Introduction

[Extract] This collection of essays represents the culmination of an ambitious project that sought to engage the theological academy with a practical ecclesial task, namely to support efforts to bridge the divide between faith, theology and life. Arguably such a divide serves to exacerbate the marginalisation of Christianity within Western culture. Two consequences of this developing reality, experienced by most Christian denominations, are the steady decline in ecclesial practice and essentially the growing perception of ecclesial irrelevance in issues of critical public debate. Spiritually minded people in Western societies seem to believe, but don’t belong, while the ‘turn to the subject’, so evident in the growing antipathy towards religious institutions, affirms the necessity for theology to be fully attuned to culture.