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Ecumenical Addresses: Presentations at Ecumenical Gatherings

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

in Speaking the Truth in Love: Theological and Spiritual Exhortations of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

This chapter presents the Patriarch's various ecumenical addresses including the encyclical for Sunday of Orthodoxy 2010; greetings to the Papal Delegation, Ecumenical Patriarchate; addresses at the ... More

This chapter presents the Patriarch's various ecumenical addresses including the encyclical for Sunday of Orthodoxy 2010; greetings to the Papal Delegation, Ecumenical Patriarchate; addresses at the World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches, and National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA; and occasional addresses and messages.Less

That the World May Believe: Christian Mission to the Modern World

Brian Stanley

in Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History

This chapter explores how the Catholic and Protestant churches respectively reconceived their theologies of mission in the final four decades of the twentieth century. Particular attention is devoted ... More

This chapter explores how the Catholic and Protestant churches respectively reconceived their theologies of mission in the final four decades of the twentieth century. Particular attention is devoted to the Second Vatican Council of 1962–65, the Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1968, and the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization convened by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1974. It was not accidental that this process of fundamental revision was concentrated on the 1960s and 1970s—decades that witnessed the rapid dismantling of the Western colonial empires, the emergence of the “Third World” as an ideological bloc, and the highly charged political atmosphere of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Neither the Catholic nor the Protestant missionary movements were the offspring of colonialism, but both regularly employed the language of global Christian dominion and both tried to use colonial governments to forward their evangelistic objectives. It was thus inevitable that the anticolonial invective of these decades should not leave the churches' overseas missionary activities unscathed. These years were also an era of social and intellectual ferment in European societies. Movements of revolutionary protest against established institutions and their perceived role in the perpetuation of structural injustice and international capitalism swept through university campuses. The historic churches and their governing hierarchies were often caught in the gunfire. Their formulation of their role in the world and even of their message itself could not be unaffected.Less

Messages and Declarations

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

in Speaking the Truth in Love: Theological and Spiritual Exhortations of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

This chapter presents the Patriarch's messages and declarations including those to heads of Orthodox Churches, declarations with the Pope, and reflections on the World Council of Churches.

Is Christ Divided?: The Ecumenical Movement and Its Converse

Brian Stanley

in Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History

This chapter examines the ecumenical movement. The twentieth century has sometimes been denominated by historians of Christianity as “the ecumenical century.” Narratives of the ecumenical movement ... More

This chapter examines the ecumenical movement. The twentieth century has sometimes been denominated by historians of Christianity as “the ecumenical century.” Narratives of the ecumenical movement typically begin with the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh in June of 1910, which assembled some 1,215 Protestant delegates from various parts of the globe to devise a more effective common strategy for the evangelization of the world. Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the Edinburgh conference has been widely identified as the birthplace of the formal ecumenical movement. Without it, there would be no World Council of Churches. Yet serious attempts to bridge divisions between Protestant Christians were already under way in India and China before 1910. Furthermore, the World Missionary Conference was precisely that—a gathering of mission executives and missionaries convened to consider questions of missionary policy. Delegates represented missionary agencies rather than churches, and discussion of questions of doctrine and church order was forbidden, in deference to the Church of England, whose endorsement would not have been given if the conference had been expected to discuss matters of faith and order with Nonconformists. The chapter then looks at the failure and success of the ecumenical movement.Less

All God’s House hold

Michael G. Thompson

in For God and Globe: Christian Internationalism in the United States between the Great War and the Cold War

This chapter argues for interwar ecumenism's place in the history of international thought and interwar internationalism, rather than simply in the ecclesial prehistory to the World Council of ... More

This chapter argues for interwar ecumenism's place in the history of international thought and interwar internationalism, rather than simply in the ecclesial prehistory to the World Council of Churches. Surveying the major conferences of the 1920s—Peking 1922, Stockholm 1925, and Jerusalem 1928—the chapter highlights the major themes and debates in 1920s ecumenical internationalism. These include the stress on racial equality as a matter of theological confession as well as political activism, and the unresolved tensions between Anglo-American social Christianity and Continental theology, which both politically and philosophically were suspicious of an internationalism shaped merely by American “aktivismus.” Given the differences between the conferences, the ecumenical movement in the 1920s might better be seen as a plurality, as many “ecumenical movements,” rather than a single ecumenical movement.Less

World

Alister Chapman

in Godly Ambition: John Stott and the Evangelical Movement

John Stott became one of the leading figures of the global evangelical movement. This chapter explains his growing prominence. It looks at his leadership in the evangelical Lausanne movement, which ... More

John Stott became one of the leading figures of the global evangelical movement. This chapter explains his growing prominence. It looks at his leadership in the evangelical Lausanne movement, which aimed to bring together evangelicals to further the spread of the gospel worldwide and served as an evangelical counterpart to the World Council of Churches. The obstacles to evangelical unity are discussed. The chapter also examines the foundations Stott set up to support leaders in churches in the non-Western world.Less

Rome

Thomas Albert Howard

in The Faiths of Others: A History of Interreligious Dialogue

This chapter takes a look at the Second World War's aftermath and its profound and enduring implications for interreligious dialogue. It recounts the establishment of The World Council of Churches in ... More

This chapter takes a look at the Second World War's aftermath and its profound and enduring implications for interreligious dialogue. It recounts the establishment of The World Council of Churches in 1948 to help rebuild society and promote Christian ecumenism, later turning to interreligious dialogue. The chapter also examines how the war accelerated processes of decolonization, beginning with India's independence in 1947 and soon spreading to other countries in South Asia and Africa. It then discusses the global spread of Marxist ideology and the specter of civilizational annihilation wrought by the Cold War. Ultimately, the chapter reveals that, for the first time in conciliar history, the church exhorted its members to enter into “dialogue and collaboration” with members of other religious traditions. It investigates how the conciliar documents and papal encyclicals appearing during the council affected the church and the wider world in the postconciliar (and postcolonial) era.Less

The Christian Medical Commission and the World Health Organization

Matthew Bersagel Braley

in Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health

This chapter recounts developments in mid-twentieth-century Protestant theology and their impact on the World Health Organization (WHO). The World Council of Churches’ Christian Medical Commission ... More

This chapter recounts developments in mid-twentieth-century Protestant theology and their impact on the World Health Organization (WHO). The World Council of Churches’ Christian Medical Commission (CMC) held two conferences in the 1960s to examine the role of the church in providing health care through medical missions. What followed was a theologically informed shift from hospital-based tertiary care in cities, many in post-colonial settings, to primary care delivery in rural as well as urban communities. A close relationship between the leaders of the CMC and the WHO facilitated a parallel and equally radical shift in the WHO’s strategy, from a vertical or top–down, focus on single diseases to the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, which focused on primary care. The chapter argues that both the WHO and the CMC saw primary care as a more just and egalitarian way to distribute their resources and bring health to all.Less

‘Angelic Pastor’? Pius XII and the Worldwide Church

John Pollard

in The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914-1958

This chapter seeks to bring into relief the complexities and contradictions in Pius XII’s fulfilment of his pastoral ministry, which reflect the strong differences of opinion among his closest ... More

This chapter seeks to bring into relief the complexities and contradictions in Pius XII’s fulfilment of his pastoral ministry, which reflect the strong differences of opinion among his closest advisers. His rigid doctrinal orthodoxy, demonstrated in encyclicals warning against new forms of ‘modernism’ and in the Vatican’s rejection of the emerging ecumenical movement, on the one hand, contrasts with a certain flexibility on exegesis on the other, just as his focus on Mary as co-mediatrix contrasts with his genuine commitment to liturgical reform. Similarly, the contrast between his ‘high church’ ecclesiology and hieratic charisma and his achievement of world ‘celebrity’ status will be analysed, as will his orientation of missionary policy in the face of the emergence of the Third World. Finally, in the light of his exercise of papal infallibility during Holy Year 1950, the question of whether Pius XII was ‘the last real pope’ will be considered.Less

The Ecumenical Patriarchate: Visionary Ministry

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

in In the World, Yet Not of the World: Social and Global Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

In this chapter, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew speaks of The Ecumenical Patriarchate in his Enthronement address in the Church of St. George at the ... More

In this chapter, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew speaks of The Ecumenical Patriarchate in his Enthronement address in the Church of St. George at the Phanar, Istanbul and at the conferral of an honorary doctorate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in Massachusetts. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, being one of the founding members of World Council of Churches, will not diminish its concern for the good and correct orientation of the Council and its concern that there not be a departure from its first and principal mission, which is the service of Christian unity. He mentions the importance of the Orthodox Church and suggests three particular strengths of Orthodox Christianity. Finally, in keeping with the venerable tradition of this university's contributions to international law and diplomacy, he humbly pledges to “pursue what makes for peace”.Less

“Bridges of Reconciliation”: The Religious Conceptualization of Peace in the Cold War

Petra Goedde

in The Politics of Peace: A Global Cold War History

A host of religious individuals and groups became politically active on behalf of world peace at the height of the Cold War. Those groups tried to add a religious dimension to the debates about Cold ... More

A host of religious individuals and groups became politically active on behalf of world peace at the height of the Cold War. Those groups tried to add a religious dimension to the debates about Cold War international relations, while at the same time pushing the religious conceptualization of peace into the political realm. The Cold War turned religious groups and individuals into political activists. These activists still promulgated peace as an internal state of spiritual harmony, common to many of the world’s largest religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. But they added a new dimension that stressed its communal, political, and global aspirations. They merged the ideals of peace activism and ecumenism in the postwar world by relying on the universal code enshrined in the global human rights agenda, doing so a decade before the secular human rights revolution erupted in the 1970s.Less

Catholic Tradition and Traditions

Francis A. Sullivan

in The Crisis of Authority in Catholic Modernity

This chapter examines the issue of distinguishing between Tradition and traditions of the Catholic Church. It first considers the views of Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, Joseph Ratzinger, and Karl ... More

This chapter examines the issue of distinguishing between Tradition and traditions of the Catholic Church. It first considers the views of Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, Joseph Ratzinger, and Karl Rahner as well as the report of the World Council of Churches's Faith and Order Commission about Tradition and traditions. It then considers the question of how one can be sure that particular traditions are authentic embodiments of the Tradition and presents two examples of Catholic traditions that have become obsolete in the course of time: slavery and religious liberty. It also discusses the position of Avery Cardinal Dulles in a review of Judge John T. Noonan's book, A Church That Can and Cannot Change.Less

God’s Marshall Plan

James D. Strasburg

in God's Marshall Plan: American Protestants and the Struggle for the Soul of Europe

This chapter examines how ecumenical American Protestants sought to come to Europe’s “spiritual aid” through carrying out a “Marshall Plan for the Churches.” By the summer of 1947, these Protestant ... More

This chapter examines how ecumenical American Protestants sought to come to Europe’s “spiritual aid” through carrying out a “Marshall Plan for the Churches.” By the summer of 1947, these Protestant ecumenists were preparing to rebuild European churches, distribute material aid across the continent, and promote theological exchange across the Atlantic. All the while, they also sought to strengthen the standing of democracy and capitalism in Europe and, in particular, to bolster European spiritual defenses against communism. While German and European Protestants welcomed ecumenical aid, they also protested the Cold War interests of the United States. In particular, they challenged American ecumenists for contributing to the spread of what they deemed a new kind of American imperial order in the world. In response, a growing number of Europeans called on ecumenical Protestants across the North Atlantic to become a “third way” spiritual force between American democracy and Soviet communism.Less

Western Religion Today

Paul Gifford

in The Plight of Western Religion: The Eclipse of the Other-Worldly

This chapter argues that Western religion today, besides losing public importance, has also largely been transformed in accordance with this cognitive shift to the ‘this-worldly’. The chapter shows ... More

This chapter argues that Western religion today, besides losing public importance, has also largely been transformed in accordance with this cognitive shift to the ‘this-worldly’. The chapter shows how arguments like ‘believing but not belonging’ and ‘vicarious religion’ do not discredit the secularization thesis; nor does the idea that Christianity gave rise to Western modernity and therefore the West must be religious. The decreasing salience of Christianity became undeniable in the Victorian age. The 1960s saw this trend intensified and diffused more widely; this cognitive shift is illustrated in both the workings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and in the World Council of Churches Uppsala Assembly (1968). The Christianity that the mainline Western churches exhibit today has become internally secularized, evidenced in characteristic works of modern academic theology.Less

For the Joy of the Working

Elesha J. Coffman

in Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith

Mead stayed extraordinarily busy to the end of life, engaged with such issues as nuclear safety, Earth Day, and the women’s movement. When a cancer diagnosis threatened her forward momentum, she ... More

Mead stayed extraordinarily busy to the end of life, engaged with such issues as nuclear safety, Earth Day, and the women’s movement. When a cancer diagnosis threatened her forward momentum, she denied it, preferring the ministrations of a faith healer over the recommendations of medical science. This choice dismayed her closest friends, but it was not entirely a departure from a life marked by curiosity about the full range of human experiences, even those that could not be explained by science. After her death, she was widely mourned and celebrated. She was, at her request, buried at the same church where she had been baptized and married for the first time. She is recognized by some fellow Episcopalians as a saint.Less