Adam DeVille / Eastern Christian Books on Ecumenism Means You, Too

I'm grateful to Dr. Adam DeVille, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for calling attention to Ecumenism Means You, Too on his Eastern Christian Books blog in a post titled "Ecumenism Binds Everybody." Exceprted below are some of Dr. DeVille's comments on the book, offered from an Eastern-rite Catholic perspective:

Steven Harmon has written a very short little book that is very useful in trying to overcome the apathy today about ecumenism while also allaying the sometimes understandable anxieties of Christians who imagine that ecumenism means selling out to some kind of lowest-common-denominator version of the faith....Harmon...offers us two very useful things in this book. First is his opening call for all Christians to understand that ecumenism, properly understood, does not...entail any doctrinal diminution or dogmatic compromises. Only unity founded on the truth, to which we all come and unreservedly consent, can be accepted....The second important reminder of this text comes in the sub-title: "Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity." Every Christian needs to be involved in the search for unity....Twenty years ago I began working in the World Council of Churches, and traveled all over the world, only to return home every time and realize that nobody had the faintest clue that the WCC even existed, let alone any interest in what it might be trying to do. Ecumenism thus remains too top-down, too "elitist," and this must change. As Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky of blessed memory used to say: the Lord will give us unity when all of His people rise up in prayer demanding it. If Harmon's book helps us to do that, then glory to God.

Interested in Ecumenism Means You, Too? Order the book directly from Cascade Books or via Amazon.