Search

The statement, “the body of Christ is disabled without the presence of people with disability” is one that makes regular appearances in works of disability theologians and practitioners. The pithy aphorism is meant to serve as a prompt to remind church communities that they need to be places where people with disability can be active and contributing members. However, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that the statement is problematic and, as a result, ends up perpetuating the notion that disability is undesirable and to be avoided. This article outlines two primary objections to the use of the phrase and offers in its place an alternative way of understanding the place of people with disability both in the body of Christ and in our church communities.

This article describes that the perfection of God’s creation was guaranteed by faith, must be hold and lived in the life of the believers. Physical weakness (difable) is not a condition cause decreasing the perfection of God’s creation. Difable is not decreasing or weakening the existence and essence of human being as the body of Christ which was loved and saved by the blood of Christ. This article used the library research in theology, explored the love of God in the life of human being. The result showed that the church must develop the ministries of educating and empowering disable people (people with the special need). They are perfect as the body of Christ because the God itself is perfect. God is perfect so the creation is perfect too. Human being was perfected by the love of God.

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]

Paul often uses the phrase 'in Christ' in his letters. Teresa Morgan has written an important book that rejects a participatory interpretation of this phrase, suggesting an encheiristic interpretation instead (that it means 'in his hands'). I provide a participatory view, in terms of a sharing of divine and human minds, in experience, feeling and action. By considering Professor Morgan's account of 'en Christo' in Galatians, I argue that a participatory view adds something important to, without detracting from, an encheiristic view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teología y Vida is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Teologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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.

Copyright of Collectanea Theologica is the property of Uniwersytet Kardynala Stefana Wyszynskiego w Warszawie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent decades, the use of metaphor in ecclesiology has been broadly critiqued on the ground that metaphors are too abstract and idealized to advance our understanding of the concrete church in history; consequently, ecclesiology has embraced an "empirical turn," incorporating fields like ethnography and social sciences. In this article, the author argues for a positive function of metaphor in ecclesiology drawing from the work of Janet Martin Soskice. Metaphors link various associative networks of meaning and in doing so open up new imaginative horizons. This theory allows ecclesial metaphors to be examined for their adequacy in light of other empirical or nontheological fields of knowledge. In turn, this invites the theologian to explore other associative networks of meaning such that a metaphor leads to new insights into the nature and mission of the church. The metaphor of the church as the body of Christ serves as a test case. [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 Catholic Church believes in the intrinsic and inseparable bond of the Holy Eucharist and the Church. In reference to its dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium paragraph 11 (LG 11) the Church professes that the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, is “the source and summit of Christian life.” Each of these two sacraments effects and builds each other. This implies that as the church celebrates the Eucharist, the members as they partake in the Holy Communion manifest concretely their unity and become one body of Christ. This article seeks to underscore the indissoluble reciprocal causality of the Eucharist and the Church, while it stresses on the Eucharist as the origin, the being, and the destiny of the Church. The study drums home critically the idea that the Eucharist builds the Church, and the Church makes the Eucharist. These are but two complementary terms, the Body of Christ, the Church which lives and continuously builds itself up through the Eucharist, Body of Christ. This great theological theme is one of the central points of a deeper interest in Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican ecclesiology. However, the paper examines critically the reciprocal causality between the Church and the Eucharist from the Catholic perspective as proposed by H. de Lubac, a French theologian. It finally treats the interpenetration of the Eucharist as the Body of Christ and the Church as the Body of Christ from the perspective of sacramental theology.

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]

Charismatic gifts are an understudied and divisive aspect of Christian worship. Yet, in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4, Paul links these phenomena with his famous metaphor for the unity of the church as the Body of Christ. This paper argues that one can better understand how the Holy Spirit unifies both the universal and local church by viewing charismatic gifts as liturgical group actions. After briefly introducing the category of charismatic gifts, I argue that charismatic gifts are a semi–scripted improvisational activity which immerse participants into the core Christian narrative of the universal and invisible church. I then argue that charismatic gifts are given to and enacted by communities, rather than individuals, and so are an example of group action actualising the corporate agency of the local church. When charismatic gifts are seen as liturgical group actions it becomes clear how the Spirit uses charismatic gifts to transform the gathered people of God into the unified Body of Christ.

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]

Scholar poetry, particularly the epigram, has been a literary means of expression not only of ideas and attitudes about life but also of religious sentiment and profound religious faith. Delving into the epigrams of the second category, particularly those related to the Cross and the Crucifixion, our attention will be focused on the presence of beauty, its meaning, and the role it played within the category of Byzantine epigrams. The aim of this article is to identify relevant epigrams (by anonymous or known writers), make some basic observations and reach certain conclusions regarding the issue of beauty. [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]

After the initial contextualization of the topic, by following Nancy's juxtaposition strategy, this article points to two senses of the body that, according to him, have defined the Western culture. The first one, logos (principle precedes the body and gives it meaning); the second, sarx (the meaning of the body comes from the body itself, so that the body comes out of itself, alienates itself, and deconstructs its own representative activities). Next, I give a more precise depiction of Nancy's deconstruction of the body through an analysis of Corpus because it is precisely with this work (in the chapter On the Soul, which is also the title of Aristotle's well-known treatise dealing first and foremost with the body, and in the chapter The Extension of the Soul) that Nancy most explicitly deconstructs hylomorphic somatology, which largely influenced the Christian theology of the body. Furthermore, I interpret Genesis 2:18–25 (in constant dialogue with Nancy) as a theological reaction on Nancy's deconstruction of the body. In other words, on the basis of biblical texts, the "mystery of the body" is depicted. Finally, the article ends with a comparison of Nancy's "inoperative community" (communauté désoeuvrée) and the Body of Christ (church). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basil the Great in the fourth century AD argued that all material entities are constantly carried away by motion. He spoke of the flow of existence as "ever pressing on and passing away and never stopping in its course." His general conjecture in respect with spatiotemporal existents was that motion and time constantly shift and twist their ephemeral selves, leading them to annihilation. Hence, no entity that is subject to time persists so as to preserve its essential core. The Body of Christ in its temporal dimension, i.e. the visible Body, may also follow a sort of current. It may also experience constant change. The lack of ontological stability is the main characteristic of all unredeemed existents. The Body of Christ, on the other hand, is not a mere temporal entity. It has an eschatological self that will never be destroyed. This eschatological unity will never fade away. It is ordered by a different kind of time. This article aims to shed light on certain foundational aspects of Basil's theory of eschatological unity and of the changing self. It endeavors to explicate Basil's eschatological threads presented in the Hexameron. It attempts to demonstrate that Basil's subtle and nuanced analysis of the subject offers an explanatory framework capable of making sense of more recent events in ecclesiastical history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Without any question, ecclesiology along Christology remain the crucial issues for theologians in the modern Ecumenical dialogue. And while we take as granted that we, as Christians coming from different Churches, have reached a common place regarding the doctrines of Christology, at the same time we experience and we live within our various confessional bodies a different Christ. We are the receivers of the baptismal gift (unum baptisma) and of the calling to be workers of unity, but still, we are living in a "not yet" unity situation. We all witness the paradoxical phenomenon of accepting that baptism bring us in communion with God, but not with one another, exceptionally not with those who come from different Christian denomination. We are "already" in God's grace, but "not yet" in that same gracious acceptance of one another. We tend to want to correct each other before we encourage one another; to judge before we accept. Statements of faith tend to carry more value than acts of faith. This paper aims to answer the question of the ecclesial unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Copyright of Studia Gdańskie is the property of Gdanskie Seminarium Duchowne, Kuria Metropolitalna Gdanska and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

The author discusses ecclesiastical governance using one of the most meaningful contemporary ecclesiological models - Eucharistic ecclesiology. Conceived by the noted Orthodox theologian Nikolay Afanasyev, this idea became very popular in both Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christian theology. Its underlying concept underlines the role of the people of God who assemble for the Eucharist to partake of the Body of Christ as united in one Body with Christ and thus becoming one Body with Christ. This is, according to Saint Paul, the Church in all its fullness. The unity of the Eucharistic assembly as an empirical manifestation of the Body of Christ requires the local Church to also act as one body. The paper considers two examples of Eucharistic moduls (that of Nikolay Afanasiev and that of John Zizioulas) and examines how the local church acts and makes decisions, and governance is dispersed throughout the body of the local Church. The author points out that in both examples the people play a rather passive role and merely act on that which the bishop decides. The article touches upon a question on possibility/impossibility of negative reception of the presider’s activity by the people. Also the author confirms an idea of principal insensibility of the Eucharistic ecclesiology to any individualization in the decision-making process.

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.