Reshaping Ecumenical Theology: The Church Made Whole?
Avis, Paul
T & T Clark International, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-5671-9443-5

Reshaping Ecumenical Theology is a major contribution to the study of the Church. It provides an clear and authoritative orientation for the student, while probing deep into a range of key issues in ecclesiology and ecumenical dialogue from a critical standpoint that will stimulate discussion among scholars and ecumenists. It reclaims some old orthodoxies, while challenging some new ones, and points to a deeper and more personal engagement with the major traditions of the Christian Church as the way to fuller unity and more effective mission. Contesting Ecumenical Theology argues that the values of difference and diversity and the priority of mission and evangelisation must shape our picture of unity. It transcends old arguments about 'establishment', by showing that all churches are compelled to develop a constructive relationship to the modern state, wherever possible, if they are to be effective in mission.

Table of Contents:

Preface
1. The Church - Unity and Multiplicity
2. Rethinking Ecumenical Theology
3. New Paths in Ecumenical Method
4. The Hermeneutics of Unity
5. Towards a Deeper Reception of 'Reception'
6. Confessionalism or a Confessing Church?
7. Episcopacy : Focus of Unity or Cause of Division?
8. Building and Breaking Communion
9. Ethics of Communion: The New Frontier in Ecumenism
10. Forging Communion in the Face of Difference
Index of Names