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Synopsis: This is a chance to explore the meaning of Christian
faith for those in and outside of churches: adults who left the
church in their youth, the many religious refugees pushed out by
churches, as well as those in churches looking for serious
reflection. With short chapters written in conversational style, it
refuses to dumb down the presentation or offer false promises.
There are no tricks, no bait and switch. It simply gives an account
of the good news for our time. Christian faith is risky business.
It requires that we consider the way the good news is subverted by
religion itself and American culture. Most important, it means
examining our own resistance to the message of Jesus. In the end,
it involves a willingness to participate in a future marked by the
unfolding glory of God. Endorsement: "Words Unspoken is a richly
written resource, which begins with a deeply sensitive and personal
perspective: the parent of post-Christian adult children. From that
personal concern, Peter Schmiechen begins, with honesty and
vulnerability, as a contemporary pilgrim and theological thinker,
giving daunting integrity to each chapter. With the critical
insight of a seasoned theologian and teacher, he confronts us with
seminal questions that are deeply relevant in our time . . . Yet,
it is done with a personal faith and Christian hope. Words Unspoken
is a rare gift from a rare theologian." --Nathan D. Baxter, Bishop
of Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania Author Biography:
Peter Schmiechen is President Emeritus at Lancaster Seminary in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he also taught theology. His
writings have focused on the meaning of Jesus Christ and the
church, the most recent being Defining the Church for Our Time:
Origin and Structure, Variety and Viability (2012). In recent years
he has spent time thinking how best to share faith with his
children and grandchildren.
Synopsis: The church is broken and we cannot fix it. Faith in God
is disconnected from churches. Mainline churches are deeply
divided, and their budgets and congregations have diminished, with
no agreement for recovery. So what shall we do? It is time to stop
talking about the problems and to consider a new vision of the
church for our time. This book is a celebration of the church as
the community of new life in Christ. It assumes Christ intended to
create a community on earth embodying grace and holiness. It begins
with a new and inclusive definition of the church as a community
enduring in time. It affirms the great variety of churches, all as
valid expressions of the new life, and explains how and why
churches are formed in different ways. The goal is for churches to
celebrate the saving power of Christ and to see the glory of God
revealed in the world in our time. Endorsements: "Is there an award
for the ecclesiology book of the year? If so, Peter Schmiechen
should receive it. He is lucid, theologically informed, pastorally
minded, practical, and responsibly ecumenical. The Church, he
argues, is not a voluntary society of the like-minded, but a
community of God's gift and promise. The empirical Church is
flawed, and church-dividing issues abound; yet, the Church remains
a community of hope and an agent of transforming power." --Alan P.
F. Sell, author of Convinced, Concise, and Christian "Peter
Schmiechen wades into the current crisis of the church. He is
peculiarly equipped to do so, deeply grounded in the ecumenical
theology of Mercersburg and long situated in the matrix of dispute
in his (and my) own church. He reflects upon the ways in which our
pet notions have often reduced the gospel to manageable ideology,
and the capacity and readiness of the gospel to take many forms,
formulations, and practices. This is a sober and realistic, but
powerfully hopeful invitation to rethink the faithfulness of the
church in its great diversity." --Walter Brueggemann, author of The
Prophetic Imagination "Though many today distance themselves from
institutional expressions of religion, saying they are 'spiritual
but not religious, ' Peter Schmiechen argues convincingly that
faithfulness to Christ necessarily involves an affirmation of the
church and its institutional forms. Schmeichen believes we are at a
place today where we can appreciate, without defensiveness, the
diverse ways in which Christians have sought to embody the central
Christian message. He draws on this diversity to propose a unified,
inclusive, and transformative form of the church." --Jackson
Carroll, author of As One With Authority "Peter Schmiechen boldly
declares that the current malaise of North American Protestant
churches is not a failure to develop new programs, worship styles,
or evangelistic strategies. Rather, the problem is theological: it
is a lack of clarity about the basic good news of Christianity.
Schmiechen's proposal that churches need to incarnate the theme of
new life in Christ in their institutional practices is both
shockingly simple and richly provocative." --Lee C. Barrett, author
of Kierkegaard Author Biography: Peter Schmiechen is President
Emeritus of Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in Christian Theology from Harvard
University and is the author of Saving Power: Theories of Atonement
and Forms of the Church (2005) and Christ the Reconciler: A
Theology for Opposites, Differences, and Enemies (1996). He lives
with his wife, Janet, in Lancaster.
Jesus' death and resurrection are undeniably central to the
Christian faith. But how, precisely, is their significance to be
understood?
Concerned to reinvigorate the church's teaching on the cross,
the resurrection, and salvation -- the atonement -- Peter
Schmiechen here invites readers to rediscover the wealth of the
Christian tradition. In "Saving Power he makes ample use of primary
sources to unpack ten distinct theories of atonement, welcoming
aspects of each rather than championing only one. Along the way, he
demonstrates that while most Christians assume the basic theme of
atonement to be sin and forgiveness, other powerful themes --
liberation from oppressive powers, reconciliation in the face of
division, and the hope of resurrection in the face of death, for
instance -- also deserve to be studied and preached.
Affirming orthodox teaching while offering a positive take on
marginal views, "Saving Power is a crucial resource for anyone who
seeks a fuller understanding of Christ's work.
After first analyzing the dysfunctional state of America's churches
- with their capitulation to modern culture -Schmiechen argues
convincingly that the church can be renewed only through the
recovery of Christ's gospel of reconciliation. "Schmiechen, a
United Church of Christ minister, analyzes the internal divisions
and the capitulation to modern culture that he believes
characterizes the ecumenical Protestant church today and issues a
call for a theological reform of the doctrine of the church. Recent
attempts to renew the church have been unsuccessful, he claims,
because they have not adequately addressed the peculiar dilemma
Protestantism is caught in: it stands for individual freedom yet
opposes individualistic piety, and it speaks of a social gospel yet
fears institutions. In other words, the church is incapable of
affirming the faith and order essential for community. For
Protestantism to survive, Schmiechen argues, it must reclaim its
vision of the gospel as the liberating and unifying power of God.To
this end, the author develops a theology of reconciliation based on
a theory of atonement he derives from "1 Corinthians" and offers a
vision of the church in which differences can co-exist and the
church can grow in the unity of Christ. " - Publishers Weekly
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