Book Description
The church would not be the church of Jesus Christ if it failed to fulfill the one mission bestowed upon it by Jesus Christ after his resurrection, namely to preach and teach the gospel. The church owes its very existence to the word and sacrament. The voice of the preacher can be heard by all. The water of baptism is visible to all. The bread and wine can be tasted by all. The themes of this book have been the daily passions of Frederick Trost: The church's faithful worship, sound theology, fellowship of love, and mission of justice to a divided and violent world. The writers develop their themes on the nature and purposed of the church in acknowledgement of Trost's faithful ministry in and in that church.
About the Author
The authors include: Browne Barr, Victoria Barnett, Lee Barrett III, Martha Ann Baumer, Walter Brueggeman, John Burkhart, Mark Burrows, Bishop Jon Enslin, Kathryn Greene-McCreight, Reinhard Groscurth, Christa Gengel, Douglas John Hall, Kirsten Herzog, George Hunsinger, Daniel Maguire, J. Clinton McCann, Jr., Gail O'Day, Stephen Patterson, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Max Stackhouse, John Thomas, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Eugene Wehrli, Paul Westermeyer
In Essentials Unity: Reflections on the Nature and Purpose of the Church: In Honor of Frederick R. Trost FROM THE PUBLISHER
The contributions of this volume honor the life and ministry of Frederick Richard Trost. The wide range and variety of the pieces reflect the scope and multiple facets of his ministry. He has been a pastor, author, editor, judicatory officer, denominational and ecumenical leader, theological educator, prophetic witness in national and international politics, and quickener of the conscience of a generation. His friendship and compassion have touched people in all dimensions of the life of the church and society. It is no wonder, then, that there should be such a variety of responses to what God has wrought in the ministry of Frederick Trost. Moreover, it should be no surprise that in a book celebrating his forty-year ministry that various genres appear side by side: essays of a more scholarly bent, sermons on several occasions, prayers of the people of God, and, in the epilogue, personal narratives of Frederick's ministry. The themes that emerge time and again in this book have been the daily passions of Frederick Trost: The church's faithful worship, sound theology, fellowship of love, and mission of justice to a divided and violent world.
Frederick Richard Trost served as President and Minister of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ 1981-2000. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale University Divinity School, he studied theology at Heidelberg University and served as a Vikar in the Evangelical (United) Church of Baden in the German Federal Republic. In 1962 he was called to the parish ministry at St. Pauls United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he remained until 1981. During those years, the congregation was deeply involved in inner city ministries, founding a center for exceptional children, a food pantry for street people, and helping to develop affordable housing for the urban poor, as well as a ministry to alienated young people with addictions and other needs. Frederick Trost has wide ecumenical interests. He has been instrumental in the formation of ecumenical partnerships between the Wisconsin Conference and the Evangelical Church of the Union (Germany), the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom, the Evangelical and Reformed Synod of Honduras, and with Haus Villigst, a continuing education center of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, developing numerous international theological colloquies among laity and pastors. The years of his ministry in Chicago and in Wisconsin have been marked by a commitment to the teaching ministry of the Church and to the relationship of word and deed in Christian proclamation. Pastor Trost is editor, with M. Douglas Meeks and Jurgen Moltmann of Theology and Corporate Conscience: Essays in Honor of Frederick Herzog, and of Oratio: Prayers for the Church Year and for Special Occasions, both published by Kirk House, and, with Barbara Brown Zikmund of The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ (Pilgrim Press). He has served as editor of several theological journals, Including No Other Foundation. He is married to Louise Herrman Trost and they have five children.
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