Koinonia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of an important ecclesiological concept called koinonia. This koinonia ecclesiology played a significant role in ecumenical dialogues, especially in the documents published by the Commission of Faith and Order. Being present at the very beginning of those ecumenical dialogues, the Orthodox Churches and their representatives made an impact in shaping this concept. By studying the Faith and Order conferences, The Church: Towards a Common Vision document and the Orthodox responses to it, this thesis seeks to find how much and to what extent this koinonia concept is framed by the Orthodox theology.

This paper represents an attempt to compare the meanings and foundations of the Adlerian concept of Gemeinschaftsgefühl and the Biblical concept of Koinonia, their relationships and implications to human and organization development. Central to the two concepts is the centrality of community as a vital component of human life. With the recent trends indicating a massive increase and spread of individualism, and with the emerging attempted responses, there is potential danger in accepting the fusion and merging of concepts without investigating their compatibility and validity. Such attempts run the possible risks of mixing up unrelated ideas, which may result in frustrations that accompany the attendant impracticability of the process. This study pursues the philosophical and historical foundations of Gemeinschaftsgefühl as well as the biblical theological meanings of koinonia and as a result establishes definite points of convergence and departure and the implications to human and organization development
The thoughts are reflected from the perspective of a reformed theologian pursuing the meaning of Gemeinschaftsgefühl as a major principle of Adlerian theory. With the Bible as key tool upon which the Adlerian concept is interrogated, community life is acknowledged by both viewpoints as a central aspect of human life whose quality is a vital measure of individual health. The result is a working understanding upon which communal life can be built in both human and organizational context. It is hoped that this study would provide a springboard upon which further investigations on the relationships and implications of the concepts to human and organization development can be advanced as well as provide a framework upon which further research can be undertaken.

This is an initial paper outling certain tehories of evangelism as practiced inthe Orthodox Church. It specirfically looks at different elements that are found in evangelism namely preaching, teaching, witnessing, confessing, serving and defending. It also begins a conversation on the koinoic aspect of evangelism as properly understood.

An increasing number of theologians assert that the Western world has moved from a Christendom era to a post-Christendom era. In relation to this, this article discusses the charge of sectarianism. The article argues that the task that lies before the church in the Western world in not to bypass its distinctiveness with accusations of sectarianism, but to recapitulate an understanding of its own distinctiveness that should be seen as a precondition for its engagement in society. Such an ecclesiological position holds, it is asserted, important potential for an understanding of the role of a missional church in a post-Christendom society.

Today's Christian ministry leaders across the Caribbean are faced a set of lived realities that challenge them to engage their problem solving skills if they are going to maintain any semblance of relevance and connectivity. The status quo, as described by Hurkmans is chilling. It is as fitting to the Caribbean region as it is to any other Geo-political space. " Never before in history has there been such a concentration of capital in the hands of so few people while the majority of people struggle to make ends meet. The real debt crisis is the lethal, global, economic crisis where two thirds of the world's population are oppressed by debt, living below the poverty line, dying of hunger, and subsequently excluded from the formal economy. " 1 In Jamaica a significant portion of the population struggles to make ends meet on the minimum wage, unemployment remains unacceptably high and the debt to GDP ratio is staggering. In the midst of those realities there is much evidence of the spread and reach of consumerism, the market driven lifestyles and the pursuit of materialism as a prime value. Increasingly the participation of locals in the annual shopping binge labeled 'Back Friday' is at fever pitch. Recently news broke that a young man who had found a bag containing approximately J $100,000.00 and returned it to the owner was ostracized by his community for his act of honesty. How did we get here? Is all this much ado about nothing? What's wrong with living the life, enjoying the fruits of your labour? Aren't we children of the King? Shouldn't we live as the princes and princesses that we are? This whole matter the discipline of simplicity isn't that pushing it a little too far? Should we take steps to insulate ourselves from greed and bowing down to the spirits of materialism and consumerism? How do we safeguard ourselves? Are the instructions given to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy relevant to life in this post modern world? Are there any guiding principles that can be lifted from the book to help us order our personal and corporate lives as disciples of Jesus around the priority of faithfulness to One God and an egalitarian society? What are some practical ways that we can approximate the ideals of Jubilee...

This article seeks to contribute to the process of reconciliation in South Africa. This is achieved by firstly exploring the meaning of ubuntu as a common culture or religion under a large percentage of South Africa’s people over the borders of language and other cultural values. In the second part of the article two concepts that play a major role in Christianity are explored, namely koinonia and diakonia. Again a large percentage of South Africans believe that the Bible is the Word of God in which the right way of living is described. A comparison is made between the core values of ubuntu and the way of living that emerges from the use of the two concepts of koinonia and diakonia in the New Testament. A way that can contribute to reconciliation is suggested from this comparison.

La maturité humaine peut être abordée de plusieurs points de vue : corporel, émotionnel, intellectuel et social par exemple. Y a-t-il aussi un point de vue théologique qui nous permette de dire ce qu’est la maturité humaine ? La réponse affirmative donnée dans cet article adopte un point de vue à la fois limité et vaste selon lequel la maturité concerne tout ce qui dans l'être et dans la vie humaine permet d’entrer en communion avec Dieu et inséparablement avec les hommes par la foi, la charité et l’espérance.

Article available upon request. This article consists of the summary of a comprehensive survey of the terms κοινωνία, κοινωνός, and κοινωνέω, in documentary sources (i.e., inscriptions and papyri). Moving beyond basic semantic questions, it focuses on the usages and pragmatic connotations of these cognates in a wide range of documentary contexts dating between ca. V B.C. and A.D. VII. Thereby it purports to broaden current understandings of the terms, draw attention to unsuspected or overlooked connotations, and highlight potentially relevant examples vis-à-vis the NT.

This paper consists of the summary of a comprehensive survey of the terms koinonia, koinonos, and koinoneo, in some 370 papyri and 100 inscriptions dating from V B.C.E. to VII C.E. It seeks to address a lacuna in modern scholarship, which has so far concentrated its attention on the use of the terms in literary sources and on their supposedly intrinsic theological significance, especially in Pauline literature (cf. Groenewald 1932; Campbell1932; Seesemann1933; Endenburg1937; Hainz 1981; and Baumert 2003).

Recognising the methodological problems and ideological leanings associated with earlier research, this study investigates a broad spectrum of primary material (i.e., papyri and inscriptions) from the perspective of the lingua franca of Paul and his communities. Leaving aside basic semantic and etymological questions, it focuses on the pragmatic usages and contextual connotations of these cognates in a wide range of documentary contexts, such as civic or religious decrees, commercial or marriage contracts, property leases, etc.

Thereby it purports to broaden current philological understandings of the terms, draws attention to unsuspected or overlooked connotations, and highlights potentially relevant examples vis-à-vis Paul’s letters.

This article is written based on the writer’s thesis entitled A Model for Christian Religious Educational Ministry through Building Up of a Koinonia Community in the Pluralistic Context of Indonesia. After identifying several problems that hamper the Indonesian Church in developing a koinonia community, the writer explores the concept of koinonia among Indonesian churches and to give solutions to the problems. The exploration of koinonia builds understanding to propose a model for Christian religious educational ministry for the Indonesian Churches with its religious pluralistic context. This model also can give a positive contribution to the Indonesian pluralistic society and its educational system as the context of the Church.

This article reflects on missional-diaconal practices in the ecumenical partnership between the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and the Reformed Church in Japan. In both – albeit radically different – contexts, the issue of church formation in a secular age is at stake. How can these Reformed faith communities remain relevant in their respective societies? Can deeper fellowship (koinonia) and more direct community involvement (diakonia), constructively embody the gospel and foster church formation? It is indicated that in light of frequent natural disasters, sharing God’s compassion in concrete ways have become vital to these churches’ existence. Christians face new challenges, as they deepen their involvement in existential challenges caused by the disasters and other existing socio-political realities. In this regard the potential of missional-diaconal practices of local congregations are explored. It is argued that diakonia in all its dimensions embodies the Missio Dei and contributes to church formation in significant ways.

Plato’s Symposium stages a playful subversion of paiderastia by philosophia through successive interconnected speeches. Phaedrus and Agathon praise Erōs as a god presiding over homoerotic relationships, be it at war or at peace. Pausanias and Eryximachus distinguish between two Erōtes, being eager to supervise these paiderastic communities or even the cosmic harmony. But Aristophanes subverts their perspective by introducing the Androgyne, a combination of male and female, which being displayed by Socrates-Diotima will finally give birth to the Erōs-Daimōn. Only he ensures us real human community by enabling true communion with the divine, witness Alcibiades’ final praise of Socrates.

The Acts of the Apostles speaks often about the social work of the Church through recurring concepts such as koinonia, mercy, hospitality and philanthropy. This paper deals with the ways that the Book of Acts promotes harmony in conditions of diversity (such as religious, cultural, or political pluralism). Several texts will be compared and interpreted to draw a clear picture of the Church’s call to serve the world and to witness Christian Faith in words and deeds. The world can be healed with the power of the Divine Word. This does not happen only by
preaching and teaching, but also by acting and caring for the needed and the poor. The theological narrative of Acts shows how the Christian faith - the Way, as Luke likes to call it - grants a new understanding of reality and calls people to break the rules of worldly wisdom and to behave according to the wisdom of the Kingdom, where the principles of social relation are redefined through the lens of the Resurrection.

Resumen: La razón fundamental por la que, según cierto modelo historiográfico el Parménides platónico constituye un diálogo de crisis en el desarrollo del pensamiento de Platón, es la supuesta presencia en él de una crítica de la Teoría de las Ideas del período medio-Fedón, Banquete, República. La insuficiencia de esa teoría consistiría en una concepción de las Ideas como unidades absolutamente simples y completamente aisladas que les impediría cumplir la función para la cual habrían sido concebidas. Esa función solo podría ser cumplida por una nueva concepción relacional de las Ideas que estaría sugerida en el Parménides y desarrollada en el Sofista. Así pues, por contraste con la que yo llamaría una estrategia del silencio (p. ej. Cordero, 2014, 2016), quisiera 1) insistir en que la noción de koinōnía es fundamental e imprescindible para el proyecto de la República, pues su tema central, la noción de justicia, es impensable sin la noción de koinōnía entre las Ideas; y 2) hacer notar el uso de esa noción de justicia en el Parménides (cf. 150a), precisamente en conexión con la cuestión de la interrelación eidética (143a-b) y la concepción de la Idea como un todo (ὅλον) "que ha surgido como un uno a partir de todos las partes-ἐξ ἁπάντων ἓν τέλειον γεγονός" (157e1, ἓν ἐκ πολλῶν, 157c6, ἓν τέλειον μόρια ἔχον, 157e4).

Meeting in the Temple When the infant Jesus was presented in the Temple and raised in the arms of old Simeon, who moved stammered his Nunc dimittis, the nature and the role of youth and mature age in God's plan were revealed in the fullness of light. Hypapante (Ὑπαπάντη), that is to say, " Encounter " which the Eastern's call the salvific encounter contained in and reproduced by the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, popularly known as Candelaria. In fact, not only does the he encounter takes place between the Old and the New Covenant, between the expectation and the fulfilment, between the divinity offered and the humanity received, but also-by antonomasia-between the young and the old, between the vigor and wisdom. In the early light of that Candelaria that mutual exchange took place, that sacred trade between the generations that will be and is the secret of the vitality of families and Christian communities throughout the centuries: the silent delivery of the child answered the jubilant hymn and prophecy of the elderly; the poor and youthful offering of the Virgin echoed the praise of the widow. Jesus and Simeon, Mary and Anna the daughter of Phanuel, represent in advance, between admiration and joy, all driven by the Spirit which makes the encounter between men possible, that sacred reciprocity secular wisdom of the monks, condensed in the Rule of St. Benedict (RB), summed up in the sentence: " venerate the elders, love the younger. " 1 The two passages of the RB in which these recommendation appears are those of Benedict, in contrast to the Rule of the Master (RM), his model, which does not contain them, as noted by Adalbert de Vogüé O.S.B., (1924-2011 †). It gives the impression that this issue is particularly dear to the editor of the RB, and also the passages which emphasise the importance of the opinion of the young before the elderly, are characteristic and peculiar 2 to them. If you innovate with respect toward young people, Benedict follows the oldest tradition in the description of the role of the elders: these are the model that young people should imitate (7:55); to them they must submit in obedience (71:4); they must be treated with deference (63: 10-17); they are the comforters par excellence (27:2-3) and the guardians of the chastity of the young (22:7), and as gatekeepers (66:1) and master of novices (58:6) their mission being the welcoming of guests and postulants. In respecting and cultivating these values monasticism finds its human balance and at the same time builds a guarantee for its continuity throughout time. This generational harmony RB 4, 70-71 y 63:10. Please refer to the explanation of the abbreviations and the editions that we 1 have used in the bibliography. RB 3:3; 63:5-6; 64:2.

Philip Kariatlis is a lecturer of theology at St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College, Sydney, Australia. In 2010 he received his doctorate in Ecclesiology from the Sydney College of Divinity. His research interests lie in Church doctrine, specifically its existential ...

http://www.sunypress.edu/p-6473-religious-agrarianism-and-the-r.aspx
Examines religious communities as advocates of environmental stewardship and sustainable agriculture practices.

Writing at the interface of religion and nature theory, US religious history, and environmental ethics, Todd LeVasseur presents the case for the emergence of a nascent “religious agrarianism” within certain subsets of Judaism and Christianity in the United States. Adherents of this movement, who share an environmental concern about the modern industrial food economy and a religiously grounded commitment to the values of locality, health, and justice, are creating new models for sustainable agrarian lifeways and practices. LeVasseur explores this greening of US religion through an extensive engagement with the scholarly literature on lived religion, network theory, and grounded theory, as well as through ethnographic case studies of two intentional communities at the vanguard of this movement: Koinonia Farm, an ecumenical Christian lay monastic community, and Hazon, a progressive Jewish environmental group.

The term ‘spiritual oecumenicity’ suggests that people value some kind of ‘spiritual’ unity among churches and believes higher than ‘official’ or ‘canonical’ boundaries. In practice, however, the latter often prove stronger. This article traces this problem to the beginning of the church and suggests that it is caused by an incorrect concept of episcopal authority.

I will discuss the importance of the real presence in our sacraments. We will look at how Christ must be present to make the German theological understanding of subject-object love that is only sustainable through the Holy Spirit. Subject-object understanding is necessary for proper understanding of the sacraments and proper preaching.