St. John's Church because the church, on the day that the sermon was delivered, was scheduled to meet about the topic of confirmation classes for youth. All of this is to say that sermons are often expressions of pastoral theology because sermons, while inherently theological, are also pastoral in that they are addressed to specific audiences and focus on matters that the preacher discerns to be of existential concern, both collectively and individually, for those whom the preacher is addressing. In terms of method and style, this sermon was written following the technique of Robert Dykstra as articulated in his Discovering a Sermon: Personal Pastoral Preaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines what it means to be embodied members of the Body of Christ, exploring the metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, variant embodiment, abused bodies, and sexual bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Traditionally, “the body of Christ” has been read through an organism metaphor that emphasizes unity of the community in Christ. The weakness of this reading is that there is no clear articulation of how members of the community are united with Christ. The body language in Paul’s letters can be best understood when read through a metaphor for a way of living that emphasizes Christ’s embodiment of God’s gospel. The body of Christ in Paul’s letters is, first of all, his physical body that represents his life and death. Then, derivatively, it is also associated with Christian living—for example, “You are Christ-like body” (1 Cor 12:27). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Faith is a meeting between the personal You of God who reveals himself in history and the free choice of man. This act comes true starting from an authentic search of meaning that, ultimately, can only be found where God gives himself. The act of faith does’nt exclude the receptive ability of man (instinctus fidei) in dialogue with listening (auditus fidei).The person of Jesus Christ is the place of the encounter. This article emphasizes the aspect of the face/body of the Risen Christ in the mediation of this encounter. This new relationship with the Risen Lord is a call to witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE PURPOSE OF THIS article is to argue the following thesis regarding the nature of Christian ministry: Christian ministry is activity by baptized Christians done in the presence of God and in partnership with God, for the purpose of bringing the people of God into deepening communion with God and with one another, and into right relationship with God's creation. The article will present a model of ministry that incorporates fundamental categories of biblical theology such as divine presence, divine-human partnership, communion (koinonia), and Body of Christ, together with fundamental categories from systematic theology, particularly the Trinity and union with Christ. It will argue for an ontological understanding of the nature of ministry and pastoral identity, in contrast to prevaJhngfunctional views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the tension between caring for the needs of persons and caring for the needs of the organization. Biblical themes and contemporary scholarship are used as a lens through which to better understand this tension as it relates to true integrity. Suggestions are provided for integrating the concepts into leadership training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No less than Pope Benedict XVI has admitted of "sins born from within the Church" that "we see today in a truly terrifying way." A theological-ethical reading of such sins would uncover at least three unresolved issues, namely: the wide gap between Church teachings and its laws, the conflicting accounts of authority in the Church, and the hegemony of the clerical ethos. Further analysis would show that the roots of such issues go down deep into the "ways of being church" that we have inherited from the pre-Vatican II era. The current crisis could not be transformed into a kairos by a mere restoration of such ways. In fact, it would only make the Church's present sins more terrifying than they now are. What is at stake is the future of our corporate identity as the body of Christ in a world very different from ages past. And much would depend on how the whole church, particularly the episcopal college, would make innovative institutional and systemic changes commensurate to the papal admission of guilt and according to the vision of renewal set forth by the Second Vatican Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

lthough philosophical theologians have sometimes claimed that human beings are necessarily dependent on God, few have developed the idea with any precision. Jonathan Edwards is a notable exception, providing a detailed and often novel account of humanity's essential ontological, moral, and soteriological dependence on God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the global implications of the statement from African theologians that the body of Christ has AIDS. It will outline how these theologians employ the metaphor of the body of Christ to challenge the western world to enter into solidarity with Africa struck by HIV and AIDS. From the realization that the HIV epidemic is embedded in globalization processes, and from the understanding of contextual theologies as significant to western theology, it is argued that western theologians have to take seriously the critical African questions. Hence the article investigates what it means for the western world to say that the body of Christ has AIDS, and how this metaphor helps to envision global solidarity in light of the HIV epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this article is on moving beyond the first step or stage of welcoming people with disabilities into congregations in general—particularly through segregated programs and activities or “mainstreaming approaches” for people with intellectual disabilities—toward the full inclusion of people with disabilities into the rich, active life of a church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are various theories as to the origin of St Paul's image of the Church as the body of Christ, but it seems to have a particular link with his experience on the road to Damascus. The image has a stark realism and is to be understood in terms of the Hebrew concept of the body as the whole person, not in terms of the Greek idea of the human being as made up of body and soul. For Paul and the Fathers, the Church was sustained as the body of Christ by receiving the body of Christ in the Eucharist. The term, 'mystical body', referred originally to the Eucharist. When, as a result of eucharistic controversy, it was applied to the Church early in the second millennium, the link of Eucharist and Church was quickly lost in the West and a strongly institutional understanding of the Church resulted. Christian East and West split as this understanding took hold, and the Reformers in the West subsequently objected to it also. The development of eucharistic ecclesiology in the twentieth century has helped to bridge the divide between East and West and between 'catholic' and 'protestant' understandings of the Church. The renewed link between the Eucharist and the Church entails renewed links also between the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit, and the Eucharist and the future. All three renewed perspectives are reflected in recent ecumenical agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the persistence of ecclesial unity—that the Church is one—as a fact of grace, is it possible to understand the concurrence of division between Christian communities as a provision of providence? A hallmark of the ecumenical movement has been its consciousness, at least, of this uncomfortable question, granting, as it does, the evangelical authenticity of various self-differentiated 'churches'. In this context, one may understand the spiritual intelligence of the Catholic Church's solution to the problem at and after Vatican II, writ in terms of the body of Christ. Christian divisions are wounds, Catholic leaders have suggested, that would form the faithful in their vocation of mutual self-offering and -emptying 'in' Christ crucified, 'in' one body. Such an approach to ecumenical reconciliation seems both requisite and promising, as may be seen with reference to the present 'lexicon' of Anglican-Catholic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to answer the question of how the Body of Christ is a meaningful symbol for the contemporary Christian community from a feminist perspective. Following Graham Ward's account of the displaced body of Jesus Christ, the author argues that the Body of Christ is a distinctly Christian symbol that empowers the contemporary community of Christian believers with a radical new identity, one that is multigendered and includes a vast continuum of human and divine embodied experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter seeks to address some of the challenges of aging and suggests some ways that pastoral care can nurture spiritual formation in older adults as they age. There are social, psychological, and physical tasks facing older adults that have spiritual implications. First, older adults need to reframe their sense of self apart from work roles. The challenge is to accept oneself, others, and God for who one is rather than for what one does. A second issue is finitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A renewed primary focus on the person of Christ has enabled some longstanding tensions between Christians, regarding scripture and tradition, the number of the sacraments, the ordained and baptismal priesthoods, and word and sacrament, to be positively addressed in recent decades. John Zizioulas maintains that for these divisions to be properly overcome Christ must be understood as a corporate personality, the Church being his mystical body and not having a hypostasis of its own. In his view, not only does Christ constitute the Church, as theologians would readily agree, but the Church also constitutes Christ, a reciprocal understanding which he recognises as problematic for many. This paper investigates Zizioulas' view, particularly by noting that he never uses the idea of the Church as bride of Christ, an image much invoked by Hans Urs von Balthasar, which tends to a personal understanding of the Church in union with but also distinction from Christ. With many comparative references to Balthasar, the implications of Zizioulas' liturgical understanding that 'the “I” of the Church is Christ' are explored and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to distinguish therapeutic from non-therapeutic genetic interventions in the human body have floundered on the assumption that the body should be understood as a psycho-physical corpus. This article argues by contrast that the body of Christ, that is the church, should be seen as the hermeneutical key to interpreting the body, and therefore that features of the corporate life of the church can provide criteria for distinguishing acceptable from unacceptable forms of genetic intervention. Formation of the bodies of Christians in the church is contrasted with the formation of the body by the reflexive project of modern self-identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augustine's account of the saeculum brings together his theological anthropology, ecclesiology, and Christology in establishing the church as the body of Christ—as the place wherein the restless and sinful soul finds renewal through the grace of the incarnation. Such a model of the saeculum pushes back against various contemporary appropriations of Augustine, including those of Milbank, Markus, and Taylor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the implications for Christian unity from the perspective of the lived faith community, the ekklesia. While bilateral and multilateral dialogues have borne great fruit in bringing Christian denominations closer together, as indeed it will continue to do so, considering how the ecclesiological identity of the faith community both forms and reflects its members may be helpful in moving forward in our ecumenical efforts. This calls for a ground-up approach as opposed to a top-down approach. By "ground-up" it is meant that the starting point for theological reflection on ecumenism begins not with doctrine but with praxis, particularly as it relates to the common believer in the pew. The ecclesiological model "Body of Christ" provides a helpful vocabulary in this exploration for a number of reasons, none the least that it is scripturally-based, presumes diversity and employs concrete imagery relating to everyday life. Further, "Body of Christ" language is used by numerous Christian denominations in their statements of self-identity, regardless of where they lie on the doctrinal or political spectrum. In this article, potential benefits and challenges of this ground-up perspective will be considered, and a way forward will be proposed to promote ecumenical unity across denomination borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]