This is the product of the official German Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue and the first major Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical statement since the ground-breking Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999. It focuses on the ecclesiastical issues that the Joint Declaration identified as the remaining obstacles to Lutheran-Catholic communion. The metaphor of the Church as the Communion of Saints serves as a framework for addressing ecumenical issues such as sacraments, ministry, the role of the Church in salvation, and the papacy.

Here is offered the complete text in translation, annotated by the German and American editors. The historical context is explained and textual commentary is provided in a Foreword and Afterword.

Newly revised and expanded, this is the perfect introduction to the beliefs of Catholicism and a unique and invaluable guide for studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This revised and expanded edition of The Creed is highly recommended for students of Ecclesiology, Christology, Church History, and Catechetical Theology. Unique among the many commentaries on the classic formulas of Christian faith, this book does not simply relate the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostle's Creed to the apostolic faith of the New Testament, but presents them in light of contemporary theological issues. The revised edition features updated, expanded text, a glossary, and enhanced bibliographic resources.

The saints are good company. They are the heroes of the faith who blazed new and creative paths to holiness; they are the witnesses whose testimonies echo throughout the ages in the memory of the Church. Most Christians, and particularly Catholics, are likely to have their own favorite saints, those who inspire and “speak” to believers as they pray and struggle through the challenges of their own lives. Leonard DeLorenzo’s book addresses the idea of the communion of saints, rather than individual saints, with the conviction that what makes the saints holy and what forms them into a communion is one and the same. Work of Love investigates the issue of communication within the communio sanctorum and the fullness of Christian hope in the face of the meaning—or meaninglessness—of death. In an effort to revitalize a theological topic that for much of Catholic history has been an indelible part of the Catholic imaginary, DeLorenzo invokes the ideas of not only many theological figures (Rahner, Ratzinger, Balthasar, and de Lubac, among others) but also historians, philosophers (notably Heidegger and Nietzsche), and literary figures (Rilke and Dante) to create a rich tableau. By working across several disciplines, DeLorenzo argues for a vigorous renewal in the Christian imagination of the theological concept of the communion of saints. He concludes that the embodied witness of the saints themselves, as well as the liturgical and devotional movements of the Church at prayer, testifies to the central importance of the communion of saints as the eschatological hope and fulfillment of the promises of Christ.

In Christ Existing as Community, Michael Mawson recovers and clarifies the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's early and important work on ecclesiology, focusing especially on his doctoral dissertation Sanctorum Communio. Despite occasional pronouncements of the importance of this dissertation, it has still received only limited scholarly attention. Mawson demonstrates how Bonhoeffer draws upon and reworks social theory in order to develop an account of the church as a reality of God's revelation and a concrete human community. On this basis Mawson concludes that Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology has ongoing significance for contemporary debates in theology and Christian ethics.

Cardinal Kasper is a distinguished theologian who was a colleague of Cardinal Ratzinger, Karl Rahner, and Hans Kung at The Universities of Münster and Tübingen. Kasper now heads the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity, with the specific task of fostering relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian Churches and Ecclesial communities. Here he outlines his vision for the unity of Christian Churches. A man with an open mind, Kasper covers one of the major responsibilities of the contemporary Catholic Church. His perspective of the uniqueness of The Catholic Church and its magisterium is presented here as a modern inquiry into the nature of truth. His views are enlightening and engaging, and reflect the important role of dialogue as understood by the Catholic Church, which also listen to other traditions and learn from them. Many will read it in the hope that the thought of this renowned, open-minded Church leader may give hope to people of all traditions that they may learn to understand Jesus's injunction - 'they may be one'.