Dismantling the Servant Paradigm and Recovering The Forgotten Heritage of Early Christian Ministry

This book demands responses to what ministry should effect in churches. John N Collins raised this challenge in his 1990 research volume Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources. Over three decades scholars recognised the theological somersault this study represents, but church bodies have largely chosen not to disturb inherited ministries. The same decades have also been witnessing what appears to be the slow death of conventional church life. Nowhere perhaps is this more evident than in the Roman Catholic tradition to which Collins belongs. A bishop theologian of his country declared that in the light of his work "this whole area of theology can never be the same." With a Plenary Council of Australian bishops scheduled for 2022, Collins hopes their consultations will include women and men in authentic ministry.