Kirchliches Leben in Methodistischer Tradition

KIRCHLICHES LEBEN IN METHODISTISCHER TRADITION: PERSPEKTIVEN AUS DREI KONTINENTEN . Edited by Michael Nausner . Göttingen : Edition Ruprecht , 2010 . Pp . 300 . €23.90 . Nausner has assembled fourteen diverse essays on United Methodist ecclesiology in a single very useful volume. He identifies four foci in Methodist ecclesiology emerging in the last fifty years rather than any unity of theme or approach: pragmatism, the tension between evangelism and social action, the relationship to the wider church, and its global nature and aspiration in tension with actual regionalization. Virtually, all of the essays reflect the tension observed by A. Outler between Methodism as a movement within the church and Methodism as a church in its own right. This tension is played out in their treatment of ecumenical engagements, its constantly shifting hierarchical structures, its global identity, and the relation of its congregations to evangelism and social engagement. What most unifies the essays is their almost precipitous outward turning from the sacramental life of the church to the church in engagement with the world, an exception being M. Marquart's essay on the sacraments. The book is divided into four parts: the first is historical; the second relates to the church as a means of grace; the third includes three diverse essays on theological conceptualizations of ecclesiology; and the fourth focuses on the relationship between ecclesiology and specific contexts. In this last section are glimpses of the directions in which global Methodism may move in the future, given the rapid demographic shift among Methodists toward the global south. One would thus wish for Anglophone Methodists, particularly in the United States, that this volume would quickly become available in English

Ecclesiology · Evangelism · Methodism · Sociology · Theology · Christian Theology and Mission · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies