Loneliness is on the rise. Students in higher education report increased feelings of isolation, anxiety, and depression and the non-stop transactional culture rarely leaves time for quiet self-reflection or the cultivation of deep ties. Drawing connections between this spiritual impoverishment and the infantilization of Roman Catholic laity, this project engages a theopoetic of the Holy Trinity and feminist ecclesiology to argue for an expansion of sacramental consciousness. My strategic proposal for transformation rests in the design of a sacramental friendship program that nourishes a posture towards receptivity, innovation, just discipleship, and gratitude. This spacious scaffolding invites students to dig deep into their already holy lives, developing the skills of active listening and mindful presence to prioritize relationships over tasks.

The thesis The Church and its lay aspect. Ecclesiolgical fondations of laity in the beginning of 21st century describes the situation of the lay aspect in the Church. Firstly, it defines its position within the structure of the Church. Then, on the basis of the theological reflection of the Church and its lay focus, it explains the mission of lay people as representatives of specifal state of life. Lastly, it analyzes the situation of contemporary Church, based on some examples connected to laity. The aim of the thesis is to highlight the Church approach to the world with specific emphasis on laity. It also points out the importance of the inclusive approach of the Church in the World.

Doctor Theologiae - DTh / Reconstruction theology is widely regarded as one of the most influential approaches to contemporary African Christian theology - alongside others such as inculturation theology, liberation theology, African women's theology, evangelical theology and Pentecostal theology. In this thesis I offer a critical assessment of one of the main exponents of such reconstruction theology, namely the Kenyan theologian Jesse Mugambi. I explore the question of how his position on the notion of reconstruction should be understood. One point of entry into understanding Mugambi's views on reconstruction is to explore his position on the relationship between the church and the coming reign of God. In the history of Christianity this relationship has been understood in widely divergent ways. The task of this thesis will therefore be to examine, position, analyse and assess Mugambi's particular view in this regard. This will be done on the basis of a close reading of Mugambi's publications such as African Christian Theology: an Introduction (1989), From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology after the Cold War (1995), Christian Theology and Social Reconstruction (2003), and numerous chapters in publications by African theologians.

In this essay I present the ecclesiology of the Salvation Army as it appears in Sweden today. One thesis that I examined is that the Salvation Army has changed its self-understanding from seeing itself as an Army from the beginning of the movement, to gradually understanding itself as a Church. The essay confirms this assumption and concludes that it is largely due to the challenges of ecumenical theology that developed with the publication of the BEM document in 1982, adopted by the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission. Further, statistics show that 3 out of 4 new members of the Salvation Army in Sweden are what are Adherents, defined as a type of civilian membership, and not uniformed soldiers. The purpose of the essay has therefore been to explore what the change of membership, from soldiers to adherents, has meant for the ecclesiology of the movement. I have captured both of these assumptions, that the Army understands itself more and more as a church and that most new members are Adherents, when I have formulated the overarching research question: How does a growing proportion of Adherents play into the Salvation Army's gradually changing self-understanding from army to church? In the essay, I have used a qualitative research method which includes a hermeneutic approach where I interpret the changes and observe to understand its consequences for the ecclesiology that appears in the Salvation Army. The essay discusses the "army concept" which implies a “mission-oriented” ecclesiology and the "church concept" which implies a "community-oriented" ecclesiology. My source material consists of both written dogmatic material, observations of enrolling of both soldiers and adherents in Corps and interviews with new members. I note that the ecclesiological themes that appear in my materials are somewhat different. The written material has some army rhetoric, which means that in addition to a community-oriented ecclesiology one can also see a mission-oriented ecclesiology, while the observations and especially the interviews give a clearer picture of a communion-oriented ecclesiology where the congregation also appears as a sacramental communion. The likeness of ecclesiology between the Salvation Army to other free-churches in Sweden is so profound that I propose the idea of “free-church salvationists” in the army in Sweden. In the essay, I state that a probable further ecclesiological development may be that the more Adherents who become members, the more communion-oriented ecclesiology will implicitly appear in the Salvation Army in Sweden and at the same time the army rhetoric will gradually disappear. This means that the Salvation Army in Sweden may in the near future be described as "an army without soldiers".

One of the most significant outcomes of Vatican II was a revival of the role of the laity in the life of the Catholic Church. Council documents offered a new ecclesial vision comprised of people of God united in baptism, with the mission of the Church becoming outward focused and the shared responsibility of all members. Fifty years later, there still exists a great pastoral need to encourage, recruit, and offer proper training and guidance to lay volunteers. This Pastoral Synthesis Project proposes that all parishes designate a Director of Stewardship to facilitate the process of all baptized members responding to the universal call to holiness and service.

Thesis advisor: Richard R. Gaillardetz / This dissertation analyzes the various images of the body in the metaphor of the church as a body, or the body of Christ, in modern Catholic ecclesiology in order to reimagine the corporeal metaphor for postconciliar ecclesiology. The metaphor of the church as a body has a vertical dimension expressing the relationship between Christ and the church and a horizontal dimension expressing the relationships among Christians. In its vertical dimension, “body” has been understood as ‘self’ and/or as ‘spouse.’ In its horizontal dimension, the body has been understood as a living organism and/or as an ordered society. In the magisterial tradition especially, the body is described as a well-bounded and hierarchically ordered organism, in which members are united under a head and share in one common life, and which manifests the person to the world. The metaphor of the church as a body, then, has most often been used to express and justify papal authority and primacy and the exclusion of non-Catholics from the body of Christ, and to posit the Catholic Church as the ongoing manifestation of Christ’s presence and authority. This dissertation utilizes the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to challenge these notions of the body, showing instead that the body is ‘intercorporeal’—interwoven with other bodies, united by meaningful action, and having flexible boundaries. The body is the necessary foundation of existence in the world, but can also inhibit personal presence as well. In light of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, this dissertation argues for a vision of the church as an intercorporeal body—a missionary, dialogical, and decentralized body that is capable of mediating, but also inhibiting, the presence of Christ to the world. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

[pt] O Sensus Fidei, que tem ocupado cada vez mais espaço na reflexão teológica, é tema principal deste estudo que inserido nas atividades de pesquisa do Programa de Pós-graduação em Teologia da PUC-Rio, área de concentração Teologia Sistemático-Pastoral, linha de pesquisa Fé e Cultura, projeto de pesquisa Eclesiologia: História e Questões Atuais. Partindo da análise histórica do desenvolvimento da eclesiologia, suas ênfases e limites, buscar-se-á demonstrar como o Concílio Vaticano II e suas intuições eclesiológicas são fundamentais para o resgate e a maturação desta doutrina que encontra no magistério do Papa Francisco fecundidade, tanto teórica quanto prática. / [en] The Sensus Fidei, which has increasingly occupied more space in theological reflection, is the main theme of this study, which is part of the research activities of the Postgraduate Program in Theology at PUC-Rio, area of concentration Systematic-Pastoral Theology, research line Faith and Culture, research project Ecclesiology: History and Current Issues. Starting from the historical analysis of the development of ecclesiology, its emphases and limits, it will seek to demonstrate how the Second Vatican Council and its ecclesiological intuitions are fundamental to the rescue and maturation of this doctrine that finds in the magisterium of Pope Francis fruitfulness, both theoretical and practical.

This dissertation is about the future of church in the United States. In it I argue that practical ecclesiological reflection on new churches in Seattle yields promising proposals for viable, faithful, ecclesial forms of missional engagement fitting for the U.S. church’s emerging context. In response to the significant decline in religious affiliation and participation in the U.S., major efforts in church planting are underway, but there is little scholarly research on these efforts. Moreover, the literature supporting church planting reflects insufficiently robust ecclesiological and missiological reflection. This dissertation utilizes mixed methods fieldwork and multi-disciplinary analysis to identify and assess the dominant models among new Seattle churches and offers practical wisdom for the U.S. church in its task of ecclesial witness. Within the dissertation I identify national trends exemplified by Seattle that make it a suitable proxy for the emerging U.S. context: urbanization, progressive values, technological culture, and post-Christian culture. On the basis of my fieldwork and the New Seattle Churches Survey that I fielded, I develop the four practical ecclesiological models that I discern among these churches: Great Commission Team, Household of the Spirit, New Community, and Neighborhood Incarnation. I then employ four core ideas of missional theology (missionary Trinity, missio dei, Jesus as paradigm for mission, and the missionary nature of the church) and four priorities for missional church planting (discerning God’s initiatives, neighbor as subject, boundary crossing, and plural leadership that shapes an environment) as a basis for assessment. I find that the Neighborhood Incarnation model best embodies these missional ideas and priorities. In conclusion, I propose practices for renewing each model and highlight five threads of practical wisdom for ecclesial witness: 1) embracing local identity and mission, 2) cultivating embodied, experiential, everyday spirituality, 3) engaging community life as means of witness and formation, 4) prioritizing hospitality as a cornerstone practice, and 5) discovering ecclesial vitality in a diverse ecclesial ecology. / 2023-01-25T00:00:00Z

The purpose of this dissertation is to prompt ecclesial imagination for the sake of envisioning and reshaping contemporary ecclesiology and church practice in more liberative forms. The thesis is that non-dominant theologies and historical narratives are sources that prompt ecclesial imagination and can potentially reshape ecclesiology and church practice. *Feminist Ecclesiology and a Liberating Counterhistory analyzes and interprets two such non-dominant sources in two case studies: *feminist ecclesiological writing on the church from the 1968 to 2020, and the archeological evidence of ancient Iron Age I Hebrew highland settlements, which pre-date biblical narratives and support a counter-narrative to conquest, namely a non-militaristic response to empire and societal collapse. This dissertation utilizes the term *feminist to indicate the full range of white feminist, womanist, mujerista, Latin American, African, and Asian women’s ecclesiologies. The asterisk is meant to disrupt the totalizing tendency of the generic term feminist to imply only white feminist perspectives. The review of literature and textual analysis of *feminist ecclesiological discourses reveal four prominent conceptual themes, identified as four marks of the *feminist church: holistic, incarnate, utopic, and apostolic. The study of the highland settlements focuses on archeological findings, such as Iron Age I pottery, building foundations, and other material artifacts. A *feminist analysis of the settlements uncovers a liberative counterhistory that contrasts with genocidal and militaristic narrations of the origins of the Hebrew people in Canaan, such as found in Joshua 1-11. Although the two case studies are drawn across great expanses of time and in different cultural settings, a close look reveals important resonances that make them a congruent pairing, albeit unexpected. Individually, they have much to offer towards ecclesial imagination. Interpreted together, the two cases are grounded in the depths of historical tradition, and offer nuanced critiques and imagination for the present, while simultaneously reaching towards an alternative future. The dissertation concludes with integrative insights that demonstrate how the highland settlement evidence can augment the *feminist marks of the church. Building upon these discoveries, the final chapter offers five principles of practice, suggesting ways that the cases and their integrative interpretation can prompt ecclesial imagination and practices for the future church.

The ancient canons are regarded as a collection of texts with almost the same status as the biblical text in the Easter Orthodox Church. The corpus has therefore a firm position in the identity of this church-tradition and is recognized as how faith, expressed in the gospels should be lived in ecclesial practice. How the ancient canons should be applied or used in contemporary ecclesial practice has been challenged in modernity. This thesis addresses how some scholars have faced this challenge answering how the canons could be relevant to contemporary ecclesial practice. More precise, it evaluates some answers to the question of relevance after (what we could regard as the first answer in modernity) the Scholastic school. The Scholastic school is approaching the canons more or less as formalist law. This has stirred justified reactions by a stream of scholars in the field. In the present study three such reactions is considered in the works of John H Erickson, Andrey Shishkov and David Wagschal. The basic argument of the thesis is, to better answer question of relevance, a new paradigm needs to be introduced, distinguishing between social identity and discursive practice. This means to accept “a space of uncertainty” letting go of the ambition to apply the ancient canons and instead give space to contemporary life situations to be informed by them. The tension between the past and the present is managed by an understanding of canon law as a substantive justice system in which the ancient canons belongs a realm of identity, and canon law as an outcome of discursive practice. In the end we could suggest that “the space of uncertainty” needs to be managed by an institution.