Receiving the Nature and Mission of the Church: Ecclesial Reality and Ecumenical Horizons for the Twenty-first Century

A collection of essays and assessments in which scholars from a variety of denominational, geographical and ecclesiological backgrounds attempt to discern the significance of the 2006 document Nature and Mission of the Church from the World Council of Churches. Thereby offering doctrinal, theological and hermeneutical perspectives and analysis on its formation and content. The essays also seek to discern the potential ecumenical ramifications of the document.

Contributions also address futures for ecumenical dialogue and the development of an ecumenical ecclesiology in general. This is an apposite and timely collection of responses which includes contributions from those who witnessed its launch in the context of the WCC in 2006 at Porte Allegre. Whilst so many books on the church already exist, the focused nature of the proposed volume, as well as the international, and broad denominational range of the contributors, makes this proposed volume unique.

Revd Dr Paul M. Collins, formerly Reader in Theology at the University of Chichester, Parish Priest on Holy Island, Northumberland, England. Michael A. Fahey is professor of theology at Boston College (USA). He studied philosophy in Leuven in the 1950s and in the late 1960s did doctoral studies in theology at the University of Tubingen under Professors Hans Kung and Joseph Ratzinger. Most of his academic work has taken place in Canada (Montreal and Toronto). He holds dual citizenship (Canada and USA). In 2005 he received an honorary doctorate from St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. Last year some fifteen of his colleagues and former students dedicated a ＂Festschrift＂ to him entitled: ＂In God’s Hands: Essays on the Church and Ecumenism in Honour of Michael Fahey＂ (Leuven Peeters Press, 2006). He has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America as well as the American Theological Society.