Bound to Be Free: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics, and Ecumenism: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics and Ecumenism

"Bound to Be Free" explores the scriptural concepts of church ("ekklesia"), freedom ("eleutheria"), and truthful speech ("parrhesia"), showing not only that the proper meanings of three concepts interpenetrate one another but also that rending them asunder lies at the root of Christian division today.According to Reinhard Hutter, the crucial interrelationship of these three concepts has long been obscured by ongoing church division. Separated from each other, many Christians assume that freedom can be maintained and truthful speech preserved only at the cost of unity. Others assume that Christian unity can be attained only if freedom and truthful speech are narrowly circumscribed in their proper exercise. Christian division issues from the all too familiar individualistic accounts of church, freedom, and speech that have haunted modernity and clouded the proclamation of the gospel.This book shows that here, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is imperative that Christians attend to this crucial interrelationship and its source in the God of the gospel. Hutter discusses the meaning, role, and importance of each concept in turn, engaging along the way a wide range of classical and contemporary voices in theology, philosophy, and culture that reveal in different ways how church, freedom, and truthful speech support one another."Bound to Be Free" is a groundbreaking work that challenges common approaches to ecumenism and points a fruitful new course ahead. Read more