A Contemporary Theology for Ecumenical Peace

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. History’s Ambiguous Tide toward Divine Peace

   • James E. Will

   Pages 1-12

3. Universal Creator and Historical Redeemer

   • James E. Will

   Pages 13-32

4. Just Love: The Integral Relation of Love and Justice

   • James E. Will

   Pages 33-42

5. The Ecumenical Church in National Civil Religion

   • James E. Will

   Pages 43-53

6. Back Matter

   Pages 54-57

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Humanity's long history of intermittent conflicts and contemporary violence undermines Christian's (and their Jewish and Muslim fellow believers) religious confidence in and moral commitment to world peace. The principal issue is the ambiguity of God's presence and action in the world as we experience it. In A Contemporary Theology for Ecumenical Peace, this problem is addressed by relating biblical theology to contemporary philosophical and theological perspectives to motivate and sustain the practice of love and justice in the context of civil religion.

• Peace
• Justice
• Ecumenical
• Comparative Religion
• church
• ethics
• history
• love
• peace
• religion
• religions
• theology

"This book is an indispensable resource for the Christian commitment to peace witness and praxis in the present day. This is especially the case when there is no peace, but instead only rampant promises of peace, when the Church has fallen into individualistic, church-centric, and nationalistic civil religion and has lost the peaceful vision of the Kingdom of God." - Chul Ho Youn, Professor of Systematic Theology at Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, South Korea

"Will eloquently traces a profoundly moving and inspirational theological motif that he finds common to all three of the Abrahamic religious traditions. In this compassionate vision, God's love for the world provides the spiritual energy for establishing justice, while inviting all of Creation to participate relationally with God and with one another, in a continuous historical act of co-creation. It is this co-creation that finds its end in establishing that 'Just Peace on Earth' which most fully embodies the structure of God's love for the world." - George R. Lucas, Jr., Stockdale Professor of Moral Philosophy, U.S. Naval Academy & U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, USA

James E. Will is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA

Policies and ethics