Includes bibliographical references and index.

The church: unity and multiplicity -- Rethinking ecumenical theology -- New paths in ecumenical theology -- The hermeneutics of unity -- Towards a deeper reception of 'reception' -- Confessionalism or a confessing church? -- Episcopacy: focus of unity or cause of division? -- Building and breaking communion -- Ethics and communion: the new frontier in ecumenism -- Forging communion in the face of difference.

Reshaping Ecumenical Theology is a major contribution to the study of the Church. It provides an clear and authoritative orientation for the student, while probing deep into a range of key issues in ecclesiology and ecumenical dialogue from a critical standpoint that will stimulate discussion among scholars and ecumenists. It reclaims some old orthodoxies, while challenging some new ones, and points to a deeper and more personal engagement with the major traditions of the Christian Church as the way to fuller unity and more effective mission. Contesting Ecumenical Theology argues that the valu