Walking Together Under Heaven: Traversing between Reformed Catholicity, Synodality, and Tianxia Philosophy Available to Purchase

Synodality is an exciting and new initiative for certain churches but catholicity, being a site of theological contestation, makes synodality a double-edged sword. For one, it empowers the People of God to be subjects, yet, because all God’s people in the church can hold deeply personal perspectives on matters of faith and practice, synodality could simply bare the divisions that already exist between various individuals and groups in the church. As a way forward, this article argues that for synodality to become transformational, two virtues are necessary. The article resources the Chinese concept of tianxia to venture that the two synodal virtues are ecclesiological humility and reciprocal nondomination. The article closes with a reflection on Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti as a theological demonstration of synodal virtues functioning in church and society.