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This article is an attempt at an exposition of the maxim corruptio optimi pessima ('The corruption of the best is the worst' or 'The fallen saint is the worst kind of sinner', or even 'Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.' [Shakespeare]). My analysis starts with 'spiritual worldliness' as I examine the relationship between the mystery of evil, the figure of the Antichrist and the history of Christianity and modernity. My conclusion is that since wheat and tares inevitably grow together under the regime of the incarnate Word, constant vigilance and the witness of the Christian sources are essential forms of defence against the baleful effects of corruption on the history of Christianity, in the Church or in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of UK Christian churches to the provision of welfare projects, relying largely on a pool of volunteer labour, has long been recognised by a number of commentators. What is also now recognised is that it is women who have made up and still make up the majority of these volunteers but they are a largely ageing – and declining – population, hence the question arises as to whether most churches in Britain can continue to provide the same levels of support for much longer. This article considers the factors which have made women longstanding and committed individuals in both their churches and their civic communities, and argues that the same conditions do not pertain for their children. Unless more volunteers are forthcoming from secular organisations, we are likely to be seeing a significant gap in voluntary welfare provision at precisely the time when state funding for welfare is being drastically cut and more volunteers are needed, not fewer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article complements emerging research on immigrant civic participation by examining how Catholic churches facilitate volunteer and political participation among first-generation Mexican immigrants. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic data, it identifies two reinforcing mechanisms that churches foster: small groups and organizational links. Specifically, small groups, like prayer groups, provide immigrants with intimate contexts for building networks, learning skills and sharing resources. On the other hand, churches cultivate links to secular organizations that sensitize immigrants to public debates and provide opportunities for civic participation. Put simply, church-going immigrants take advantage of broader civic opportunities because they gain resources and skills within small groups. Implications for understanding immigrant religion and civic participation more broadly are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an examination into the historical and contemporary Benedictine missionary method of engaging the secular world and preserving culture for the good of both the Catholic Church and wider civilization. An overview is given of several periods in history where chapters of the Benedictine order aided both by adhering to values such as preserving cultural works regardless of content, offering a distinct communal life, and maintaining what the author calls an open intellectualism. Comments are then given taking these themes and applying them to possible work which the Benedictines can offer to contemporary 21st-century concerns of Catholic engagement with postmodernism.

The article offers views from the liberals regarding theology of marriage such as same-sex couples in the U.S. The liberals argue that the church must consider same-sex couples to be married because it requires their testimony to the love of Christ and the church. Moreover, the liberals mention that they base their argument on the embodied discipline of marriage by which God may transform longing into charity and dispositions to love into works of virtue.

How may one perceive, understand, and use the idea and the phenomenon of world Christianity in the life of the churches and theological seminaries? How does the idea of World Christianity function in our understanding of the history and practice of Christian faith? Does it offer fresh insights into a deeper understanding of what Christianity is all about? How may one understand Asian and Oceanic Christianity within the matrix of World Christianity? These are the questions that I attempt to address in this essay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when sectarian tension is being viewed as a threat to global peace and religions are being called on to promote ecumenical dialogue and condemn militant fundamentalism, this article offers a critical geographical enquiry into the role of Christianity in the making of a peaceable West. Christianity's historical alignment with the Western project and imbrication in histories of colonialism and imperialism raises questions about its capacity to serve as a progressive force in global affairs today. Placing Christianity under postcolonial scrutiny, this article argues that Christianity offers a variety of complex, contradictory, and competing approaches to peace building that variously defend the hegemonic ambitions of the West on the one hand and support critical practices that usurp and decenter the sovereign supremacy assumed by the West on the other. Critical geographical enquiry can offer Christianity a heightened self-understanding of the role of location, space, and place, in the framing, enactment, and impacts of its different colonial and postcolonial visions. Using the case of the Roman Catholic Church for illustration, the concepts of “milieux of translation,” referring to the social, economic, political, and cultural prisms through which theology becomes refracted into praxes, and “formations of the secular,” referring to the conditions in secular democracies that permit religions prescribed access to the public realm, are advanced as key to any understanding of the situated production and mobilization of Christianity's strategies for peace. Future dialogue between Christianity and (institutional) geography might usefully begin with an exchange of ideas on how the wider project of historicizing, relativizing, and provincializing the West might best contribute to improved interfaith, intercultural, and intercivilizational dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christianity is plural religious tradition: over the centuries and throughout the world's cultures it has taken on a variety of forms and contents. Yet, Christianity also claims to be one tradition, one community. In this article the dialectic relationship between diversity and unity within World Christianity is explored with the view of investigating whether the debate on multiculturalism in Dutch society can benefit from the expertise within the Christian tradition of balancing between diversity and unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korean Christianity is known around the world for its amazing growth and dynamism, and this includes a thriving theological life, much of which is inaccessible without knowledge of the Korean language. Ryu Tong-Shik (Yu Tong-shik) was one of the first Koreans to attempt to trace the development of Korean theology in his seminal work, Han'guk shinhak-ŭi kwangmaek (The Mineral Veins of Korean Theology; first published 1982). This paper introduces Ryu's theological thought and investigates a particular observation he makes about two distinct patterns of Holy Spirit move-ment in the Korean church, which he designates 'paternal' and 'maternal' and identifies both before and after the liberation from Japan in 1945. The paper examines the grounds of Ryu's claim, which derive from the religious history of Korea, and suggests the relevance of this schema to other societies and to pneumatological reflection in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issue concerning the establishment of Christianity as the historically formative religion of European history. It discusses the historical matters concerning Dissenters and Nonconformists, those who have refused to accept the discipline of the Church of England as well as refused to conform to its worship and prescriptions. It ventures some opinions about contemporary reality to relate the insight of the tradition to the world and especially to ask whether disestablishment would leave church or country to the poorer.

The reality of globalization and the constant migrations that characterize the contemporary world, implies a true "mixture of civilizations and cultures". The distinct traditions and religions are no longer bounded to a limited territory, but are accessible to all mankind. This historical process requires an orientation to the good life, personal and communal, to acquire a positive evaluation. To achieve this ideal, multiculturalism as a solution that is limited to gathering national, cultural, and religious identities that are isolated and juxtaposed is not enough. It is necessary that subjects contribute to him through mutual communication and public witness of the goods they represent, with a sense of common belonging to the human family. Between Christians, this means proposing a cultural interpretation of the coming of Jesus Christ, showing the vital center of the faith of the Church to all people. [TRANSLATION]

Explains that this issue contains a selection of papers presented at the Third Workshop of the Institute for Development Research held in September 2004, plus two further papers of relevance which became available shortly afterwards. Practical implications of the integration of Christian Mission and Transformational Development; Provision of illuminating and encouraging overview of problems faced and progress made in the expanding reentry of the church into holistic work amongst the world's neediest people.