The open body

Zachary Guiliano, Charles M. Stang

The essays in this book reflect on ecclesiology in the Anglican tradition, debating whether and how humans should gather as a "church" in the name of Christ. While the prompt for this collection of essays is the crisis in the Anglican Communion regarding homosexuality and church governance, this book provides a re-interpretation and re-imagination of the central metaphor of Christian community, namely "the Body of Christ." By suggesting that the Body of Christ is "open," the authors are insisting that while the recent controversy within the Anglican Communion should prompt and even influence theological reflection on Christian community, it should not define or determine it. In other words, the controversy is regarded as an "opening" or an opportunity to imagine and to examine the past, present, and future of the Church, both of the Anglican Communion and of the entire Body of Christ....