The aim of this research is to propose a relationship between church and culture based on the Trinitarian concept of perichoresis, particularly as found in the theology of Colin Gunton. Chapter 1 offers a survey of the historical understandings of perichoresis, from its initial use in Christology, to Trinitarian ontology to the renewed interest in the doctrine of the Trinity (and perichoresis) in the twentieth century, which, in some cases, includes applying the concept to issues of human relating. From this survey, five characteristics of the concept of perichoresis are identified: mutual constitution, particularity, coinherence, dynamism, and perfection. Chapter 2 offers an overview of the relationship between church and culture, giving consideration to various definitions of culture. It makes a clear distinction between the concepts of creation, culture, and world, and goes on to consider some historical relationships between church and culture. Chapter 3 looks at three historical methods of ecclesiological enquiry: the marks of the church, being one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, found in the early creeds; models of the church, which offer a means of categorising the church; and practices, a method that has arisen as a reaction against models-based ecclesiologies. Chapter 4 takes the characteristics of perichoresis, established at the beginning of the thesis, and considers them in terms of the way in which these might apply to the relationship between church and culture, before proposing four features of a church in perichoretic relationship with culture, suggesting that church and culture engage in mutual communication, that the church relinquishes its desire for central power and instead seeks an interpenetrative relationship between the centre and periphery, that the church is constituted by the other, and, finally, that the church is the community for creation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:655660 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Green, Julie Kaye |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=225934 |
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