A Brutal Unity: The Spiritual Politics of the Christian Church

To describe the Church as ""united"" is a factual misnomer--even at its conception centuries ago. Ephraim Radner provides a robust rethinking of the doctrine of the church in light of Christianity's often violent and at times morally suspect history. He holds in tension the strange and transcendent oneness of God with the necessarily temporal and political function of the Church, and, in so doing, shows how the goals and failures of the liberal democratic state provide revelatory experiences that greatly enhance one's understanding of the nature of Christian unity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Religious Violence and Christian Blasphemy Postscript: The Tears of Peter 2. Division Is Murder Postscript: Judas the Apostle 3. The Sins of the Church Postscript: Loving Jerusalem 4. The Conciliar Ideal Postscript: The Way Together 5. The Limits of Consensus Postscript: The First Council 6. The Procedural Quest for Unity and Its Obstacles Postscript: The Prophetic Contest 7. Conscience and Its Limits Postscript: The Crucifixion of Conscience 8. Multiple Consciences and the Rise of Solidarity Postscript: A Figural Phenomenology of the Church 9. The Unity of Sacrifice Conclusion

About the Author :
Ephraim Radner is Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. He is the author or editor of seven books, including The Fate of Communion: The Agony of Anglicanism and the Future of a Global Church and Hope Among the Fragments: The Broken Church and Its Engagement of Scripture. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Review :
"Radner's A Brutal Unity is at a book of startling insight, extraordinary erudition, and is replete with theological implications. His ability to help us see connections between Christian disunity and liberal political theory and practice should command the attention of Christian and non-Christian alike. A Brutal Unity is a stunning achievement." --Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School "Massively learned and beautifully written, this book has to be the best work ever written against the holiness and unity of the Church by a Christian theologian. Not one to mince words, Radner presents Judas as the mirror of the faithless, violent, and fractured Church. For Radner, the failure of liberalism arises from and reflects the failure of the Church to repent. But he does not end here: he argues that in God's creation of things separate from God, and in Christ's radical giving of himself, we find God's holiness and oneness as a gift for God's people and as an invitation to imitate God's asymmetrical giving. Those who disagree with Radner will thank him for pressing us to examine anew why Christians rightly confess the Church to be one and holy." --Matthew Levering, University of Dayton Arresting, spiritually profound, ethically searching, vastly learned, and infused with passion. -- Paul Avis, Exeter University -- Ecclesiology ... A Brutal Unity is a significant book, one that should serve as a touchstone for ecclesiology and theological politics in this century. -- Anthony G. Siegrist, Prairie Bible College -- Evangelical Quarterly This is a profoundly beautiful book. It is painful, yet, it does not leave one without hope. -- Johnny Walker -- Freedom in Orthodoxy Radner's arguments are tightly wound and profoundly elegant. He argues with the skill of a classical rhetorician and the aesthetic power of early Anglican polemicists, which he seeks to emulate. -- Antony Easton, Concordia University -- Journal of Religion and Culture ... well worth the intellectual investment. -- Dustin Resch, Briercrest College and Seminary -- Anglican Theological Review ...a provocative and insightful book, especially for its claims about the ways in which the procedures of contemporary liberalism have found their way into church life and decision making. -- A. W. Klink, Duke University -- CHOICE Advance [ A Brutal Unity ] draws the reader with whiplash speed through an astonishing quantity of texts as it tries to tease out answers and chart out futures for the fractured body of Christ. -- Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, Institute for Ecumenical Research -- Pro Ecclesia A Brutal Unity is a book of the workday: of academic analysis, digging into archives, deconstructing a whole history of ecclesial claims, and constructing guidelines for new ones. But it is labor offered for the sake of the end time and anticipating its coming. It is a book that demonstrates how academic writing can be infused with the spirit (of Scripture, of prayer, of the One who gives himself) and yet be no less academic. -- Peter Ochs, University of Virginia -- Pro Ecclesia