Flawed Church, Faithful God: A Reformed Ecclesiology for the Real World
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
How can we reconcile the ideal church described by theology with the broken church that we see in the world? In this book Joseph Small argues that the church’s true identity is known somewhere in the tension between the two.
Small revisits familiar ecclesiological concepts—people of God, the body of Christ, the communion of the Holy Spirit—but rather than focusing on theological abstractions or worldly cynicism, he carefully evaluates the church in its scriptural, historical, theological, and social contexts. Both sociologically honest and theologically discerning, Flawed Church, Faithful God offers a constructive Reformed yet ecumenical ecclesiology for the real world.
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- Provides a brief but comprehensive theological portrait of what it truly means to be the church
- Unpacks the significance and crucial nuances of all the essential dimensions of being "one holy, catholic, apostolic church"
- Describes what it means to be a church of Word and sacrament; a community that lives in deep, intimate, abiding mutuality; a people of God
- What (in the World) Is the Church?
- We Believe?
- Church of the Word and Sacrament
- Communion of the Holy Spirit
- Body Language
- Call and Response
- People of God
- In Our Time
- Professing the Faith
- One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
- Hope for the Church
A deeply theological yet accessible account of Reformed ecclesiology that wrestles with the discontinuity between the theologically ideal church and its concrete reality in North American society.
The Expository Times
In this magisterial volume Joseph Small draws together decades of thought, study, teaching, preaching, writing, and consulting on the theology and practice of the church. Powerfully relevant for today’s challenges, Flawed Church, Faithful God offers an ecclesiology that is wise, concrete, and hopeful.
Darrell Guder, Princeton Theological Seminary
This is a book of immense ecclesial wisdom; its language is elegant and precise. Small is remarkably honest about the deep failures of the North American church today but also relentlessly hopeful in the God who is at work in human weakness. I know of no other book that so compellingly weaves together such a wide array of insights from Scripture, the church’s great historical traditions, contemporary novels and theological works, and the extensive experience of a gifted pastor, denominational leader, and ecumenical conversation partner.
John Burgess, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
- Title: Flawed Church, Faithful God: A Reformed Ecclesiology for the Real World
- Author: Joseph D. Small
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Pages: 242
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subject: Church
- ISBNs: 9780802876126, 0802876129
- Resource ID: LLS:FLWDCHRCHRLWRLD
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:00:22Z