Contesting the Body of Christ: Ecclesiology's Revolutionary Century - Paperback

by Myles Werntz (Author), Ephraim Radner (Foreword by)

The church changed tremendously in the twentieth century, with new churches emerging and old churches being renewed. This period encompassed the birth of the World Council of Churches, the rise of American evangelicalism, the Second Vatican Council, the coming of age of charismatic Christianity, and more.

In this book, Myles Werntz explores the landscape of twentieth-century ecclesiology and shows how the four marks of the church were remade, contested, and reaffirmed in surprising and innovative ways in the course of this turbulent century.

Werntz asks what it means to say that the church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic amid so many diverse alternatives. He explains how the many dynamics of the twentieth century posed both theological and ethical challenges for confessing the marks of the church but also what promise comes from expanding our vision of how God might be at work across traditions. Werntz shows that the four marks of the church can help us see what the last century brought and what we might learn from it now. He also provides guidance for the future of the twenty-first century church. The book includes a foreword from Ephraim Radner.

Back Jacket

"A unique and creative exploration"

This book engages ecclesiology across the twentieth century as worked out in ecumenical and global context and explores how the four marks of the church--one, holy, catholic, and apostolic--were remade, contested, and reaffirmed in surprising and innovative ways.

"Werntz leads readers in a scholarly way through stories and journeys of the Spirit's work in the church, never giving in to methodological naturalism or to ecclesial pessimism. Global in horizon and ecumenical in foundation, outlook, and scope, this book offers a wise and exciting account of the four marks of the church in a way that offers hope and looks to renewal. It deserves reading and rereading by church people and theologians alike."
--Tom Greggs, Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton

"Werntz offers a unique and creative exploration of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan marks of the church through an examination of a wide-ranging selection of lived stories and contestations of the church in the twentieth century. In this way, he invites a fresh consideration of what this history--in all of its messiness--might teach us today about the church's identity as a people through whom the Spirit yet continues to work and bring renewal."
--Cheryl M. Peterson, Wartburg Theological Seminary

"At a time when each step forward of bilateral and multilateral ecumenical progress seems met with two steps backward into worsening division, Werntz offers a promising approach to thinking theologically about the church: engaging the concrete locality of the marks of the Spirit's work of making ecclesial community and encouraging practices of formation by which they are made more fully visible."
--Steven R. Harmon, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity

"Contesting the Body of Christ shows us the church's marks as living wounds, openings through which Christ's passion flows into our traumatized world. In Werntz's reading of twentieth-century ecclesiology, contestation emerges as an unexpected gift of the Spirit--not a symptom of disunity but a space opened for our sanctification. This is theology that bleeds and breathes."
--Chris E. W. Green, Southeastern University; bishop of the Diocese of St. Anthony (CEEC)

Author Biography

Myles Werntz (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of theology and director of the Baptist Studies Center at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He is the author and editor of eight other books in Christian theology and ethics, most recently From Isolation to Community and A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence (coauthored with David C. Cramer).