The work of uniting churches is slow, challenging, and multifaceted; and it changes in each generation and location. In this book, Josiah Baker studies the efforts of believers towards reconciliation as something significant for how we understand the church. He offers a theology for laborers, people for whom unity is not only an idea but a calling and sure hope. A Visible Unity is a study in systematic theology on the relation of ecumenical methodology to ecclesiological convergence, how acting together results in the churches being together. Ecumenical work informs ecclesiology because it involves the actions of Christians together in accordance with their shared views of the church. Whenever this work changes, the partnering churches change their relations and further resolve their divisions. Baker studies ecclesiology by telling stories about a person-the Pentecostal ecumenist Cecil Robeck-for Robeck's decades of leadership in American and global ecumenical settings. By narrating his activities and analyzing his thought, the book offers a window into the interrelation of different portions of the ecumenical movement and how the movement has changed over the years. Baker compiles archival materials and personal interviews to tell stories about ecumenism never before published.
Josiah Baker, PhD, is secretary of the North American Academy of Ecumenists and co-leader of the Ecumenical Studies Interest Group of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
1Robeck's Ecclesiology Amidst Ecumenical and Pentecostal Conversations 2Reconciling Memories of American Pentecostal Race Relations 3The Push to Expand the World Council of Churches 4Bilateral Dialogues as a Communal Practice of Discernment 5Patristic Roots and Charismatic Controversies of Spiritual Ecumenism 6Testifying to Christ within Christian Forums
Probing and pertinent, this book presents Pentecostal ecclesiology as it unfolded over the decades of Dr. Mel Robeck's pioneering ecumenical work. Baker's scholarship, especially his focus on the interplay of ecumenical method and ecclesiological convergence, will engage anyone seeking fresh insights in the search for Christian unity. -- Rev. Sandra Beardsall, Faith and Order Commission, World Council of Churches Josiah Baker's A Visible Unity: Cecil Robeck and the Work of Ecumenism puts to rest any notion that the modern ecumenical movement is over. It also helps establish Robeck as one of the most important figures over the past half-century in the effort to realize the visible unity of the Church on earth. Robeck's contributions to ecumenical methodology and ecclesiology, shaped by his Pentecostal identity and in dialogue with others, are explored in considerable depth. The result is an abundance of new insights regarding both the unity and mission of the Church. -- Dale T. Irvin, New School of Biblical Theology
