What is Lutheran ecclesiology? The Lutheran view of the church has been fraught with difficulties since the Reformation. Church as Fullness in All Things reengages the topic from a confessional Lutheran perspective. Lutheran theologians and clergy who are bound to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions explore the possibilities and pitfalls of the Lutheran tradition's view of the church in the face of contemporary challenges. The contributors also take up questions about and challenges to thinking and living as the church in their tradition, while looking to other Christian voices for aid in what is finally a common Christian endeavor. The volume addresses three related types of questions faced in living and thinking as the church, with each standing as a field of tension marked by disharmonized-though perhaps not inherently opposite-poles: the individual and the communal, the personal and the institutional, and the particular and the universal. Asking whether de facto prioritizations of given poles or unexamined assumptions about their legitimacy impinge the church Lutherans seek, the volume closes with Anglican, Reformed, and Roman Catholic contributors stating what their ecclesiological traditions could learn from Lutheranism and vice-versa.
The Individual and the Communal 1. Under Authority: The Freedom of the Church Under Christ-Jeremiah Johnson 2. Community and Closure: The Church in the Individual Complaint Psalms-Paul M. C. Elliott 3. The Reception of Luther's Ecclesiology in Contemporary German Dogmatic Theology-Alexander Kupsch The Personal and the Institutional 4. Hermeneutical Considerations in Applying Acts to Ecclesiological Concerns-Mark W. Birkholz 5. The Ministry of the Saints and the Office of the Ministry: Translation and Theology in Ephesians 4:12-James B. Prothro 6. Rightly Called . . . More or Less: A Primer on Medieval Church and Ministry for the Modern Lutheran-Richard J. Serina, Jr. The Particular and the Universal 7. Et Placet Nobis Vetus Partitio Potestatis: The Power of Order and the Power of Jurisdiction in Aquinas and the Augustana-Roy Axel Coats 8. Realizing the Potential of a Confessional Lutheran Ecclesiology: Ernst Kinder on the Church-Jonathan Mumme 9. Are the Marks of the Church Enough to Authenticate Confessional Lutheranism Then and Now?-John J. Bombaro The Ecumenical to the Lutheran 10. The Church: A Body under Law and Gospel-Jakob Rinderknecht 11. Unity and Diversity in Anglican and Lutheran Ecclesiology-Thomas L. Holtzen 12. From an American Geneva: How Confessional Lutherans and Reformed can Mutually Sharpen 'Evangelical' Today-Robbie Crouse Epilogue 13. Confessional Lutheranism in a Post-Constantinian, Postmodern, and Postlocal Context-Jari Kekale About the Contributors
