Preface--vii Abbreviations--xvii Part I -- The Notion of a Constructive Transdenominational Ecclesiology 1. Where We Dwell in Common--3 Premises of a Transdenominational Ecclesiology--5 The Referent of a Transdenominational Ecclesiology--10 Methodological Considerations--13 Structure for Understanding the Church--24

2. From Historical to Constructive Ecclesiology--28 Principles of Orientation--30 Nature and Mission of the Church--36 Organization of the Church--43 Members of the Church--57 Activities of the Church--60 Relation of the Church to the World--63

Part II -- Ecclesial Existance 3. The Nature and Mission of the Church--71 The Origin of the Church--72 The Nature of the Church--80 The Purpose or Mission of the Church--98 Ecclesial Existance--109

4. Organization of the Church--115 Community and Structure--116 Ministries to Christian Life Enabled by Church Structures--121 Larger Organizational Forms--133 Church Organization and God's Will for the Church--144 Ecclesial Existance--154

5. Membership in the Church--160 Becoming a Member of the Church--161 Clergy and the People of God--171 Visible and Invisible Membership in the Church--185 Ecclesial Existance--191

6. Activities of the Church--197 Pastoral Activity--198 Worship--204 Nurturing the Whole Life of Members--218 Ecclesial Existance--227

7. Church in Relation to the World--233 The World--234 Missionary Church--242 Dialogue with the World--247 Ecclesial Existance--265

8. Ecclesial Existance and Partial Communion--270 Ecclesial Existance as Ecclesial Spirituality--271 The Concept of Partial Communion--275 Ecclesial Existance as the Apostolic Basis for Partial Communion--281

Index--293

"Ecclesiology from below," as it operates in this work, is directed to history; it moves through the actual chuch of history to ecclesiology or to an understanding of the church both as it is and as it should be. In the first volume, which delf with the first fifteen centuries of the Christian church, that passage was fairly explicit because comprehensive ecclesiologies in the modern sense did not exist. In this volume, from the Reformation to the present, ecclesiology itself becomes much more directly the subject matter of the book, but without losing sight of concrete history and the degree to which these various ecclesiologies, Protestant and Catholic, are historically conditioned. Put somewhat differently, the main goal of this "comparative ecclesiology" is not simply to lay down, one after another, the different ecclesiologies that emerged over the last five hundred years, although that describes the book with empirical accuracy. Its larger intent is to show the richness, vitality, and creativity of the whole church as it moves through history, adjusting to new times, places, and cultures.