Dissenting Church: Exploring the Theological Power of Conflict and Disagreement

​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.

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.