Emil Brunner’s Ecclesiology in light of His involvement in the Mukyokai Controversy

Abstract

While many pastors and missionaries during Brunner’s time in Japan felt troubled, shaken, and betrayed by Brunner’s sympathy for the Non-Church movement or the Mukyokai, the question remains as to whether this was a radical new development in Brunner’s theology. This essay will argue, first, that had the missionaries understood and engaged Brunner’s mature ecclesiology, they would have understood Brunner’s sympathy for the Mukyokai; second, that Brunner’s ecclesiology did develop from The Divine Imperative to The Misunderstanding of the Church, but that this development remained consistent within the boundaries he set forth in his earlier ecclesiology, and third, that Brunner’s involvement in the Mukyokai controversy did not lead to a softening or revision of his ecclesiological proposals in his later work.