John Calvin's Ecclesiology

Gerard Mannion serves as Chair of the Ecclesiological Investigations Research Network and is a Senior Research Fellow of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). Educated at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, he previously lectured at Church colleges of the universities of Oxford and Leeds and was Associate Professor of Ecclesiology and Ethics at the ecumenical university in Liverpool. A Senior Research Fellow of the Centro per le Scienze Religiose, Trento (Italy) in 2009, he is also a Visiting Professor of the University of Chichester, UK and (in 2010) of the University of Tubingen, Germany. His numerous books include Schopenhauer, Religion and Morality (2003), Ecclesiology and Postmodernity: Questions for the Church in Our Time (2007), The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church (2008, ed. with Lewis Mudge) and The Vision of John Paul II: Assessing his Thought and Influence, (ed. 2008). Eddy van der Borght holds the Desmond Tutu Chair and is also Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This is an excellent book, offering a varied and original range of perspectives on the historical and contemporary interpretation of Calvin's ecclesiology. The book gives an exemplary introduction to some of the ways in which Calvin's ecclesiological ideas have been and might be appropriated and applied. The volume suggests that Calvin offers a theologically profound, Catholic, pastorally concerned and ecumenical ecclesiology. As a reformer, Calvin was concerned with the renewal of the face of the church as a whole, not with the founding of a new tradition. In this sense, his work is part of the inheritance of the all denominations; it is a rich resource for thinking about the Christian life, church-state relationships, ecumenical dialogue, church order, worship and many other of the issues that have been perennial challenges to the churches. It is to be hoped that this book will help Christians of all traditions to an appreciation of Calvin as a fellow pilgrim and a perceptive teacher who has much to say that is of continuing relevance.

• Contents: Paul Avis: Foreword; 1. Eddy Van der Borght and Gerard Mannion: Calvin and the Church - Volume Introduction; 2. Amy Plantinga Pauw: Calvin's Practical Ecclesiology and the Question of Clerical Celibacy; 3. Rose Beal: John Calvin and the Three Offices of Christ: A Bridge for Protestant and Catholic Ecclesiology?; 4. John Halsey Wood: Making Calvin Modern: Abraham Kuyper's Vision for the Dutch Reformed Church; 5. Sandra Arenas: The 'Vestigia Ecclesiae' in the thought of Calvin and its 20th century reception.; 6. Stanley Maclean: Regnum Christi: Thomas Torrance's appropriation of Calvin's ecclesiology; 7. Joshua Ralston: For Calvin Preaching Makes the Church: Recovering a Missing Ecclesial Mark; 8. Roger Haight, S. J: John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola on an Ecclesial Spirituality of Social Engagement; 9. Alan Sell: Rectifying Calvin's ecclesiology: the doctrinal and ecumenical importance of Separatist-Congregational catholicity; 10. Gerard Mannion: The Society of Christ: The Ecumenical and Ethical Implications of Calvin's Incarnational Ecclesiology; 11. Eddy Van der Borght: Calvin's Ecclesiology Revisited: Seven Trends in the Research of Calvin's Ecclesiology.