I will be presenting a paper at the forthcoming Mid-Atlantic Regional conference of the American Academy of Religion in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The conference is held in conjunction with the regional Society of Biblical Literature as well.

Gregory Baum’s ‘Anticipatory’ Ecclesiology

Here is the abstract submitted for my presentation:

Reaching out from a North American and Roman Catholic context, and with an eye towards significant trends in global Christianity, Canadian theologian Gregory Baum (1923-2017) presented revolutionary ways of perceiving the relationships between communion, communication, and conflict in the church throughout his over 60-year career as a theologian. Drawing upon the revolutionary ecclesiology he proposed in his 1968 work, The Credibility of the Church Today, this paper makes the case that Baum has always upheld a vision of the church which emphasizes graced relationship, personal and ecclesial renewal and transformation, as well as dialogue and prophetic witness. In so doing he has identified communication within the church’s own life and with the world as a constitutive element of its communion which helps it to respond to conflicts. Such an ecclesiology represents a salient point of departure today, especially for the Catholic Church, but for other Christian churches, too, for consideration, with fresh awareness, of the church’s mission and its concomitant need for institutional structures of mutual accountability.

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