Church and Religious 'Other'

This volume brings together the prestigious speakers at the inaugural Church in Our Times Lecture Series at Liverpool Hope, throughout the first 4 months of 2006, and invited contributors from and addressing wider international contexts Africa, Sri Lanka, India and the United States. The volume explores themes such as questions of ecclesial and religious identity in these post-modern times, the advent of neo-exclusivism, divisions within the contemporary Roman Catholic and Anglicans churches, inter-faith relations and dialogue, questions of sexuality and Christian ministry, contemporary understandings of ecclesial authority, teaching and tradition, the inter-relation between the church and the kingdom of God today, an Asian appraisal of Pope Benedicts first sermon, inculturation and the rhetoric and reality of the notion of Church as Christianitys most distinctive and defining feature and constructive proposals for ecumenical ways forward in the future.The commonality and coherence of the papers, along with the manner in which a number of them together contribute towards making a cumulative case upon similar issues of concern for the church in our times, constitute a major strength of this collection. This volume will interest faculty and students engaged in the study of the contemporary church, ecumenism, global Christianity, secularity and inter-religious dialogue, as well as appealing to ministers and pastors as well as the general reader excited by the most pressing debates pertaining to the church in these times.

'The volume is the fruit of conversations held in 2006 under the auspices of the research network Ecclesiological Investigations.From its beginning in 2002, the network has been global and ecumenical in membership.Its goals include "a firm commitment to exploring issues pertaining to pluralism, both religious and otherwise, as well as toward ethical debates of national, international, and intercontinental relevance," and the exploration of these issues "across a variety of disciplinary, cultural, religious, and geographical boundaries." Francis X. Clooney--Sanford Lakoff "Commonweal ", 'The writers are Roman Catholic, Anglican and Methodist Scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa. Several have broad international experience. The essays are thought-provoking and open up many areas for students and scholars of ecclesiology to learn how, in the words of Levinas "the others must be let be and not cast in our image."--Sanford Lakoff

Gerard Mannion is Associate Professor in Theology and Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University, UK. He is presently a committee member of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, member of the American Academy of Religion and was a 2004 Coolidge Fellow at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University, USA.