The Church for the World A Theology of Public Witness

by McBride, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9780199755684
• ISBN10: 019975568X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Jennifer McBride constructs a theology of public witness for Protestant church communities in the United States through examination of the work of German pastor-theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Contrary to the triumphal manner in which many Protestants have engaged the public sphere, this book shows how the church can offer a witness to the lordship of Christ through the confession of the sin of broader society and the public expression of repentant activity. After investigating current Christian conceptions of witness in the United States, McBride offers a new theology for confession and repentance as public witness, based on the three interrelated dimensions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thought concerning Christ, the world, and the church. McBride takes up Bonhoeffer's fascinating proposal that the concept of repentance may be reinterpreted ''non-religiously,'' expanding and challenging common understandings of repentance. Finally, she examines two church communities that exemplify ecclesial commitments and practices born of confession and repentance. The Church for the World offers important insight into the role of the Protestant church: when its mode of being in the world is confession of sin unto repentance, the church demonstrates Christ's redemptive work and becomes a vehicle of concrete redemption.

Author Biography

Jennifer M. McBride is Board of Regents Chair in Ethics and Assistant Professor of Religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She received her doctorate in philosophical theology from the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Religious Practices and Practical Theology at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. McBride serves on the Board of Directors of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section and is co-editor of Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Public Witness in a Pluralistic Society
Introduction: Confession and Repentance as Public Witness	p. 3
Evaluating Public Witness in the United States	p. 23
A Theology of Public Witness Based on Bonhoeffer's Thought
Christ's Public Presence: The Foundation and Form for Ecclesial Witness	p. 57
Belonging: Participation in the World's Christological Pattern	p. 87
The Church's Public Presence: Visibility through Confession and Repentance	p. 119
Contours of a Repenting Church
The Eleuthero Community: Confession and Repentance through Unlearning and Learning Anew	p. 153
The Southeast White House: A Local Presence in a Neglected Neighborhood	p. 179
Conclusion: Concrete Implications of an Ecclesial Witness Based on Repentance	p. 206
Notes	p. 215
Selected Bibliography	p. 267
General Index	p. 285
Scriptural Index	p. 293
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