Christian Assembly: Marks of the Church in a Pluralistic Age - Softcover

Lathrop, Gordon W.; Wengert, Timothy J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0800636600 ISBN 13: 9780800636609

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2004

Synopsis

What is "church"? What makes the church one? While these questions may seem innocuous, church has become conflicted territory recently, with internal factions, external pressures, and ecumenical turmoil all calling for a more positive, studier, more resilient notion of Christian community. Wengert approaches the questions as a Reformation historian. He shows how the New Testament notion of "marks" of the church was taken up by Luther and developed by Melanchthon not as descriptive tag but as a criterion for authenticity in Christian community. Lathrop, the liturgical theologian, shows concretely how those marks can stamp the worship life of a congregation as well as the evaluative work of congregations with their pastors, bishops, superintendents, and conference ministers. Only with a sturdy sense of their own identity--as a holy people, grounded in common practices and commitments--can Christian assemblies truly engage and even transform today's cultural context. This volume originated as six lectures jointly presented to the Academy of Bishops of the ELCA in 2001.

About this title

About the Author:

GORDON W. LATHROP is Charles A. Schieren Professor of Liturgy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and author of many books.

Timothy J. Wengert is emeritus professor of Church History at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. A parish pastor for seven years in Minnesota and Wisconsin with a doctorate from Duke University, he taught on Philadelphia's faculty from 1989-2013. He has written extensively on the Reformation, was co-editor of the English edition of The Book of Concord (Fortress, 2000) and translated Luther's Small Catechism, used throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In addition to books on Philip Melanchthon and Martin Luther, he co-authored with Susan Wood a book on Lutheran/Roman Catholic relations, Shared Spiritual Journey (Paulist, 2016) and currently serves on the U.S. Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogue. He currently resides in Long Valley, NJ.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0800636600
• ISBN 13: 9780800636609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200