We Are Catholic: Catholic Catholicity and Catholicization

What is a church? What makes a church a church? What is necessary to have a church? Is membership in a local church really that important? Might a group of people who claim to be Christians become so unlike what a church should be that they should no longer be called a church? Why are there so many churches of different traditions? What is tradition? Are the historical traditions of the church still relevant today? These and many others are questions related to the life and purpose of the church which every Christian must wrestle with not only for themselves as disciples of Jesus but also for others to whom they are called to make disciples. One of the early confessions of the Christian church centers on the catholicity of the church--we believe in the holy Catholic Church. It was Ignatius who first used the word catholic and rightly identified the church as the Catholic Church: Where Jesus Christ is there is the Catholic Church. This book offers a fresh look at this important mark of the church from an evangelical perspective and seeks to elucidate the life (being) and purpose (doing) of the church. The author believes that catholicity is to the church as the Trinity is to God. We are Catholic is a confession of our faith in Christ our commitment to the unity of the church (local and universal)--anchored in the Word and in the Spirit--and our passion for the mission to all the nations as a community of disciples of Jesus Christ. This insightful book makes a valuable contribution to recent reflection on the church. Always charitable in tone Jason Hallig calls us to a fresh and comprehensive understanding of what it means to be catholic for our time. He urges the church to move beyond sectarianism and theological differences to embody a genuine catholicity one that is anchored in the Trinity and expressed in a shared mission. This book deserves a wide hearing. --Dean Flemming Professor of New Testament and Missions MidAmerica Nazarene University Hallig captures an ecumenical flair that evangelical Christians have often abandoned. His timely treatise recovers the many and varied meanings of catholic. --Roderick T. Leupp Author of The Renewal of Trinitarian Theology In We Are Catholic Dr. Jason Hallig addresses one of the subtlest slowest developing theological shifts in ecclesiology. Early in the book he establishes that the discussion of the catholic nature of the Christian church is of far greater import than the etymological difference of substituting the word universal for catholic. Hallig recaptures the significance of the catholic church in relation to the Catholic Church to the benefit of all. --Clark G. Armstrong Assistant Professor of Christian Education & Pastoral Ministries Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary Metro Manila Philippines Jason Valeriano Hallig is Director and Professor of Philippine International College--Graduate School Antipolo City Rizal Philippines. He is Pastor of International Christian Fellowship Church of the Nazarene Taytay Rizal Philippines.