The laity (the body of ordinary lay-members of the Church) has seldom enjoyed the distinction of being treated with care and thoroughness as a matter of specific theological importance or significance. The subsidiary treatment by the professional theologians, argues Hendrick Kraemer, "is an inexcusable lack and an indication of a partly mis-oriented understanding of the Church in its wholeness." Kraemer's A Theology of the Laity, first published in 1958 was one of the first comprehensive attempts at constructing a theology of the whole people of God. It remains a foundational and important...