Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction / Michael L. Budde -- Part one: Identities, allegiances, and theological reflections. Thinking thelogically about identity and allegiances: parables of a "new we" / Emmanuel Katongole -- ItThinking theologically about identities, allegiances, and discipleship / Dorian Llywelyn -- Church matters / Stanley Hauerwas -- Part two: History, context, theology, and eschatology: notes, experiences, suggestions, and possibilities. Engaging European contexts and issues: some reflections / Daniel Izuzquiza -- he challenge of being a Catholic in a liberal secular Europe / A. Alexander Stummvoll -- Multiple Caesars? Germany, Bavaria, and German Catholics in the interwar period / Martin Menke -- Catholicism and belonging, in this world / tSlavica Jakelić -- Multiple belongings and transnational processes of Catholic formation in an Eastern Catholic Church / Peter Galadza -- Baptismal and ethnocultural community: a case study of Greek Orthodoxy / Pantelis Kalaitzidis -- African cases and theological reflections / Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator -- Cases and controversies from Africa / Eunice Karanja Kamaara -- Poverty, injustice, and plurality: a complex question for Catholics in Latin America / Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer -- A crown of counterrevolutionary thorns? Mexico's Consecration to the Sacred Heart: January 6, 1914 / Matthew Butler -- Kenotic identities: political self-emptying and redefined belongings / Branden P. Anderson -- Is Catholicism a religion? Catholicism and nationalism in America / William T. Cavanaugh -- Imagining identity/community as Christian/Filipino: implications for doing theology in East Asian contexts / Jose Mario C. Francisco -- Part three: In lieu of a conclusion. Loyalties, allegiances, and discipleship: facing the challenges / Michael L. Budde.

People worldwide find themselves part of overlapping communities of identity and belonging--racial, political, cultural, sexual, ideological. Some identities, like brand loyalties, are chosen; some, like class identity, are imposed. As followers of Jesus Christ, those called to live in between the age that is and the age to come, Christians ask what it means to be part of the body of Christ, God's new creation from among the nations, in a world filled with other nations.'Who--and whose--are we?'There is no easy answer, no time at which Christians got it completely right. Yet such questions must be addressed, and the stakes are high. Matters of war and peace, exclusion and inclusion, who starves and who does not, the credibility of the gospel itself--all are caught up in the whirl of identities, allegiances imposed or refused, and questions about what'the church'might possibly mean in such circumstances. In this book, a distinguished group of scholars from five continents asks, 'How can the church respect the diversity of its members--many nations, cultures, and communities--while maintaining a coherent witness to the kingdom of God that is not undermined by more parochial ideologies or priorities?'