Burning Center, Porous Borders

by Fernandez, Eleazar S.

• ISBN13: 9781610974264
• ISBN10: 1610974263
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-17
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

Burning Center, Porous Borders articulates what the church is and is called to be about in the world, a world now globalized to the point that the local is lived globally and the global is lived locally. The church must respond creatively and prophetically to the challenges-economic disparity, war and terrorism, diaspora, ecological threat, health crisis, religious diversity, and so on-posed by our highly globalized world. It can do so only if the church's spiritual center burns mightily. Conversely, it can burn mightily in the spirit of Christ only if its borders are porous and it allows the fresh air/spirit of change to blow in and out. While there is much rhetoric about change, the most common response to change is to continue doing business as usual. This is particularly the casein the face of perceived global threats. In spite of the hoopla and euphoria of the global village, walls of division and exclusion are rising, hearts are constricting, and moral imagination shrinking. In response to this context, Burning Center, Porous Borders proposes alternative ways or images of being a church: burning center and porous borders, wall-buster and bridge-builder, translocal (glocal), mending-healer, radical hospitality, community of the earth-spirit, household of life abundant, dialogians of life, and community of hope. In Burning Center, Porous Borders congregational vitality and progressive praxis kiss and embrace! Book jacket.

Author Biography

Eleazar S. Fernandez is Professor of Constructive Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. New Brighton, Minnesota. He is the author of Reimagining the Human: Theological Anthropology in Response to Systemic Evils (2004).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. xi
Linking the Global and the Local	p. 1
Dimensions and Consequences of Globalization
Terrorism	p. 30
A New Season of Globalization
The Church in the Midst of Globalization	p. 61
Reorienting the Church
The Church as a Translocal (Glocal) Community	p. 89
Catholicity and Mission in a Globalized World
The Church as a Community with a Burning Center and Porous Borders	p. 119
Naming our Globalized Spiritual Crisis
The Church as a Household of Life Abundant	p. 147
Another Economy Is Possible
The Church as a Community of Peacebuilders	p. 176
Exorcising Globalized Violence and Terror
The Church as a Community of Radical Hospitality	p. 206
Diaspora and the Strangers in Our Midst
The Church as a Community of the Earth (Green) Spirit	p. 237
The Challenge of the Ecological Crisis
The Church as a Community of Mending Healers	p. 264
Mending the Sickly State of Global Health
The Church as a Community of Dialogians of Faith	p. 294
Living in a Religiously Diverse World
The Church as a Community of Hope	p. 325
Facing Global Cynicism and Despair
Bibliography	p. 351
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