Why Church?
Christianity as It Was Meant to Be
Published on 3. September 2024
192 pages
978-1-64065-737-3 (ISBN)
Description
An argument for the centrality of the Eucharistic church in an increasingly tribal world.
As Western culture has secularized, the church has increasingly become marginalized and is seen as providing support and optional resources, rather than indispensable to the Christian life. In this volume, theologian Scott Cowdell argues for a recovery of the church as the proper context for Christian faith, life, and mission. In Why Church? Cowdell considers how we have arrived at this moment, examining how perceptions of the church have changed in response to increasing individualism and institutional failings. Suggesting that the Eucharistic Church embodies Christ's desire to draw humankind to him, Cowdell shows how the Christian life depends on Christian community.
Written with adult formation in mind and from a perspective of generous orthodoxy, Why Church? makes a provocative case for the centrality of the church to Christian life. Discussion questions at the conclusion of each chapter offer provocative conversation starters for any adult education group.
As Western culture has secularized, the church has increasingly become marginalized and is seen as providing support and optional resources, rather than indispensable to the Christian life. In this volume, theologian Scott Cowdell argues for a recovery of the church as the proper context for Christian faith, life, and mission. In Why Church? Cowdell considers how we have arrived at this moment, examining how perceptions of the church have changed in response to increasing individualism and institutional failings. Suggesting that the Eucharistic Church embodies Christ's desire to draw humankind to him, Cowdell shows how the Christian life depends on Christian community.
Written with adult formation in mind and from a perspective of generous orthodoxy, Why Church? makes a provocative case for the centrality of the church to Christian life. Discussion questions at the conclusion of each chapter offer provocative conversation starters for any adult education group.
More details
Person
Scott Cowdell is Research Professor in Theology at Charles Sturt University, Canberra. In 2024, after 36 years of Anglican ministry in Australian parishes, seminaries, and universities, he was received into the Catholic Church with a view to becoming a priest there. He is the author of eleven books-most recently René Girard and the Nonviolent God and Mimetic Theory and its Shadow: Girard, Milbank, and Ontological Violence. With Joel Hodge and Chris Fleming he co-edits Bloomsbury Academic's "Violence, Desire, and the Sacred" series. In 2023, Cowdell was Dean's Scholar at the Virginia Theological Seminary. He lives in Canberra, Australia.
