After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity

by Miroslav Volf

Overview

In After Our Likeness, the inaugural volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as "gathered community" that he shared with Radical Reformers.

Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due. In the process he engages in a sustained and critical ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and the metropolitan John Zizioulas. The result is a brilliant ecumenical study that spells out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802844408
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/01/1997
Series:	Sacra Doctrina Series
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Miroslav Volf is director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School. His other books include Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction to the American Edition
Introduction

1. A Cry of Protest and Its Fate
2. Free Churches: The Churches of the Future?
3. An Ecumenical Study

PART I

I. Ratzinger: Communion and the Whole

1. Faith, Sacrament, and Communion

1.1. Faith and Communion
1.2. Sacrament and Communion

2. Eucharist and Communion
3. The Word of God and Communion
4. Office and Communion
5. Communio Fidelium
6. Trinitarian and Ecclesial Communion

II. Zizioulas: Communion, One, and Many

1. The Ontology of Person

1.1. Trinitarian Personhood
1.2. Human Personhood

2. Ecclesial Personhood

2.1. Christ: Person and Community
2.2. Baptism
2.3. Truth

3. Ecclesial Communion

3.1. Eucharist and Communion
3.2. Community and Communities

4. The Structure of the Communion

4.1. Institution and Event
4.2. Bishop
4.3. Laity
4.4. Apostolicity and Conciliarity

PART II

III. The Ecclesiality of the Church

1. Identity and Identification of the Church

1.1. What Is the Church?
1.2. Where Is the Church?

2. We Are the Church!

2.1. The Church as Assembly
2.2. The Church and the Confession of Faith

3. Church and Churches

IV. Faith, Person, and Church

1. Faith and the Church

1.1. Ecclesial Mediation of Faith
1.2. Individualism of Faith?

2. The Ecclesial Character of Salvation

2.1. The Ecclesiality of Salvation
2.2. The Genesis of a Concrete Church

3. Personhood in the Ecclesial Community

3.1. Personhood and Christian Being
3.2. Person in the Communion of the Spirit

V. Trinity and Church

1. Correspondences and Their Limits

1.1. Correspondences
1.2. The Limits of Analogy

2. Trinity, Universal Church, and Local Church
3. Trinitarian Persons and the Church

3.1. Relational Personhood
3.2. Perichoretic Personhood

4. The Structure of Trinitarian and Ecclesial Relations

VI. Structures of the Church

1. Charismata and Participation

1.1. Bishop or Everyone?
1.2. The Charismatic Church

2. The Trinity and Ecclesial Institutions

2.1. The Trinity as Model
2.2. Spirit, Institutions, and the Mediation of Salvation

3. Ordination

3.1. Office and Ordination
3.2. Ordination and Election

VII.The Catholicity of the Church

1. The Question of Catholicity
2. Catholicity and New Creation
3. The Catholicity of the Local Church

3.1. Catholicity and Grace
3.2. Catholicity and Creation

4. The Catholicity of Person

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Interpretation
"In this substantial volume, Volf explores the relationship between trinitarian theologies and their corresponding ecclesiologies. His thesis is that a Free Church trinitarian ecclesiology is not only dogmatically defensible but in certain social situations may prove to be superior to other ecclesiologies. . . . A careful theology with broad ecumenical interests, Volf's exposition of Ratzinger and Zizioulas is exemplary, and his own constructive arguments make a significant contribution to contemporary theology."

Modern Theology
"This book richly deserves to be read beyond purely academic circles. By reformulating Free Church ecclesiology, Volf offers anyone interested in ecumenical dialogue a new touchstone for understanding many of those traditions that continue to be excluded (and to exclude themselves) from ecumenical discussions."

Theological Studies
"Creative, original, and compelling in its organization and logic. Volf's study deals with a number of areas that still need further critical reflection not only in Orthodox and Catholic ecclesiologies, but also in those of the Free Churches."

Anglican Theological Review
"One of the most important contributions made to the study of ecclesiology, not only within Protestant theology where good ecclesiology is often scarce, but also in the field of the ecumenical study of the Church."

Journal of Ecumenical Studies
"Volf offers a significant contribution to the debate from a free-church point of view, grounded in biblical and patristic research, but taking account of the ecumenical studies and contemporary systematic contributions of Moltmann and Pannenberg, especially their eschatological orientations. The author's own background, in both the Croatian context where Catholic and Orthodox churches dominate and working within the evangelical scholarly community, gives his research and ecumenical breadth and uniqueness of point of view that makes its contribution to the discussion particularly important."

Currents in Theology and Mission
"The doctrine of the church has recently been gaining momentum due to the ecumenical movement and the church's attempt to understand her role in a secular society. Volf's book is a welcome contribution to the discussion. It is highly readable and should be studied by pastors, professors, and seminary students."

From the Publisher

"This book richly deserves to be read beyond purely academic circles. By reformulating Free Church ecclesiology, Volf offers anyone interested in ecumenical dialogue a new touchstone for understanding many of those traditions that continue to be excluded (and to exclude themselves) from ecumenical discussions."

Modern Theology

One of the most important contributions made to the study of ecclesiology, not only within Protestant theology where good ecclesiology is often scarce, but also in the field of the ecumenical study of the Church.

Anglican Theological Review

"In this substantial volume, Volf explores the relationship between trinitarian theologies and their corresponding ecclesiologies. His thesis is that a Free Church trinitarian ecclesiology is not only dogmatically defensible but in certain social situations may prove to be superior to other ecclesiologies.... A careful theology with broad ecumenical interests, Volf's exposition of Ratzinger and Zizioulas is exemplary, and his own constructive arguments make a significant contribution to contemporary theology."

Interpretation

Creative, original, and compelling in its organization and logic. Volf's study deals with a number of areas that still need further critical reflection not only in Orthodox and Catholic ecclesiologies, but also in those of the Free Churches.

Theological Studies