Elasticized Ecclesiology

This study confronts the current crisis of churches. In critical and creative conversation with the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), Ulrich Schmiedel argues that churches need to be elasticized in order to engage the other. Examining contested concepts of religiosity, community, and identity, Schmiedel explores how the closure of church against the sociological other corresponds to the closure of church against the theological other. Taking trust as a central category, he advocates for a turn in the interpretation of Christianityfrom propositional possession to performative project, so that the identity of Christianity is done rather than described. Through explorations of classical and contemporary scholarship in philosophy, sociology, and theology, Schmiedel retrieves Troeltsch's interdisciplinary thinking for use in relation to the controversies that encircle the construction of community today. The study opens up innovative and instructive approaches to the investigation of the practices of Christianity, past and present. Eventually, church emerges as a work in movement, continually constituted through encounters with the sociological and the theological other.

Offers a creative conceptualization of church as open community for the current context of churches Presents a critical and constructive analysis of Ernst Troeltsch's interdisciplinary thinking in connection to philosophy, sociology, and theology today Brings Ernst Troeltsch's ecclesiology to bear on the controversies which revolve around the construction of community past and present

Autorentext
Ulrich Schmiedel received his DPhil from the University of Oxford, UK. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in systematic theology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany. His research, located at the intersection of theology, sociology, and philosophy, concentrates on the critical purport and creative potential of contemporary Christianity. He has published in a number of international journals. Recently, he co-edited Dynamics of Difference: Christianity and Alterity.

Inhalt
Introduction. Church(es) in Crisis.- Part I. Religiosity.- 1. The Traces of Trust.- 2. The Drive for Difference.- 3. The Togetherness of Trust.- Part II. Community.- 4. The Construction of Community.- 5. The Attack on Alterity.- 6. The Promise of Plurality.- Part III. Identity.- 7. The Trouble with Trust.- 8. The Power of Practice.- 9. The Elasticization of Ecclesiology.- Conclusion. Crisis in Church(es).