The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness

Drawing on the writings of German pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jennifer M. McBride constructs a groundbreaking theology of public witness for Protestant church communities in the United States. In contrast to the triumphal manner in which many Protestants have engaged the public
sphere, The Church for the World shows how the church can offer a nontriumphal witness to the lordship of Christ through repentant activity in public life.

After investigating current Christian conceptions of witness in the United States, McBride offers a new theology for repentance as public witness, based on Bonhoeffer's thought concerning Christ, the world, and the church. McBride takes up Bonhoeffer's proposal that repentance may be reinterpreted
non-religiously, expanding and challenging common understandings of the concept. Finally, she examines two church communities that exemplify ecclesial commitments and practices rooted in confession of sin and repentance. Through these communities she demonstrates that confession and repentance may
be embodied in various ways yet also discerns distinguishing characteristics of a redemptive public witness.

The Church for the World offers important insights about Christian particularity and public engagement in a pluralistic society as it provides a theological foundation for public witness that is simultaneously bold and humble: when its mode of being in the world is confession of sin unto repentance,
the church demonstrates Christ's redemptive work and becomes a vehicle of concrete redemption.


Author: Jennifer McBride
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/01/2014
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780199367948

About the Author

Jennifer M. McBride is Board of Regents Chair in Ethics and Assistant Professor of Religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She received her doctorate in philosophical theology from the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Religious
Practices and Practical Theology at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. McBride serves on the Board of Directors of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section and is co-editor of Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought.

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