Dissenting Church: Exploring the Theological Power of Conflict and Disagreement

by Judith Gruber (Editor), Michael Schüßler (Editor), Ryszard Bobrowicz (Editor)

Overview

This book challenges the prevailing notion of stability, cohesiveness, and uniformity within Christian communities, inviting readers to view contestation and disagreement as integral to theological reflection and church identity. While the volume focuses predominantly on the Roman Catholic Church as a case study, various chapters broaden the exploration across other Christian and non-Christian traditions. Beginning with the philosophical and theological foundations of conflict, contestation, and community, the book subsequently focuses on four main conflict fields: liturgy, canon law, gender, and sexuality, as well as race and postcolonial critical theory. The book finishes with a constructive proposal on how to think theologically about identity and antagonisms, as well as how to construct an ecclesiology of dissent. Contributors employ diverse methodological perspectives to offer constructive theological reflections, enhancing both understanding and practice of theology in the context of polarised public debates.

This is an open access book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031560187
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	05/18/2024
Series:	Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue
Edition description:	2024
Pages:	237
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Judith Gruber is an associate professor of systematic theology at KU Leuven, Belgium, and the director of KU Leuven’s Centre for Liberation Theologies.

Michael Schüßler is a professor of practical theology at the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen since 2015.

Ryszard Bobrowicz is a postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven and an affiliate researcher at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University. He serves as the theological advisor for the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe and collaborates with the Atlas of Religion or Belief Minority Rights.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction.- I. Philosophical and theological foundations of conflict, contestation, and community.- Chapter 2. Theological Perspectives of Conflict, Contestation and Community Formation from an Ecumenical Angle.- Chapter 3. A Radical Theology of Conflict and Contestation.- II. Conflict field: Liturgy.- Chapter 4. Catholic Liturgy Caught Between Polemics About Differences and Embracing Diversity.- Chapter 5. To Be Who We Are - A Dissenting Church: Two Proposals.- III. Conflict field: Canon Law.- Chapter 6. Dealing with Conflict and Dissent in the Roman Catholic Church.- Chapter 7. Dissent as Deviance: Sociological Observations on Structural Conflicts in Church.- IV. Conflict field: Gender and Sexuality.- Chapter 8. Seeking allies within the institutional church: reflections from South Africa on partnership as means to unsettling deadlocked conflict?.- Chapter 9. Conflicting Masculinities in Christianity: Experiences and critical Reflections on Gender and Religion.-V. Conflict field: Race / Postcolonial Constellations.- Chapter 10. The Muslim Ban: The Racialization of Religion and Soteriological Privilege.- Chapter 11. The Secularism Paradox of Interreligious Relations and International Relations.- VI. Constructing a Theology / Ecclesiology of Dissent. Chapter 12. Love your enemy: theology, identity and antagonism.- Chapter 13. Disagreement and Religious Relevance.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"‘I’m for Paul … I’m for Apollos’. This book reminds us that conflict of interpretation has marked the Christian community from the very beginning. And it claims that such a dynamism of creative contestation is indeed constitutive of the process of Christian tradition throughout the centuries. With Pope Francis’ call for synodal openness to a diversity of views in the church, readers will find in this book much food for thought."
—Rev. Dr Ormond Rush, Associate Professor and Reader, Australian Catholic University

"Dissent, contestation, conflict, disagreement, in Church self-understandings are all considered in theological idiom in this book. It is a book which challenges all readers to sit up and to re-think how the Church is, and how it might be. The diversity of thinking invites the reader to consider the theological possibilities that emerge when practices of contestation and informed debate are recognised as central in the making of ecclesial identity. The negotiation of controversy is an important challenge, particularly in a time of synodal considerations."
—Dr Fáinche Ryan, Associate Professor in Systematic Theology and Director of Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin

"Many people are conflict averse in matters of the heart pertaining to religious issues, while others seem to thrive on antagonism on such matters. Dissenting Church offers an invaluable resource for those who are searching for ways to analyze and address conflict in these matters by exploring myriad instances of such contestation. The benefit of this volume is that seasoned scholars offer helpful examples for delineating foundational categories, arguments, and methods across a spectrum of core areas: liturgy, canon law, gender and sexuality, race and postcolonial complications."
—Bradford E. Hinze, Phd, Karl Rahner, S.J., Professor of Theology, Fordham University