ABSTRACT
READERS MAY HAVE EXPECTED THE TOPIC of ‘church’ to have been consideredwell before now in a book about Christian theology. After all, the church is the most public face of Christianity. It is the church which makes the headlines for its failures, and when Christian statements are sought by the media. And in theology, it is recognized that the church ‘carries’ Christian theology as a tradition, and is the context within which the ritual practices of Christianity are performed. So why wait till now to examine it as a concept?
