Perpetually reforming : a theology of Church reform and renewal / John P. Bradbury.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [223]-228) and indexes.

1. Introduction. The problem with 'church' -- The church in the twenty-first century context -- The church, theology and the theologian -- An outline of the work as a whole -- 2. Visible and invisible? The contours of a problem -- John Calvin : the dualism of election -- Karl Barth : the dualism of time and eternity -- Locating the 'problem' of ecclesiological dualisms -- 3. Confessional Identities. The practice of confessing -- Attending to a confessional voice : the basis of union of the united reformed church -- Re-formation and confessional identities -- 4. Confessional re-formation the example of the church and the Jewish people. Calvin and classic reformed confessional texts -- Karl Barth and contemporary reformed confessions of faith -- The process of re-formation -- The implications of re-formation -- 5. Biblical re-formations. Covenantal re-formations -- A covenant with all : Noah and the first covenant -- The covenant with Abraham : the election of a sociality -- The Sinai covenant : the centrality of the practice of law -- New covenants? -- Renewing the canon : scripture re-reading scripture -- 6. The covenantal Identity of the church -- The 'new' covenant in Christ -- Jesus and the extensive ecclesial movement -- Orientations to the future -- Why the church? -- 7. The practices of Identity renewal -- The mediation of social identity : the contribution of 'collective memory' -- Practices of remembrance : collective memory in the Deuteronomic tradition -- The reformatory practices of the Church -- 8. Toward the reformation of the church. The church and the world -- Finding our orientations -- Reforming and renewing scriptural practices -- Perpetual reformation.