The Churches the Apostles Left Behind


Book Description

This book is a study of seven very different churches in the New Testament period after the death of the apostles.




Spent Matches


Book Description

Spent Matches explores the possibility that a few small paradigm shifts within the church might make the difference between extinction and effectiveness. In fact, taking a clue from the automobile industry, the church might be able to not only halt the rapid decay in attendance but also become an effective tool in achieving Jesus' final command. For instance, the Hybrid car has become the answer to Detroit's environmental and oil crisis issues. Finding the synergy between two technologies, gas and electric has created a new day for the auto industry. Likewise, Spent Matchesexplores how the church can find synergy between two seemingly competing thoughts: an invitation to come and a command to go. The Hybrid metaphor brings energy to the church's mission and an explanation to the age-old argument of Missional versus Attractional methods. Features include: Innovative ideas for growing the church Methods to reach those who may never have attended church Scripture passages that touch on the subject of church growth







Raymond E. Brown and the Catholic Biblical Renewal


Book Description

A comprehensive, analytical and critical, and deeply appreciative biography of one of greatest biblical scholars of the twentieth century that locates him within the sweep and drama of the Catholic biblical renewal, especially in the United States.




The Church Unfinished


Book Description

Like human life, the Catholic or universal Church is lived forward but understood backward. To appreciate the Church's past, however, does not require that we simply repeat it. Using such a framework, this book puts the present period of the Church in vast historical context. It traces how the Church came from the "community of unexpected persons" whom Jesus gathered around himself and was then shaped, over the course of centuries, by human decisions made in the Spirit. The Church's catholicity is seen to involve an ever expanding memory, embracing the immense richness of past and present times, places, and cultures, and at the same time an openness to assimilating, and possibly being transformed by, a future history in which God offers new possibilities. The book thus proposes that the Church's leadership would do well to nurture a renewed eschatological attitude that embraces a genuine openness to the newness and surprise of the future, leaving room not only for continuity but also for the important elements of change and transformation. For, what the Church is, only the entirety of its history will fully reveal.




Antioch and Rome


Book Description

Two prominent New Testament scholars attempt to draw pictures of two of the most important centers of first century Christianity: Antioch and Rome. You will think of Christianity's origins differently when you read this book.




The Church


Book Description

The historical context in which theological understandings have developed play an important role in our understanding of the modern church. In this book, Sulpician priest and scholar Frederick J. Cwiekowski traces the theology of the church, beginning with the community of disciples during Jesus' ministry and the New Testament era. He continues through the various periods of history, highlighting events from both the East and West, including the remarkable developments surrounding the Second Vatican Council, the post-conciliar period, and today’s pontificate of Pope Francis. With this book, intended for general readers and students of theology, Cwiekowski hopes to promote an appreciation of the mystery that is the church.




By what Authority?


Book Description

After the apostles Peter and John had healed the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, the two disciples were arrested and later brought before the Sanhedrin to account for their deed, one that continued to stir the already anxious leaders of the Jews: "And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, "By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?" (Acts 4:7). Indeed, what was the source of their miracle? And by what power or authority did they perform it? Those queries ring through the centuries because people in our day still pose the questions. Most Christians want to be a part of a denomination or organization that is true, faithful to what existed in the first century, authorised, and therefore approved of God. They want to know, in other words, that God is governing among his people, that he is empowering the body of Christ of which they are a part. The essays in this book address the central issue of such authority in the Christian life. --Book Jacket.




Christian Ministry in the Divine Milieu


Book Description

Fr. Maldari offers a vision of Christian ministry as a community in which each member actively participates in fostering creation's evolution toward fulfillment. While ministry is ultimately cooperating with God in furthering the process of creation to its fulfillment in salvation, it also humbly recognizes human limitation and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.




Liturgy as Revelation


Book Description

This volume argues that in the twentieth century, Catholic theology increasingly recognized the centrality of Christologyparticularly the person of Christas the locus of revelation and drew out the crucial implications for that which occurs within the space of liturgy and the sacraments. Examining the specific contributions of Ren Latourelle, Avery Dulles, Salvatore Marsilli, and Gustave Martelet against a background of pre-conciliar ressourcement theology, this volume provides a comprehensive account of why a Trinitarian and Christological construal of liturgy and sacraments as revelation is key to the vision that informed Vatican II and offers constructive theological and ecclesial possibilities for the future.