Participation in God and the Nature of Christian Community: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores the theme of the church's participation in God by way of two contemporary theologians' accounts of the matter: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel. Specifically, the question of how Jenson's and Jüngel's respective accounts of the church's participation in God determine their accounts of the church's presence in and to the world is explored. The theme of ‘mission’ is taken up along the way, and it is suggested that Jenson's construal of the church's place in God prevents a sustained account of the church's sending into the world. Jüngel's construal of the church's participation in God, it is argued, allows for an alternative depiction of the church's presence in and to the world that accounts for the fundamentally missionary nature of the Christian community.