The Church in a Secular Age: A Pneumatological Reconstruction of Stanley Hauerwas's Ecclesiology: 233 (Princeton Theological Monograph)

How can the church navigate the challenges of our secular age? In The Church in a Secular Age Norwegian and Pentecostal scholar Silje Kvamme Bjorndal takes on three dynamic thinkers each in their own way in search for insights to this question. Philosopher Charles Taylor offers the backdrop for the conversation as Bjorndal carefully sifts out some of his most central tenets for understanding our secular age.Then she turns to the theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas and critically engages critically his notion of the church as a community set apart from our secular age. By bringing several of Hauerwass interlocutors into the conversation Bjorndal manages to bring out both the acute relevance and the shortcomings of his ecclesiology. Thus she finds that another turn is needed in order to offer a concrete as well as creative contribution to this ecclesiological conversation.Considering the undeveloped pneumatological undercurrent in Hauerwass work it proves fruitful to engage the leading Pentecostal scholar Amos Yong and his foundational pneumatology. This engagement results in a shift of agency from the community to the Spirit. And keeping up the dialogue with Taylors secular age Bjorndal demonstrates how the Spirits agency is crucial for the church as it attempts to navigate the particular challenges (and opportunities) of a secular age.