Marital Conflicts and the Reformation in Geneva, 1542–1555

This paper is based on research of the published records of Genevan Consistory cases from 1542 to 1555, a time of religious and social upheaval. The Consistory was a church and moral discipline body. This article highlights select marital conflict cases, demonstrating that many people used the Consistory as a forum in which to express their demands and complaints about their partners. In some instances, parties were successful in getting the Consistory to grant them divorces. Thus some Genevans fell short of the ideals of harmonious and permanent matrimony that their reformers proclaimed. The majority were told to remain in their problematic marital unions. This study sheds light on Reformation marriage theology and law, the successes and failures of the Genevan Consistory, the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the population, and gender relations in early-modern Europe.     

Archbishop Wulfstan and the importance of paying God his dues

Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d. 1023) stands as one of the most powerful churchmen of his age. His sermons, law-codes, and political tracts are carefully crafted pieces of rhetorical power, albeit often prone to exergasia, anaphora, and epiphora. They are excellent examples of the quality and power of episcopal prose in the eleventh century, and the very real concerns facing the Anglo-Saxon realm. Beyond the enduring appeal and colourful flavour of his writings, it is possible to see a very determined effort to demand from the lay population a large number of payments for the service of the Church. Whilst this may appear a rather narrow-minded focus, certainly in a time of war and invasion, it will be argued here that for Wulfstan they offered a vehicle by which disaster could be averted, society could be aligned along proper Christian lines, and the nation itself could be saved.     

The impact of the crisis on the Orthodox Church of Greece: a moment of challenge and opportunity?

This article explores the impact of the economic crisis on the Orthodox Church of Greece (OCG). The first three parts of the article set the current stage by offering a short overview of the crisis and the response of the OCG through its charitable social welfare activities. The fourth part looks at church–state relations in Greece, covering more particularly its financial aspects. The fifth and final part discusses how the economic crisis has affected the OCG itself, including its own finances and governance, and sustainability and mission in the long term. Although the OCG provides social assistance to the Greek population during the economic crisis, it also finds itself very much affected by the same crisis. The economic crisis has forced the OCG to reduce its operating costs while at the same time continue its extensive social work. The crisis has also prompted public debates and questions about the finances of the OCG. This situation may gradually force either the Greek state or the OCG, or perhaps both, to rethink their relationship in the future.     

The Need for a Theology of Resilience,Coexistence, and Hope

In many countries of the world, people are drinking a dangerous cocktail of poisonous ingredients all starting with the letter P: polarization, populism, protectionism, post‐truth, and patriarchy. As Christians, we cannot do other than work against this. In order to do so, we need to make use of the resources we have in spirituality and theology. This article reflects on these resources in the Lutheran tradition, asking how we, together, are church in this world.     

The Future of Multilateral Ecumenical Dialogue

This article offers an overview of work undertaken in multilateral ecumenical dialogue, as it has been conducted at the international level by the commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to clarify the issues discussed in this dialogue and the methods used. In particular, the article analyzes the statements on unity made at various WCC assemblies. While they demonstrate a certain continuity regarding the key points of church unity they identify, they clearly mark a shift in the overall understanding of how unity is conceived. The second part of the article examines the current ecumenical situation and its importance for this dialogue, to show how Faith and Order has responded and what further progress in multilateral dialogue might look like.     

Chinese Folk Christianity and Its Possibly Missional Nature

During the last four decades, Christianity in China has grown quickly. There are about 50 million Protestant Christians in today's China. The majority of them, however, are in rural areas. This rural Christianity, or folk Christianity, is influenced by Chinese folk religion. This article explores the features and the missional nature of Chinese folk Christianity. It exposes several main features of folk Christianity, including its charismatic orientation, pragmatic concern, moral emphasis, and superstitious factors. Its main argument is that Chinese folk Christianity is missional in a situation where the absolute majority of the population is non‐Christian. Through describing and analyzing Chinese folk Christianity as biblical, historical, contextual, eschatological, and practicable, which are fundamental affirmations about the missional church, this article reaches the following conclusion: Although it is somewhat syncretic, Chinese folk Christianity, as God's people called in a particular context, has its missional nature. It is a contextualized form of Christianity. Given the particular Chinese context in participating in God's mission, it might be inevitable for Chinese folk Christianity to be syncretic to some degree. In the contexualization of Christianity, however, Chinese folk Christianity has raised some theological questions: How deeply and thoroughly contextualized can folk Christianity become? Are there limits to its contextualization? If yes, what are the limits?     

Missiological Framework in Africa

This article has three parts. First, it deals with the understanding of mission in the context of Namibia. Second, it offers a profile of African spirituality and its politico‐socio‐economic implications, or with the missionary orthopraxis, in light of the African parable of the awakening giant. And third, it focuses on the African missional church and its missionary praxis. The paper argues that the triune God creates the church and sustains it through the gifts of word and sacrament by the power of the Spirit. Such a missional church understands its participation in God's mission (missio Dei) as contextual by addressing faithfully the challenges in a comprehensive and holistic way.     

Assessing the Impact of a Paid Children,Youth, or Family Worker on Anglican Congregations in England

Drawing on the survey conducted by Christian Research and commissioned by the Youthscape Centre for Research and One Hope, this study examined the impact of a paid children, youth, or family worker on the weekly attendance of 5- to 18-year-old children within 786 Church of England churches with adult attendance ranging from 20 to 250 people. Nearly one-third of these churches had a paid children, youth, or family worker (N?=?259). The data demonstrated that on average the presence of a paid children, youth, or family worker added seven young people between the ages of 5 and 18 years to the total weekly Sunday attendance, after controlling for the weekly adult attendance figures.     

‘Resacralising’ secular space: new churches in a northern city, 1980–2012

This article explores the way new church congregations in a city in northern England, the city of York, are using religious and non-religious spaces in which to meet. These new congregations show a diverse approach to the material realm and especially to sacred space. Some use existing church buildings, some build their own structures. But many use a range of buildings: schools, community centres, a pub or the garage of a private house. An examination of these structures offers insights into ways in which faith engages with wider social realities and into contemporary religious history. This article will focus primarily on Britain, but casts an eye to developments elsewhere.     

Semantics and Ideology During the Renaissance: Confessional Translations of the Greek Word ἐπίσκοπος

During the sixteenth century the disputes between Catholics and Protestants became the battleground to determine and shape authentic Christianity and the Church. Humanism played a key role in this process conditioned by cultural and theological diversity, justifying doctrinal positions and legitimizing the existence of respective institutions with an appeal to history. Translations from church historical sources illustrate how they often derived from theological preconceptions. Starting with the ‘episcopacy issue’ opened initially by Luther and Calvin inter al., this article analyzes the translations of the Greek word episkopos in the Magdeburg Centuries, Cesare Baronio's Ecclesiastical Annals, in contemporary vernacular versions of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, in J. C. Dietrich’s Lexicon and in some English Bibles. The material gathered and also compared with the position of the Council of Trent shows how these confessionally conditioned translations impacted on the scholarly world, and how they influenced church law with religio-political consequences, thereby having a striking significance.