Contesting the Body of Christ

Ecclesiology's Revolutionary Century
This book engages ecclesiology across the 20th century as worked out in ecumenical and global contexts and explores how the four marks of the church--one, holy, catholic, and apostolic--were remade, contested, and reaffirmed in surprising and innovative ways.
Christianity Today 2025 Book Award of Merit (Academic Theology)

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.

Contributor: Ephraim Radner (Foreword by)

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