Overview
- Offers a creative conceptualization of church as open community for the current context of churches
- Presents a critical and constructive analysis of Ernst Troeltsch’s interdisciplinary thinking in connection to philosophy, sociology, and theology today
- Brings Ernst Troeltsch’s ecclesiology to bear on the controversies which revolve around the construction of community past and present
Part of the book series: Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue (PEID)
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Religiosity
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Community
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Identity
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
“This monograph is a striking wake-up call to theology to risk a radical reconsideration of its understandings of church and community. Based on a challenging reappraisal of the work of Ernst Troeltsch, Ulrich Schmiedel engages with a breathtaking array of thinkers in order to construct a vision of alterity as a guide to the practice of faith, individual and communal. Not for the faint-hearted but definitely required reading.” (George Newlands, Professor Emeritus of Divinity, University of Glasgow, UK)
“Ulrich Schmiedel has written a wonderful book—thoroughly studied and tightly structured. Combining philosophy, sociology and theology, he explores the complexities which confront churches today. With virtuosity, he draws Ernst Troeltsch into dialogue with thinkers such as William James, Charles Taylor, Ingolf Dalferth, John Milbank, Graham Ward, Zygmunt Bauman and Judith Butler. Bit by bit, he assembles his astute argument: church is a performative project rather than a propositional possession, a church in via which needs to be opened to the other.” (Sturla J. Stålsett, Professor of Religion and Society, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway)
“What is wrong with Christian churches today? Instead of defending static forms of ecclesial identity, Ulrich Schmiedel encourages the churches to respond more imaginatively to the dynamic challenges of otherness and of God’s radical otherness. For Schmiedel, Christian identity remains a work in progress. Through a retrieval of Ernst Troeltsch’s interdisciplinary thinking for today, Schmiedel develops original ways of engaging with this perennial task. This book is essential reading for everybody concerned with church reform.” (Werner G. Jeanrond, Professor of Theology, Master of St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford, UK)
“The horizon of Ulrich Schmiedel’s Elasticized Ecclesiology is the current crisis of membership in established churches in Europe. Part of the solution, says Schmiedel, is to reformulate how we conceive of the ecclesial community: a project rather than a possession, a dynamic performance rather than a static entity. This is a timely, highly accessible, well thought out, and original work on a burning ecclesial issue.” (Ola Sigurdson, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Elasticized Ecclesiology
Book Subtitle: The Concept of Community after Ernst Troeltsch
Authors: Ulrich Schmiedel
Series Title: Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40832-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-40831-6Published: 26 January 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82196-2Published: 12 July 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-40832-3Published: 17 January 2017
Series ISSN: 2634-6591
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6605
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 312
Topics: Christian Theology, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Religion and Psychology