Dogmatic Ecclesiology – The Priestly Catholicity of the Church

Tom Greggs, FRSE (PhD, Cambridge University), is director of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He previously taught at the University of Aberdeen and is a founding codirector of the Aberdeen Centre for Protestant Theology. He has written several books, including Theology against Religion: Constructive Dialogues with Bonhoeffer and Barth.

• ContentsHow to Read This BookPreface: A Brief Prospective Theological Prolegomena to EcclesiologyWhy the Church?"I Will Be Their God, and They Will Be My People": Issues of Method, Approach, and Dogmatic TopographyWhich Church?The Church of the Spirit, Not the Spirit of the ChurchChart of Prospective Chapter TopicsAbbreviated Chapter Theses for Volume 11. The Spirit: The Lord of and the Giver of Life to the ChurchThe Church as Creature of the Spirit: An Act of Divine GraceA Reformation Church: An Event of God's ActA Truly Pentecostal Church Whose Life Comes from the Living Holy SpiritPneumatologically Actualistic EcclesiologyThe Mediation of the Spirit: God's Vertical Act in the Horizontal Axis of the Medium of Creaturely Space-Time"To Your Advantage That I Go Away": The Spirit's Continuing Work of Salvation in the Horizontal Axis of Creaturely ExistenceThe Love of the Other in Her Givenness as a Salvific Event of the Spirit's ActThe Essential Given Variety with the Church in Its Life of Love2. The High Priesthood of Christ: The Essential Hierarchy of the Church (1)The Rule of the Only Priest: The Lordship of Christ over the ChurchThe Priesthood of Christ in HebrewsThe Gospel Form of Christ's PriesthoodThe Modality of Christ's Priesthood3. Participative Ontology and the Church's Internal Priesthood: The Essential Hierarchy of the Church (2)The Uniqueness of Christ, Who Is Head of His BodyParticipation in Christ by the SpiritThe Church as an Active Participation in Christ's Spirit-Filled HumanityThe Church as Participating in Christ's Priesthood in Its Internal Sociality: Priesthood Internal to the ChurchExtra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Est?4. The Priestly Ontology and the Church's Life for the World: The Essential Hierarchy of the Church (3)The Corporate Priesthood of the Church in the WorldChallenging Traditional Accounts of Essential HierarchyA Clergy That Demarcates Church from (and Not for) the World: The Damned for the Sake of the SavedA Priestly Church for the WorldA Boundary Fundamentally for the Sake of the WorldOrders Exist for the Sake of ChurchIntensity of the Church's Priesthood Is Its Fringe5. Baptism: Entry into the Priesthood of the ChurchA Note on the Genus "Sacrament"A Note on the Language of "Means of Grace"Sacrament, Sign, and SemiosisBaptism as a SignBaptism as Entry into Corporate PriesthoodSubsistent Identity in Christ: The Internal Priestly Dynamics of the Community of the BaptizedThe Positive Challenge of the New Identity in the Quotidian Givenness of the WorldInfant or Adult Baptism?The Worldliness of Water: One Baptism6. Holy CommunionA Semiotic CommemorationA "High" Memorialist Interpretation of ZwingliThe Question of AgencyNo Further SacrificeThe Temporal Semiotics of ParticipationParticipation in the Body: Bound to One Another in Space-TimeBound to One Another in Holy Communion for the WorldCelebrating Holy Communion Together in the Givenness of a Church Service7. The Communion of SaintsThe Provisionality of the Passing Church in TimeThe Everlasting and Universal Communion of SaintsSubsisting in the Communion of Saints: A Protestant Account of the Tradition of the Church8. Intercessory PrayerPrayer in Christ the Unique High PriestThe Internal Priestly Act of Prayer within and for the ChurchIntercessory Prayer as an Expression of Salvation in the Horizontal Sphere of SpatiotemporalityIntercessionary Prayer as a Priestly Act for the World9. Thanksgiving and Praise: Participating Graciously in Grace"Less Quid Pro Quo Than Overflow"Creator-Creature Distinction and Relation: A Creation of Sheer GraceCaught Up in God's Movement: Living Thankfully in the Divine Willing for the OtherJustification by Grace Alone: No Works, Only Gratitude for Divine MercyThe Forms of Gratitude for Grace in the Church10. Congregation: Priestly PolityThe Congregation as FoundationalThe Givenness of the Community in Space and TimeThe Congregation, the Great Congregation, and the All in AllPriestly Congregating11. SanctificationSanctification as an Act of the Grace of GodSanctification in Christ by the SpiritThe Non-interior Form of SanctificationCommunal and Corporate Sanctification for the World12. LoveLove as a Participation in God's Love, Both Economically and in God's Internal LifeLove as the Concrete Form of the Sanctified LifeThe Individual Exists for the Sake of LoveChurch Exists for the Sake of the World13. Priestly CatholicityWhy Do Priesthood and Catholicity Belong Together?A Catholicity of the Spirit and the Son's Unique and Universal DynamicsActive, Loving, and Dynamic CatholicityPrinciples of the Forms of Priestly Catholicity14. Coda: The Church as OneOneness and CatholicityOne Irreducible NarrativeOneness of GodIndexes