Contextuality in Reformed Europe : : The Mission of the Church in the Transformation of European Culture / / edited by Christine Lienemann-Perrin, Hendrik M. Vroom, Michael Weinrich.

• Superior document: Currents of Encounter ; 23
• TeilnehmendeR: Lienemann-Perrin, Christine,; Vroom, Hendrik M.,; Weinrich, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2004.
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: Currents of Encounter ; 23.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (326 pages)

The scope of this volume is how churches experience themselves and their mission in their context. The discussions in this volume provide ample material to substantiate the claim that the church should not be an ecclesia incurvata in se ipsa, (a church curved into itself) but welcoming and directed not only to personal needs but to social needs as well-but not bound to what people often feel the needs are and delving deeper to the real roots of sin and selfishness, be it personal, social or national. Contextualization in itself is part of the mission of the churches, but it is on the edge: should the church adapt to its context and lose both its identity and witness or should it find a way between the Scylla of easy adaptation to the changing contexts of this world that is passing and the Charybdis of a preservation of forms and identities of bygone times that have lost the freshness of the message of liberation of bondage, conversion and freedom, freedom to be what the church is called to be, a sign of hope, peace, reconciliation, justice and love?.

Table of Contents

Parts I: General Perspectives -- Hendrik M. VROOM: Introduction -- Choan-Seng SONG: Freedom of the Human Spirit from Captivity: The Task of Religious Communities in the Postmodern World -- Hendrik M. VROOM: Understanding the Gospel Contextually: Legitimate and Suspect? -- Part II: Mission, Secularization, and Pluralism -- Runar ELDEBO: A Transformed Church Through A Transformed Society: The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden in between a Transformed Established Lutheran Church -- Martien E. BRINKMAN: The Emergence of a New Kind of Christianity in West European Cities: A Dutch Reformed Assessment -- Benedict SCHUBERT: City Churches: Mission with a New Face in a Transforming European Cultural Context? Reflections on the Example of the "Offene Kirche Elisabethen" in Basel -- Laszlo MEDGYESSY: Mission of Proselytism? Temptations, Tensions and Missiological Perspectives in Eastern European Christianity: A Case Study of Hungary -- Christine LIENEMANN-PERRIN: Emerging Contextual Missiologies in Europe: Reflections on Part II "Mission, Secularization, and Pluralism" -- Part III: Church and the National Communities -- Ferenc SZŬCS: National Church? The Reformed Churches in an Ethnic Community in the Carpathian Basin -- Piet Hein DONNER: Unity and Diversity -- Iain TORRANCE: From Established Church to Minority Church: A Scottish History -- Annelore SILLER: The Late Modern Congregation: Reformed Reactions to the Modern Approaches -- Michael WEINRICH: Times of Change: Some Reflections on Part III -- Part IV: Justification, Freedom and Solidarity -- Michael WEINRICH: On the Way into Psychology? On a Modern Change in the Understanding of Justification -- Roman LIPINSKI: Individualism and the Sense of Solidarity as Seen from the Perspective and Experiences of the Polish Reformed Church -- Jakub S. TROJAN: Identity and Self-Realization in the Central European Context -- Fleur HOUSTON: Freedom as Authorization -- Hendrik M. VROOM: Justification, Freedom and Witness: Reflections on Part 4 -- Part V: A Comment from Geneva/Latin America -- Odair Pedroso MATEUS: Intercontextual Metafragments -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects -- Contributors.