Nordstokke, Kjell

About the author: Dr. Kjell Nordstokke received his Th.D. at the University of Oslo. He has taught at the School of Theology and Mission in Stavanger, Norway; been a missionary and parish pastor in Brazil; Leader of the Office for Development Education, National Council of the Church of Norway; Assistant Professor in Systematic Theology in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil. He is currently Director of Diakonihjemmet College, Oslo. He has published several books in Norwegian, mainly on the Latin American Church and Theology.

Council and Context in Leonardo Boff's Ecclesiology the Rebirth of the Church Among the Poor

1996 0-7734-8784-0
This study contains a broad analysis of Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff's ecclesiology and shows its roots, both in the conciliar theology in the aftermath of Vatican II, in the tradition of Franciscan spirituality, and above all in the experiences of the Basic Christian Communities. In Brazil, the Basic Christian Communities have become a popular movement and a new way of being a church. Leonardo Boff interprets this experience as a rebirth of the church among the poor, as a critique of the traditional Church and a model for renewal. The volume analyzes the conflict between Boff and the Vatican over his book Church: Charism and Power, for which the Vatican's Congregation of Faith, under the leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger, punished Boff with a year of "silencio obsequioso".