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.

Introductions to Ecumenism--WCC, A History of the Ecumenical Movement (3 vols.)

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

World Council of Churches, A History of the Ecumenical Movement (3 vols.), ed. Ruth Rouse, Stephen Neill, Harold Edward Fey, John H. Y. Briggs, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and Georgios Tsetses (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1954/1986-2004) is the definitive historical account of the ecumenical movement, covering developments from 1517 to 2000. Volume 1 is available here, volume 2 is currently out of print, and volume 3 is available here.

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

Introductions to Ecumenism--William G. Rusch, Ecumenical Reception: Its Challenge and Opportunity

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

William G. Rusch, Ecumenical Reception: Its Challenge and Opportunity (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007) is an informative introduction to the processes by which the churches respond to the steps toward unity represented by the agreements reached in ecumenical dialogues.

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

Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category (T&T Clark, forthcoming 2011)

I'm pleased to be able to pass along information from the Continuum publishing group's web site regarding a forthcoming publication with their T&T Clark International imprint: Paul M. Collins and Barry Ensign-George (eds.), Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category (Ecclesiological Investigations; T&T Clark International, forthcoming 20 July 2011). I've contributed the chapter written from a Baptist perspective. The description, table of contents, and editor information follow below:

Description

The term "denomination" is now widely used to describe a Christian community or church. But what is a ‘denomination’? In this highly creative collection of essays representatives of all major Christian traditions give an answer to this question. What does the term mean in their own tradition? And does that tradition understand itself to be a ‘denomination’? If so, what is that understanding of ‘denomination’; and if not, how does the tradition understand itself vis à vis those churches which do and those churches which do not understand themselves as ‘denominations’? In dialogue with the argument and ideas set forth in Barry Ensign-George’s essay each essay offers a response from the perspective of a particular church (tradition). Each essay also consider questions concerning the current landscape of ecumenical dialogue; ecumenical method and the goals of the ecumenical movement; also questions of Christian identity and belonging

Table of Contents

Core Essay: Barry Ensign-George, Reformed/Presbyterian
Essay: Gesa Thiessen, Lutheran
Essay: Amy Planitnga Pauw, Reformed/Presbyterian
Essay: Russell Richey, Methodist (USA)
Essay: K.M. George, Oriental Orthodox
Essay: Joseph Muthuraj, United Church (India)
Essay: Ann Riggs, Quaker
Essay: Elena Vishnevskaya, Orthodox
Essay: Paul Avis, Anglican
Essay: Peter de Mey, Roman Catholic
Essay: Kirsteen Kim, Methodist (UK)
Essay: Steve Harmon, Baptist
Essay: Wolfgang Vondey, Penetcostal

Revd Dr Paul M. Collins is a priest in the Church of England, and a Reader in Theology at the University of Chichester, UK. His main works to date are Trinitarian Theology West and East: Karl Barth, the Cappadocian Fathers and John Zizioulas (2001), Context, Culture and Worship: The Quest for Indian-ness (2006). Secretary of the new formed Ecclesiological Investigations Network.

Barry Ensign-George is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which he serves as Associate for Theology in the denomination’s Office of Theology & Worship. His reaserch is focused on ecclesiology, particularly on formulating a theological assessment of denomination as an ecclesiological category.

The German Baptist "Rechenschaft vom Glauben" (confession of faith)

Baptist congregations and the regional, national, and international associations to which they belong have issued confessions of faith throughout the 400 years of Baptist existence. These confessions have often served two purposes: first, to communicate to other Christians who Baptists are, both in terms of what Baptists share in common with the rest of the Christian tradition and in terms of the convictions and practices that distinguish Baptists from other Christians; and second, to educate members of Baptist congregations about these matters. The first purpose was especially important during the early years of the Baptist tradition, for Baptists needed to show to their detractors in the established churches--which were sometimes involved in the denial of religious liberty to Baptists--that they, too, shared the historic Christian faith with them, yet also that their distinctive convictions required that they maintain a form of ecclesial life in keeping with those convictions, even if that meant having a separate ecclesial existence from the established churches.

Baptist confessions thus have often been drafted with ecumenical concerns in mind. One more recent Baptist confession that does this well in the context of modern ecumenical relations, in my opinion, is the "Rechenschaft vom Glauben" ("Confession of Faith," or literally, "An Account of the Faith"; the German word "Rechenschaft" echoes the language of 1 Peter 3:15) issued in 1978 by the Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland (The Union of Evangelical-Free Church Communities in Germany, or German Baptist Union). The German text of this confession is available online in PDF; an English translation by the late Baptist historical theologian John Steely is included in G. Keith Parker, Baptists in Europe: History & Confessions of Faith (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1982), pp. 57-76.

This confession functions as an ecumenically situated statement of Baptist faith in that it first articulates the historic faith Baptists share with other Christian traditions via the full text of the Apostles' Creed.

The confession is also noteworthy in terms of implications for inter-religious dialogue in that an article on “God’s Old and New Covenants” (I.5) explicitly repudiates a supercessionist understanding of the relationship between Israel and the church.

For what it's worth, this is also the only Baptist confession issued to date that explicitly references the humanity of the Scriptures in connection with an affirmation of the compatibility of historical-critical investigation with belief in their divine inspiration. A selection from I.6, “God’s Word—The Bible,” par. 4 appears below in Steely's English translation:

The Bible is God’s word in human language. Therefore its books bear the signs of the times in which they originated. Their language, their patterns of thought, and their literary forms are bound to the times and places whence they come. Therefore the historical understanding of Holy Scripture is an obligation of the Christian church and its theology, in their listening to the word of God. The historical interpretation of Scripture takes into account the working of the Holy Spirit, both in originating and expounding the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible lives, because God speaks through it. (Parker, Baptists in Europe, pp. 63-64)

Do Real Baptists Recite Creeds?

As a Baptist theologian, I'm often asked the question addressed in my guest commentary "Do Real Baptists Recite Creeds?" in Baptists Today 22, no. 9 (September 2004), p. 27. The original article is available electronically as part of the September 2004 issue of Baptists Today archived publicly online in PDF (scroll to p. 27). I'm posting a condensed adaptation of the original article here for easier access:

If a local Baptist church were to exercise its congregational freedom by embracing weekly confession of the Apostles’ Creed or “Nicene” Creed, would it be engaging in a non-Baptist practice?

Some Baptists have thought so. In the introductory courses I teach in Christian Theology, I have for several years opened each class session with the singing of a hymn and the recital of the Apostles’ Creed during the first half of the semester and the “Nicene” Creed during the second half of the term. One former student wrote on an exam paper that he had refused to join in reciting the creeds became “I’m a Baptist, and Baptists don’t believe in creeds.” (He had the freedom to make that refusal and reach that conclusion without academic penalty.)

My student’s reluctance to confess the creeds exemplifies a widespread sentiment in our context of Baptist life. One reason many Baptists see the creeds as un-Baptist is the oft-repeated slogan “No creed but the Bible!” Many Baptists take this to be a concise declaration of historic Baptist identity. By 2009 Baptists had existed for 400 years as an identifiable denominational tradition, but it has only been during the past century and a half that some Baptists in the United States have echoed this slogan. Its origins are outside the Baptist movement proper in the work of Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), founder of the Disciples of Christ. Campbell’s aversion was not to the ancient creeds per se — he frequently referenced them in his writings — but rather to the coercive use of more detailed Protestant confessions as tests of fellowship.

Baptists are right to resist this coercive use of either creeds or confessions, but we would be wrong to let this legitimate concern keep us from experiencing the benefits of the proper uses of the creeds. The Apostles’ Creed and “Nicene” Creed are properly used as expressions of worship. They are not lists of doctrinal propositions to which assent is compelled; they are summaries of the biblical story of the Triune God, drawn from the language of the Bible itself. The creeds function as the Christian “pledge of allegiance.” They declare the story to which we committed ourselves in baptism. Reciting the creeds thus regularly renews our baptismal pledges.

Reciting the creeds invites us afresh to locate our individual stories within the larger divine story that is made present to us in worship. Reciting the creeds impresses upon us again and again the overarching meaning of the Bible and so shapes our capacity for hearing and heeding what specific passages of Scripture have to say. Reciting the creeds invites us into solidarity with the saints gone before us who for two millennia have confessed this story with these same words. Reciting the creeds declares our solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Christ in other denominations who today embrace the story of the Triune God.

Having no fixed or mandated liturgy, Baptist churches are free to adopt whatever worship practices they find beneficial. Freely choosing to experience the benefits of confessing the ancient ecumenical creeds is a most Baptist thing for free and faithful Baptists to do.

Condensed and adapted from Baptists Today 22, no. 9 (September 2004), p. 27.

Introductions to ecumenism--National Council of Churches (USA), Faith and Order Commission Handbook

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

The Faith and Order Commission Handbook published by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (New York: NCCCUSA Faith and Order Office, 2008; available online at http://www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/FOhandbook2008.pdf) is intended not only to orient new members of the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA to the work of the Commission, but also to introduce other interested persons to Faith and Order ecumenism. It includes a concise history of the Faith and Order movement and an explanation of ecumenical methodology by noted American ecumenists, as well as a compilation of quotations from key ecumenical documents and a “Beginner’s Bibliography.”

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

Introductions to ecumenism--Harding Meyer, That All May Be One: Perceptions and Models of Ecumenicity

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

Harding Meyer's That All May Be One: Perceptions and Models of Ecumenicity (trans. William G. Rusch; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999) is a more technical survey of the diverse theoretical approaches behind the practice of ecumenical encounter throughout the history of the ecumenical movement. This book provides detailed explanations of terms and categories that have become commonplace in ecumenical discussions, such as “differentiated consensus” and “unity in reconciled diversity.”

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

A Quartet of Posts on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 (and joined by the World Methodist Council in 2006) is one of the most significant agreements reached in the history of the modern ecumenical movement. While en route from Erfurt to Rome on a trek commemorating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's pilgrimage to Rome, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson has posted on Here I Walk a quartet of informative reflections on the JDDJ (linked below). I hope readers of Ecclesial Theology will take the time to read them (and the JDDJ) and reflect on the potential implications of this agreement for their own churches, local and beyond, in their relations with other communions. The Western churches divided since the 16th century have many other church-dividing issues remaining to be addressed, but the doctrine of justification should no longer be one of them.

On the Way to the Joint Declaration

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: So Much More Exciting Than It Sounds

Sweden and Finland Get Justified Too

Australia Ahead of Everybody Else

Introductions to Ecumenism--Nicholas Lossky (ed.), Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

Nicholas Lossky (ed.), Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement (2nd ed.; Geneva: WCC Publications, 2002) is a helpful reference work for those seeking to learn more about ecumenism, featuring entries on all aspects of the ecumenical movement as well as the churches that belong to the divisions of the one church, written by internationally recognized ecumenists and experts on each Christian denomination/communion.

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

A Baptist step toward visible Christian unity in Europe

As a Baptist ecumenical theologian, I'm pleased to pass along reports that on September 24 in Rome the European Baptist Federation and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe signed an agreement that, while stopping short of full Baptist membership due to remaining differences regarding baptismal theologies and practices, makes the two European communions "mutually cooperating bodies." The Associated Baptist Press has reported on the agreement ("European Baptists, Other Protestants Sign Cooperation Pact"); the joint press release issued by the EBF and the CPCE appears below. (In the photo are CPCE General Secretary Michael Bünker and EBF General Secretary Tony Peck. left and right respectively; Peck is a fellow member of the Baptist World Alliance delegation to the bilateral conversations with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on which I serve.)

The Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) and the European Baptist Federation (EBF) are becoming 'mutually cooperating bodies' and have pledged to work together more closely.

Press release 16/2010 - jointly with the European Baptist Federation EBF

Europe's protestant churches and Baptists are seeking closer ties and better relations. Michael Bünker and Tony Peck, general secretaries respectively of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) and the European Baptist Federation (EBF), signed an agreement for this purpose in Rocca di Papa, near Rome, on 24 September. This means the two Europe-wide organisations are now "mutually cooperating bodies".

The European Baptist Federation comprises 51 national Baptist Unions in Europe and the Near and Middle East. The Community of Protestant Churches in Europe numbers 105 Lutheran, Reformed, United and Methodist member-churches in more than 30 countries of Europe and South America. Formal and informal relations have existed between CPCE churches and EBF unions for quite a long time. Countries where this has happened include Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Norway, Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

The cooperation agreement was signed during the meeting of the EBF Council. It pledges both bodies to take a series of specific steps towards cooperation. Thus CPCE and EBF will invite each other to council meetings and general assemblies. The General Secretaries and their respective staffs are to meet regularly, while the exchange of information will continue and become more extensive. Conferences and consultations will explore unifying factors and common positions. This will include continuing the theological dialogue which has been in progress since 1999. Theological differences such as the issue of baptism have not been set aside yet. Baptists practise believers' baptism and do not recognise the baptism of infants. Hence there is no question of full Baptist membership in the CPCE.

EBF General Secretary Tony Peck welcomed the agreement as a "clear sign of closer cooperation. Both branches of the Reformation have much to give to each other and much to receive from each other." CPCE General Secretary Michael Bünker endorsed these comments: "the agreement has strengthened the common voice of Protestantism in Europe," he noted.

Vienna/Berne, 28 September 2010

At present 105 Protestant churches in Europe (including five South-American churches originating from Europe ) belong to the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Lutheran, Reformed, United and Methodist along with pre-Reformation churches such as Hussites and Czech Brethren grant each other pulpit and table fellowship on the basis of the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973. The Secretariat is housed in the Severin-Schreiber-Gasse 3, A-1180 Vienna, office@leuenberg.eu, tel. +43.1.4791523.900, fax .110 The CPCE press officer is Dipl.theol. Thomas Flügge (Bern), tel. +41.31.3702502, t.fluegge@leuenberg.eu.

28.09.2010 Thomas Flügge

Walter Cardinal Kasper on "The Nature and Purpose of Ecumenical Dialogue"

Continuing a series of posts calling attention to selected resources featured in Appendix 1, "Resources for Ecumenical Engagement," in Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Cascade Books, 2010):

Walter Cardinal Kasper's essay on "The Nature and Purpose of Ecumenical Dialogue," available online on the Vatican web site for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is a helpful introduction to the nature and purpose of ecumenical dialogue in Roman Catholic perspective from the recently retired president of the PCPCU. Cardinal Kasper offers a candid overview of the evolution of the Catholic stance toward the modern ecumenical movement from outright opposition at its beginning to irrevocable commitment to it at the Second Vatican Council and thereafter.

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