Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation at the Margins

by Alberto L. Garcia, John A. Nunes

Overview

Proposes creative implications of the 500-year Reformation tradition for today

As the global church assesses the legacy of the Lutheran Reformation, Alberto García and John Nunes in this book reimagine central Reformational themes from black, Hispanic, and other perspectives traditionally at the margins of catholic-evangelical communities.

Focusing on the central theme of justification, García and Nunes delve into three interlinked aspects of the church's life in the world—martyria (witness), diakonia (service), and koinōnia (fellowship). They argue that it is critically important and vitally enriching for the whole church, especially Eurocentric Protestant churches, to learn from the grassroots theological emphases of Christian communities in the emerging world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802873286
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/14/2017
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Alberto L. García is professor emeritus of theology at Concordia University Wisconsin, an ordained Lutheran pastor, and coeditor of Critical Issues in Ecclesiology.

John A. Nunes is president of Concordia College New York, an ordained Lutheran pastor, and the author of Voices from the City: Issues and Images of Urban Preaching.

Table of Contents

Foreword Martin E. Marty ix

Preface xiv

Abbreviations xix

1 God of Justification, God of Life 1

A Borderland Reimagining of the Reformation

2 Justification and Eco-Justice 31

A Postcolonial Framework

3 Simul Justus et Peccator 48

God's Mercy for a Culture of Violence and Death

4 Martyria and Mission 70

The Witness of Creative Disruption

5 From Selfies to Selfless 79

The Way of the Cross as Joyful Diakonia

6 Diakonia 101

Witness, Service, and Life Together

7 The Koinonia of the Justified 113

Toward an Eschatology of Faith

8 Koinonia and Diversity 140

Postcolonial Poetics of the Possible

Afterword Melanie Trexler 157

For Discussion and Reflection 163

Works Cited 170

Index of Names 181

Index of Subjects 184

Index of Scripture References 187

Editorial Reviews

Justo L. González
"How are we to read and interpret the Protestant Reformation as we come to its fifth centennial? This book is necessary reading for any who attempt to answer that question. Its wide vistas of the meaning of the Reformation for the twenty-first century will challenge many preconceived notions and open new venues for thought."

Martin E. Marty
—from the foreword
"Where are we now? García and Nunes, by telling some stories of 'elsewhere,' help readers find 'here,' where we are called . . . to care for others whom we have overlooked before. The new vision is liberating."

From the Publisher