Like a Mighty Army

Description

Prior to the 1948 inauguration of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Karl Barth challenged the churches to engage in 'real strict sober genuine theology' in order that the unity of the church might be visibly realised. At that time, The Salvation Army did not aspire to become formally known as a church, even though it became a founding member of the WCC. Today it is globally known as a social welfare organisation, concerned especially to serve the needs of those who find themselves at the margins of society. Less well known is that seventy years after Barth's challenge, The Salvation Army has made its peace with the view that it is a church denomination. Accepting Barth's challenge to the churches, and in dialogue with his own ecumenical ecclesiology, the concept of the church as an army is interrogated in service to The Salvation Army's developing understanding of its identity and to the visible unity of God's church.