God and the Church of God

: the dogmatic ecclesiology of Colin E. Gunton and John B. Webster through the lens of Church conflict

Abstract

This dissertation examines Colin E. Gunton’s and John B. Webster’s dogmatic ecclesiology, focusing on how their respective approaches address the issue of Church conflict. Its central argument is threefold. Firstly, Webster’s dogmatic ontological approach offers more conceptual resources for articulating God’s asymmetrical, non-competitive relationship and intimate presence with the Church community than Gunton’s personal-relational ontological approach. Secondly, despite this advantage, Webster’s approach does not sufficiently clarify whether conflict, including Church conflicts, is necessarily sinful. Thirdly, in light of the strengths and weaknesses of Gunton’s and Webster’s respective approaches, this dissertation seeks to expand the discussion by constructively incorporating additional resources to develop further the trajectories that they initiated but did not fully explore, particularly regarding whether conflict—defined as disagreement with tension—can be perceived as part of God’s good creation, such that we may understand the Church as ‘a community of argument’.

Date of Award	2 Jul 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Oliver Crisp (Supervisor)