Craig L. Nessan – författare

For religious communities to have integrity and credibility they must flourish as places of love and respect. Every aspect of church life is defined and protected by essential boundaries: boundaries around space, time, thought, speech, will, emotion, and behavior--both for clergy and church members. Lack of awareness and attention to boundary keeping diminishes the integrity of the church and harms its mission, whereas insight and vigilance about best practices lend freedom and energy to the calling of the church to care for others and to reach out to the world. In a flourishing Christian community, a wide array of boundaries must be recognized, celebrated, and navigated--from the boundaries that define and protect us as individual persons to role boundaries and the boundaries that define essential communal functions, such as worship.This book is no conventional account of boundaries. It takes a comprehensive approach to the challenge of understanding and creating healthy boundaries. It applies the lessons from the emerging field of behavioral ethics to the rich and rewarding complexity of boundaries in church life, helping us to be more loving and responsible in how we think, speak, and act, so that the church can be true to its identity and mission.

Wilhelm Loehe is one of the most significant nineteenth-century figures for North American church life and mission, whose influence continues into the present. Loehe is unique for joining together aspects of the Christian life often held to be antithetical: worship and mission, orthodoxy and pietism, evangelical proclamation and diakonia, and theological imagination and practical skill in administration. Already in the nineteenth century Loehe contributed a vital principle for advancing ecumenical understanding: the idea of "open questions." When the church confesses core teachings as one, there does not need to be agreement on all secondary matters in order to live together in church fellowship.This book explores Loehe''s historical activity as a pastor, as a supporter of mission in North America, as an organizer (together with Friedrich Bauer) of theological education in North America, and as a founder of deaconess institutions in Neuendettelsau, Germany, that still exist today. The central themes represented by Loehe not only constitute a matrix that has significance for the church and its mission today but also constitute an agenda for the church of the future.

The Vitality of Liberation Theology argues for the ongoing necessity of a liberating theology in a world of endemic poverty and economic globalization. Although some have declared liberation theology''s demise, or even its death, Nessan articulates the imperative and logic of it for a new generation. Latin American liberation theology burst forth as the most original and compelling theological movement from the developing world in the modern period. The story of the emergence and proliferation of liberation theology, as well as the opposition to this movement both within and without Latin America, is one of the most significant and lasting developments in Christianity since the last third of the twentieth century. Together with other forms of liberating theology from contexts of oppression in diverse parts of the world (anti-apartheid theology in South Africa and Namibia, Minjung theology in Korea, Dalit theology in India, or Palestinian liberation theology), Latin American liberation theology takes a prophetic stand against the hegemony of the status quo and joins league with other subaltern peoples in the cause of freedom from all forms of subjugation and oppression. The dawn of Latin American liberation theology inaugurated a new era in the global theological landscape.

Die 39 Beiträge dieses Sonderbandes beleuchten das Thema Theologie im Spannungsfeld von Kirche und Politik aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Neben historischen Aspekten werden sowohl politisch-zeitgeschichtliche Fragen als auch ethische Problemstellungen bedacht. Weitere Aufsätze widmen sich der praktisch-theologischen Reflexion und Konkretion im Rahmen der christlichen Gemeinde, wie auch der Relevanz des Themas in außereuropäischen politisch-kulturellen Kontexten. Der internationale Autorenkreis setzt sich überwiegend aus Kolleginnen und Kollegen, Schülerinnen und Schülern des Regensburger Systematikers Hans Schwarz zusammen. Im Rahmen der Regensburger Summer School 2014 haben sie damit auch das Lebenswerk von Hans Schwarz anlässlich von dessen 75. Geburtstags gewürdigt, in dem das theologisch geleitete Umgehen mit der säkularen Welt eine wichtige Rolle spielt. The 39 contributions to this special issue develop the theme Theology in Engagement with Church and Politics from a variety of perspectives. Alongside the exploration of historical aspects, both contemporary political questions and ethical dilemmas are examined. Further contributions are devoted to the reflection upon practical theology, Christian congregational praxis, and contextual studies, which demonstrate the political and cultural relevance of this theme beyond Europe. The international circle of authors is constituted largely of colleagues and students of Professor Hans Schwarz, systematic theologian from Regensburg, Germany. In conjunction with the 2014 University of Regensburg Summer School, the authors dedicate this volume to the lifetime achievement of Hans Schwarz on the occasion of his 75th birthday, in whose work the engagement of theology with the secular world plays a major role.