Burning Center, Porous Borders

The Church in a Globalized World

Eleazar S. Fernandez

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781610974264
  9781498260602
• eBook ISBN:
  9781621894032
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Burning Center, Porous Borders articulates what the church is and is called to be about in the world, a world now globalized to the point that the local is lived globally and the global is lived locally. The church must respond creatively and prophetically to the challenges-economic disparity, war and terrorism, diaspora, ecological threat, health crisis, religious diversity, and so on-posed by our highly globalized world. It can do so only if the church's spiritual center burns mightily. Conversely, it can burn mightily in the spirit of Christ only if its borders are porous and allows the fresh air/spirit of change to blow in and out. While there is much rhetoric about change, the most common response to change is to continue doing business as usual. This is particularly the case in the face of perceived global threats. In spite of the hoopla and euphoria of the global village, walls of division and exclusion are rising, hearts are constricting, and moral imagination shrinking. In response to this context, Burning Center, Porous Borders proposes alternative ways or images of being a church: burning center and porous borders, wall-buster and bridge-builder, translocal (glocal), mending-healer, radical hospitality, community of the earth-spirit, household of life abundant, dialogians of life, and community of hope. In Burning Center, Porous Borders congregational vitality and progressive praxis kiss and embrace!

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Linking the Global and the Local
• Chapter 2: Terrorism
• Chapter 3: The Church in the Midst of Globalization
• Chapter 4: The Church as a Translocal (Glocal) Community
• Chapter 5: The Church as Community with a Burning Center and Porous Borders
• Chapter 6: The Church as a Household of Life Abundant
• Chapter 7: The Church as a Community of Peacebuilders
• Chapter 8: The Church as a Community of Radical Hospitality
• Chapter 9: The Church as Community of the Earth (Green) Spirit
• Chapter 10: The Church as a Community of Mending Healers
• Chapter 11: The Church as a Community of Dialogians of Faith
• Chapter 12: The Church as a Community of Hope
• Bibliography