To Be Welcomed as Christ

Mainstream American evangelicalism is facing an identity crisis. Many wonder whether or not evangelical communities can become safe spaces that better enable people to enjoy, love, and know God and all that God cares about. This book, in honor of Dennis Okholm's decades of leadership in the academy and the church, commends the ways in which he has attempted to help his own communities flourish. His goal of filling the pews with theologically and biblically literate Christians is a much-needed example of steadiness and wisdom to an otherwise turbulent reality facing those who wish to maintain some association with the evangelical label. The emphases that appear in the contributions to this book represent Okholm's passion for the life of the church, his desire for evangelicalism to be a more hospitable home for all within its fold and in relation to other communities, and his desire for friendship and community to have a more prominent role in theological and biblical reflection. To Be Welcomed as Christ offers an example for engaging one's own community and the communities of others with the hospitality of Christ.

Table of Contents

1. Theology as a Healing Art

Ellen T. Charry

2. To Be Welcomed as Christ--Into the Church

Todd Hunter

3. Participating in God's Mission: A Proposal at the Boundaries of Evangelicalism

Justin Ashworth

4. Evangelicalism: A Home for All of Us

Vincent Bacote

5. Herstory:

Reclaiming Women's Voices for the Evangelical Tradition

Jennifer Buck

6. Thinking Theologically about Interfaith Dialogue

Richard J. Mouw

7. Talking with Evangelicals: The Latter-day Saint-Evangelical Dialogue in Retrospect

Robert Millet

8. The Monkhood of All Believers: On Monasticism Old and New

Rodney Clapp

9. When Friends Become Siblings: A Pauline Theology of Friendship

Scot McKnight

10. Wiri Nina in the Body of Christ: Considering Friendship from an African Perspective

David Fugoyo-Baime

11. Of All These Friends and Lovers: Remembering the Body and the Blood

Craig Keen

12. Is it OK to be Proud of Your Humility?

Robert Roberts

13. Dennis Okholm

Michael McNichols

Epilogue: At the Advice of a Sister: The Benedictine Way for the Unexpected

Benet Tvedten, OSB