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Testimony and Tradition
Author Biography: Alan P. F. Sell, a philosopher-theologian and ecumenist, is employed in research, writing, and lecturing in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has held academic posts in England, Canada, and Wales, and ecclesiastical posts in England and Geneva. He is the author or editor of over thirty books, of which the most recent are Convinced, Concise and Christian: The Thought of Huw Parri Owen (Pickwick, 2012) and Christ and Controversy: The Person of Christ in Nonconformist Thought and Ecclesial Experience (Pickwick, 2012).
The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: United and uniting
The United Church of Christ has developed its distinctive theological identity since 1957, having drawn upon the four mainstream traditions and various hidden histories that came together at its birth. It has been profoundly shaped by movements for racial and social justice, the organizational thrust of old-line Protestantism, the changing role of women, new patterns of immigration, and ongoing ecumenical efforts to embody the unity of the Christian church. This seventh volume showcases the theological work of the United Church of Christ from 1957 to 2000 and invites its leaders and members to become more theologically self-conscious.
Church, Identity, and Change
Since colonial days, religious work in American has happened through denominations. At least since the start of the twentieth century, these religious bodies consisted of a fairly tight, intra-denominationally connected system of congregations, regional judicatories, and national offices. This system was the product of more than two centuries of consolidation among Americanbs historic immigrant and indigenous churches. The vast majority of these structures are still in place, retain some semblance of internal coherence, have considerable social and religious significance, and will be with us for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, the stresses upon them today clearly indicate that they are entering an unsettled period of transition. The purpose of this book is to examine the national structures of eight diverse Protestant denominations as a part of that shift. The frame of this study is the relationship between the theological and organizational nature of national denominational structures as they adapt to the changing situation of the twenty-first century.
United and Uniting
"The United Church of Christ was formed in 1957 to be first and foremost a proactive agent in the often tangled but nonetheless breathtaking ministry and mission of ecumenicity in the pursuit of ever greater visible unity among the diversity of Christian churches. This singular task of ecumenicity is arguably the most crucial in the formulation of an ecclesiology essential to the United Church of Christ as a ""united and uniting"" church; a mission Albert Walsh refers to in this book as her God given ""vision-and-vocation."" In United and Uniting, Walsh contends that the identity and self-understanding of the UCC at both national and local levels is best comprehended as a ""Christ-centered"" and ""conciliar"" fellowship, and therefore her ecclesiology must be fundamentally ecumenical. A Christ-centered ecumenicity must shape, inform, and characterize the whole of her ecclesiology, and membership in the UCC is defined almost exclusively in terms of a ""conciliar"" identity. Walsh advocates a return to ecumenical formation at the level of the grassroots or membership in the local congregation as holding the greatest promise for furtherance of the wider ecumenical mission."
Theology and Life
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