Studies in Episcopal and Anglican Theology – serie

The question of how to interpret scripture and whether there is a distinctively Anglican approach to doing so is one of the leading theological questions in the Anglican Communion. An Anglican Hermeneutic of the Transfiguration analyzes major Anglican interpretations of the Transfiguration from the eighth century to the present and suggests that Anglicans do in fact have a distinctive hermeneutical approach to this event. Moreover, this approach may point to larger trends in the interpretation of Scripture overall, but especially the Gospels. With respect to the Transfiguration, Anglicans interpret the event within the biblical context, assume its basic historic character, and juxtapose high Christology with the human limitations of Jesus’ self-understanding. Furthermore, Anglicans draw pastoral implications for the lives of Jesus and the disciples from the Transfiguration and assert that the glory manifested on the mountain supports a partially realized eschatology. Finally, Anglicans write for well-educated, non-specialists in theology.

In Toward Our Mutual Flourishing: The Episcopal Church, Interreligious Relations, and Theologies of Religious Manyness, the author tells the story of The Episcopal Church’s development of an official rationale for its ongoing engagement with religious diversity. At once a work of historical, moral, and practical theology, this volume contextualizes and explains what one church teaches about how religious difference may be interpreted in Christian terms. Through guided reading of noteworthy documents, this book explores such themes as this church’s preference for ecumenical interfaith work, its particular attention to Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim concerns, the relationship between missiology and theological understanding of religious diversity, and the intersection of interreligious relations with other ecclesial concerns – peace and justice activism, liturgical reform efforts, and what it means to be «the Body of Christ» in the twenty-first century. The author thus positions this multinational, multicultural, multilingual denomination within the Interfaith Movement, the Anglican theological tradition, and the various schemes for analyzing Christian theologies of religions. About The Episcopal Church (but not just for Episcopalians), about Christianity (but not just for Christians), this book is an excellent resource for courses in interreligious dialogue, Christian ethics, and American religious history.

Is it possible to bridge two faiths, to cross through myriad cultures, and to seek to understand some of today’s great global crises from the viewpoint of the other? With an estimated 5 million Muslims in the United States, Islam is a faith that invites attention. Beginning with the perceived dissonance of east and west, of Christianity and Islam, and working through the complexity of antagonistic worldviews that have been perpetuated over the centuries, Engaging Islam from a Christian Perspective seeks to rediscover the deep interconnectedness between these two world faiths. The political upheavals experienced across North Africa and the Middle East and the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and Boko Haram in north east Nigeria indicate the urgency and importance of establishing constructive dialogue. This book sets local dialogue in the wider context of the significant international conversations that have been taking place between the two faiths. The emergence of Scriptural Reasoning as a major tool of inter-religious dialogue is explained and illustrated. However, this perspective is balanced by a consideration of how dialogue can proceed while acknowledging the diatribe, hostility, and violence that in some parts of the world terrorize adherents of both faiths. Re-establishing a dialogue of trust, three areas are explored that reveal the potential radical outcomes of meaningful dialogue. An important corrective is given as to how women perceive themselves as Muslims; the question of whether one can be actively gay and Muslim is raised; and the complex issues surrounding inter-faith worship are sensitively explored. Engaging Islam from a Christian Perspective offers the intriguing possibility that local conversation can bring about profound transformation to both faiths.

Members of many religions live alongside one another in sprawling urban centers and isolated rural communities, and conflict and misunderstanding among religions are widespread. From a Christian and Anglican perspective, this book searchingly examines the nature of such encounters and explores the meaning of religious dialogue and terms like conversion, syncretism, salvation, and pluralism. Tightly focused historical chapters discuss expanding twentieth- and twenty-first-century Catholic and Protestant views about other religions and conclude with a fresh interpretation of the formative Asian contribution to contemporary interfaith encounters. Three established, successful examples of on-the-ground religious interaction are also presented, including the work of Muslim leader Eboo Patel in Chicago, Episcopal Bishop William E. Swing in San Francisco, and Anglican Bishop Tim Stevens in Leicester. Ultimately, interfaith religious dialogue benefits from the prayerful use of visual symbols in addition to written commentaries. Several important, innovative Anglican figures are considered, including Kenneth Cragg, Alan Race, David F. Ford, Keith Ward, Desmond Tutu, Ian S. Markham, and Rowan Williams. The Anglican document «Generous Love» (1998) is presented as a wider, inclusive discussion of possibilities for interfaith dialogue. The author concludes by reflecting on the importance of the old hymn, «There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy» in the evolution of his own views and as a foundational statement welcoming the interfaith future. This book is a solid, lively, and lucid introduction of a volatile issue rippling its way through the contemporary Anglican Communion.

The office of bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States has long begged attention from historians. Yankee Bishops: Apostles in the New Republic, 1783 to 1873 is the first collective examination of the American episcopate and offers critical insight into the theory and practice of episcopal ministry in these formative years. In this period, one hundred men were elected and consecrated to the episcopal order and exercised oversight. These bishops firmly believed their office to mirror the primitive pattern of apostolic ministry. How this primitive ideal of episcopacy was understood and lived out in the new republic is the main focus of this study. Yankee Bishops is also the first book to scrutinize and analyze as a body the sermons preached at episcopal consecrations. These valuable texts are important for the image and role of the bishop they propagate and the theology of episcopacy expounded. The final portrait that emerges of the bishop in these years is chiefly that of a sacramental and missionary figure to whom the pastoral staff came to be bestowed as a fitting symbol of office. These bishops were truly apostolic pioneers who carved out a new, vigorous model of ministry in the Anglican Communion. Yankee Bishops will be a primary source in Anglican and ecumenical studies and of general interest to the reader of American religious and social history.

Holy Scripture and economists have distinct ways of exploring market networks. The Body of Christ in a Market Economy explains how desire connects scripture, economics, theological anthropology, and soteriology. By explaining the mechanics of desire and Jesus’ saving grace, it becomes possible for churches and congregations to better align their networks for the common good within market economies. Rivalry is an expense. Follow Jesus or prepare to spend.

Questioning Authority analyzes current conflicts concerning authority in the Anglican church and offers a new framework for addressing them. It argues that authority in the church is fundamentally relational rather than juridical. All members of the church have authority to engage in discerning the church’s identity, direction, and mission. Most of this authority is exercised in personal interactions and group practices of consultation and direction. Formal authority in the church confers power so responsibilities can be fulfilled. Church relations always include conflict, which may be creative and helpful rather than divisive. Conflict arises because persons and groups follow Christ in ways related to their own cultural context while also being in communion with others. Communion in the church requires embracing diversity, recognizing and respecting others’ perspectives, and working together to discover and create common ground. Today’s church needs more participatory forms of governance and decision-making that are conciliar and synodal.

Leadership and Conflict in African Churches: The Anglican Experience investigates the involvement of leadership and conflict in the African church. Mkunga H. P. Mtingele’s previous work with the government as a state attorney and his leadership positions in the Anglican Church gave him sufficient exposure and experience to witness the increase of conflict arising from leadership, not only in the Anglican Church of Tanzania, but also in other denominations and organizations in Tanzania, Africa, and beyond.This book highlights and encourages people to understand that conflict is a social phenomenon, endemic and inevitable part of life, the causes of which must be comprehended. This book intends to get rid of the negative perception which many people have that conflicts are an inherent menace, which should be avoided. Conflict is constructive or destructive depending on one’s perception as well as the level it has reached. Tools of analysis used can be applicable to different situations both in secular and religious institutions, organizations, and governments. Leadership and Conflict in African Churches is intended to contribute to, and encourage, a wider debate on conflict about leadership. Scholars and general interest groups alike will find specific use in the areas of management, leadership, conflict resolution, theology, religious studies, and social research methodology disciplines.

The discovery by Charles Darwin of natural selection as the principal mechanism of biological evolution sharpened the classical theological issue of suffering in the natural world. Darwin’s discovery revealed predation and starvation to be the engine of biological development. Theological responses to evolution within the Christian tradition have typically failed to come to terms with these features of biological evolution, focusing instead on romantic notions of nature or assumptions about the benefits of progress. As a result, many doctrines of creation have operated with a limited understanding of the created world that is their subject. As Joel C. Daniels shows, however, this shortcoming can be remedied by utilizing the ancient resources of dramatic tragedy in a theological vein. By drawing together a theological interpretation of tragedy and a scientifically accurate understanding of nature, a realist doctrine of creation can achieve a high degree of realism with regards to suffering, respecting the unique characteristics of individual experiences while situating them in a theologically meaningful frame of reference. The theological category of tragedy does not solve the problem of natural evil. However, it has the double virtue of attending closely to the specifics of the natural world and maintaining a principled tension between experiences of suffering and Christian claims about the possibility of redemption. This book thus makes a unique contribution to Christian theology by drawing on multiple disciplines to address this issue of existential importance.

Why is it that churches agree to the same basic faith in hundreds of dialogues, and yet remain locked in an "ecumenical winter"? In Choose the Narrow Path, Bishop Pierre Whalon argues that to acknowledge the same doctrines while acting as if churches should remain separate is not only a recipe for disaster, but it is also itself a sin. This book spells out that doctrinal agreement in Part I, while Part II uncovers a more personal reaction, structured around the Nicene Creed.The primary argument is that, while churches may be "one," "holy," and "catholic" in what they believe, none of them is truly "apostolic" in their action. To begin to address this failing, the author calls for exceptional intercommunion for members of all churches that subscribe to the Narrow Path but are still reluctant to walk it together."Bishop Pierre Whalon … offers clear points about the challenges that Churches face, but also a way forward through what he describes as "the narrow path."— The Most Reverend Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church"Bishop Pierre Whalon’s Choose the Narrow Path is a much needed and highly accessible handbook of the contemporary Ecumenical Movement for the unity of the Christian Churches."— The Right Reverend R. William Franklin, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Long Island"Bishop Pierre Whalon has gone beyond the rhetoric to produce a sound scriptural-based systematic treatise with concrete practical applications. The book … may well be the catalyst, as the subtitle suggests, That Opens the Way for the Churches to Walk Together."—Prof. Cyril Orji, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Dayton, OH"Bishop Whalon’s Choose the Narrow Path is … a book for Christians of all stripes to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest—great for study groups and church leaders alike."—The Very Reverend Dr. William S. Stafford, Dean Emeritus of The School of Theology, Sewanee, USA"To walk any narrow path with a precipice on either side is very dangerous, but Bishop Pierre Whalon proves to be an excellent and sure-footed guide for the churches to try to walk together. He calls for action now so that we can avoid the scandal of disunity which threatens to plunge us into the depths, and instead to witness together to Jesus the Risen Christ."—The Rev’d Canon Professor Richard A. Burridge,The University of Manchester