878 JOURNAL OF CHURCH AND STATE

will come—when people will once again be called to utter the Word of God in
such a way that the world is changed and renewed under this Word."

RICHARD T . SELLERS
OAK GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH
CHINA SPRING, TEXAS

The Church as Koinonia of Salvation: Its Structures and Ministries. Edited by

Randall Lee and Jeffrey Cros, FSC. Washington, D.C: United States
Conference ofCatholic Bishops, 2005. 293pp. $34.95 paper.

This monograph is a resource for the continuing dialogue between

representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Marking the fifth anniversary
of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the two church
bodies, this statement attempts to further clarify issues that must be addressed
before "full, sacramental communion can be restored" (p. 1) while recognizing
that important questions like the ordination of women, ecclesiastical authority,
and apostolic succession remain unresolved.
The statement text is approximately ninety-three pages long supported by
forty-three pages of notes. It is divided into a series of paragraphs, all titled in
the table of contents. It starts with a general consideration of koinonia, a non-
controversial term for Lutherans and Catholics, which refers to the
relationship of justified believers with God as it occurs in their fellowship with
the godhead and with each other. How that fellowship has been realized in
the local, regional, and universal churches has differed between Lutherans
and Catholics, though their theologies and practices have not necessarily
contradicted each other. For example, the Catholic fellowship emphasizes the
office of bishop possessing "fullness of orders," or full sacramental authority,
with the result being that the fullness of "church" is realized only in a bishop's
parish or diocese. Lutherans, however, emphasize that where the Word and
Sacraments are taught and conferred, there the parish resides. In this way,
Lutheran ecclesiology emphasizes the congregation and the pastor while
Catholicism emphasizes the bishop and diocese.
From this starting point, different answers have arisen between the two
denominations concerning contentious issues such as women's ordination and
apostolic succession. In Catholicism, where bishops have so much authority,
apostolic succession is critical. On the other hand, such authority does not
allow one to break the tradition of a male-only episcopacy, at least as it is
understood within Catholicism. However, Lutherans have felt the freedom to
ordain women, given their sense of apostoUc succession residing in the
practice of the Word and Sacraments. Notable then is the joint
recommendation found in paragraph 117 requesting that the "bishop of
Rome . . . manifest more visibly its subjection to the gospel in service to the
koinonia of salvation" (p. 53).
The document's strength is its description of Lutheran and Catholic
 BOOK REVIEWS 879

positions regarding ecclesial structures and how each church arrived at those
positions theologically and historically. The fullness of these descriptions is
evident in the historical and theological essays in the latter half of the volume.
While it is unfortunate that these essays have been published as working
documents, thereby lacking sometimes the progressive thought of an essay,
this is probably a result of the authors' mandate as the essays contain helpful
discussions, even if in summary form. Topics include the diaconate,
presbyterate, differences between human and divine authority, and ecclesial
universality and particularity. The essays are helpful as background to the
final document and in indicating directions forward in the continuing
dialogue.

BRYAN HILLIS
LUTHER COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY OF REGINA
REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN

Christian Community in History: Comparative Ecclesiology, vol 2. By Roger

Haight, S.J. New York and London: Continuum, 2005. ix + 518 pp. $34.95.

Roger Haight has written a magisterial summary of the major

developments in ecclesiology from the Reformation to the present. The book
demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the various strands of
ecclesiastical thought, ranging from the work of Luther, Calvin, and Trent,
through modem ecumenical thought. It is impossible to vmte such a book
without some omissions, and this volume is no exception. To cite some
examples, there is little on Anglicanism after Hooker, including the
Tractarians, and no section on the Social Cospel. As with many such works,
however, the real test is not in what is omitted as much as it is in the inclusion
of details. In the balance between comprehension and detailed knowledge, the
work is masterful. Haight's method is to locate the most important texts, to
subject them to rigorous analysis, and summarize their importance for the
larger discussion.
Haight's treatment of the World Council of Churches illustrates of his
method and its results. While he notes that the WCC is "not a church but is
an ecclesial institution," he credits it for much of the common ground
currently experienced among Protestant churches (p. 383). In this context,
Haight presents a thoughtful analysis of the WCC's understanding of other
rehgions. This discussion is rooted in an analysis of the 1990 document,
"Religious Plurality," that stresses the Trinitarian stance taken by that
document. Haight treats the nuances of contemporary Pentecostahsm in a
similar way. A number of other extremely well-done and cogent analyses are
represented within a very short compass. The reader gets a thorough
discussion of the key documents, is directed towards the relevant passages,
and led to sound, well thought out conclusions.
In my opinion, Christian Community in History is a book that will be an