Looking toward 2017

October 31, 2017 will mark the 500th anniversary of one of the key events in the complex of 16th-century Protestant and Catholic reforming movements, the posting of Martin Luther's 95 Theses on the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg (traditional site in photo at left). The cover story of the July 8, 2015 issue of the Christian Century addresses well the ecumenical issues at stake in how the whole church and its divisions choose to mark this event. In "Repent and celebrate: The Reformation after 500 years," co-authors Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, assistant research professor at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France, and editor of Lutheran Forum, and Thomas Albert Howard, professor of history and director of the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, cite as a way forward the paradigm of "receptive ecumenism" that I've found fruitful for my own work in ecumenical theology:

What we are looking for is an elimination of the necessity of enemies, not an elimination of the necessity of arguments. We look forward to a multiplicity of purged confessional theologies, maintaining the particular gifts and insights on all sides while remaining open to the truly Christian insight of the other, even of the old enemy. In the words of the Catholic ecumenist Paul Murray, we propose a "receptive ecumenism" and encourage all parties to ask: What can we offer and what can we receive from others to foster a deepened communion in Christ and the Spirit?

The whole article is available on the Christian Century web site. In this connection I also commend From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, a resource issued jointly by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation based on five decades of bilateral international ecumenical dialogue between the two communions. From Conflict to Communion offers helpful guidelines for ecumenically responsible observances of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation (available online in PDF; click on hyperlinked title). Baptists and others in the free church tradition will find an account of Baptist/free church identity in ecumenical perspective that resonates with what Wilson and Howard propose in Curtis Freeman's book Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor University Press, 2014).

New issue of Ecclesiology: Harmon on Holmes, Chapman on Baptist-Catholic dialogue, Lim on new WCC F&O text

The new issue of the journal Ecclesiology published by Brill includes several articles and reviews of interest. Among them: my review of Stephen Holmes' book Baptist Theology in the T&T Clark Doing Theology series; David M. Chapman's article "Roman Catholics and Baptists in Dialogue: Convergence and Divergence Assessed"; and Timothy Lim's article "'What If We Could?': An Essay on Productive Ecumenism" that engages the recent text issued by the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order, The Church: Towards a Common Vision. Previews and abstracts of these are available online (click on hyperlinks above). The table of contents follows:

• Publisher’s Note

  • pp.: 1–1 (1)

• Contributors

  • pp.: 3–4 (2)

• Editorial: An Agonistic Ecclesiology

  • Author: Paul Avis
  • pp.: 5–8 (4)

• Evaluating Church Organisations by the Light of Lumen Gentium

  • Author: Christina Kheng
  • pp.: 9–33 (25)

• From Infants to Mothers

  • Author: Cristina Lledo Gomez
  • pp.: 34–64 (31)

• ‘What if We Could?’

  • Author: Timothy Lim T. N.
  • pp.: 65–83 (19)

• Roman Catholics and Baptists in Dialogue

  • Author: David M. Chapman
  • pp.: 84–92 (9)

• Book Review: Anglican Theology, written by Mark Chapman

  • Author: Alan Bartlett
  • pp.: 93–97 (5)

• Book Review: Pro Communione: Theological Essays on the Anglican Covenant, edited by Benjamin M. Guyer

  • Author: Simon Oliver
  • pp.: 98–101 (4)

• Book Review: The Ecclesial Canopy: Faith, Hope, Charity, written by Martyn Percy

  • Author: Elaine Graham
  • pp.: 102–105 (4)

• Book Review: Trent: What Happened at the Council, written by John W. O’Malley

  • Author: Gerald O’Collins, SJ
  • pp.: 106–108 (3)

• Book Review: Witness of the Body: The Past, Present and Future of Christian Martyrdom, written by Michael Budde and Karen Scott

  • Author: Michael Nazir-Ali
  • pp.: 109–112 (4)

• Book Review: From Trent to Vatican II: Historical and Theological Investigations, edited by Raymond F. Bulman and Frederick J. Parrella

  • Author: Norman Tanner
  • pp.: 113–116 (4)

• Book Review: Exegesis and Theology in Early Christianity, written by Frances Young

  • Author: Mark Santer
  • pp.: 117–119 (3)

• Book Review: Sacred History: Uses of the Christian Past in the Renaissance World, edited by Katherine Van Liere, Simon Ditchfield, and Howard Louthan

  • Author: Felicity Heal
  • pp.: 120–122 (3)

• Book Review: Baptist Theology, written by Stephen R. Holmes

  • Author: Steven R. Harmon
  • pp.: 123–126 (4)

• Book Review: Pacifism, Just War, and Tyrannicide: Bonhoeffer’s Church-World Theology and His Changing Forms of Political Thinking and Involvement, written by David M. Gides

  • Author: Javier Garcia
  • pp.: 127–129 (3)

• Book Review: The Last Judgment: Christian Ethics in a Legal Culture, written by Andrew Skotnicki

  • Author: David Grumett
  • pp.: 130–132 (3)

• Book Review: Evangelicals and the Early Church: Recovery. Reform. Renewal, edited by George Kalantzis and Andrew Tooley

  • Author: Martin Wellings
  • pp.: 133–135 (3)

• Book Review: The Cambridge Companion to Francis of Assisi, edited by Michael J. P. Robson

  • Author: Jeremy Worthen
  • pp.: 136–138 (3)

• Book Review: What Christianity is Not: An Exercise in ‘Negative’ Theology, written by Douglas John Hall

  • Author: Paul Avis
  • pp.: 139–140 (2)

• Book Review: The Anglican Understanding of the Church: An Introduction, written by Paul Avis

  • Author: David Tustin
  • pp.: 141–143 (3)

French Baptist sole female fraternal delegate to Synod on Family

Today the Extraordinary Synod on the Family convened by Pope Francis concludes the first week of its two-week gathering at the Vatican. The synod is intended to be representative of the universal church: among the 253 men and women from five continents participating in the synod are not only Catholic clerical representatives, including 114 presidents of Catholic bishops' conferences, 13 heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and 25 heads of divisions of the Roman Curia among Catholic clerical representatives, but also laypersons--including 13 married couples and 16 experts in various fields germane to the matters under discussion--as well as 8 "fraternal delegates." representing non-Catholic traditions. Among these, Valérie Duval-Poujol, a professor of biblical exegesis at the Catholic Institute of Paris, France, is representing the Baptist World Alliance and is the only woman among the eight fraternal delegates to the synod. On Friday, October 10, she gave an address to the synod. A transcript of her address appears on the web site of the Fédération des Églises Évangéliques Baptistes de France (en Français). Earlier this week she was interviewed on Vatican Radio (audio also en Français).

Prof. Duval-Poujol, whose academic specialty is Septuagintal studies, serves as President of the Ecumenical Commission of the Protestant Federation of France and is a member of the Baptist delegation to conversations between the BWA and the World Methodist Council. An interview with Duval-Poujol about her role as a fraternal delegate to the synod appears on the web site of the Protestant Federation of France (print; also en Français). (In the course of the interview she also mentions the work of an ongoing national bilateral dialogue between Baptists and Catholics in France that has produced several significant reports on their work over the past two decades, including most recently a document summarizing their conversations on Mary.)

The other seven fraternal delegates to the synod are as follows. Ecumenical Patriarchate: His Eminence Athenagoras, metropolitan of Belgium; Patriarchate of Moscow: His Eminence Hilarion, president of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Russian Federation; Coptic Orthodox Church: His Eminence Bishoy, metropolitan of Damietta, Kafr Elsheikh and Elbarari, Egypt; Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch: His Eminence Mar Yostinos, archbishop of Zhale and Bekau, Lebanon; Anglican Communion: His Grace Paul Butler, bishop of Durham, England, Great Britain; Lutheran World Federation: Mr Ndanganeni Petrus Phaswaha, president of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in South Africa; World Communion of Reformed Churches: Rev. Benebo Fubara-Manuel, president of the Nigerian Communion of Reformed Churches, Nigeria.

(Many thanks to Jane Stranz, a French Reformed pastor who coordinates ecumenical relations on the staff of the Fédération protestante de France, for making me aware of Prof. Duval-Poujol's participation in the synod via Twitter and Facebook contacts.)

Update: A YouTube clip is available from a press conference in which Valérie Duval-Poujol summarizes (in French) her address to the synod, beginning at 14:58 in the clip. After she speaks, a translator summarizes her remarks to the press corps in English.

Update #2: Jane Stranz has posted as a Facebook note an English translation of the text of Prof. Duval-Poujol's address to the synod on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance.

Mount Aloysius College Fall Ecumenical Lectures

Mount Aloysius College

For the information of readers of Ecclesial Theology in Pennsylvania and the surrounding region, I am delivering the Fall Ecumenical Lectures at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania on October 9. At 12:30 I will present the lecture "The Baptist Eschatological Vision and the Ecumenical Future" (registration required); at 3:30 I will present a public lecture, "What Do Catholics Have in Common with Baptists?" (open to the public free of charge).

For more information, see the MAC press release "Mount Aloysius Fall Ecumenical Lectures to Feature Baptist, Catholic Commonality"; to inquire about registration for the luncheon lecture, contact the office of Mount Aloysius College’s Vice President for Mission Integration, Sr. Helen Marie Burns, RSM (814-886-6510 or hburns@mtaloy.edu).

Fr. William Henn on Pope Francis and Ecumenism

Fr. William Henn, O.F.M.Cap., has been one of the Catholic Church's leading ecumenical theologians since the 1987 publication of his dissertation on The Hierarchy of Truths According to Yves Congar. Currently serving as the Robert Bellarmine Professor of Ecclesiology and Ecumenism at Gregorian University in Rome and consultant to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Henn represents the Catholic Church as a member of the Standing Commission of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order and has served on the Catholic delegations to international bilateral dialogues with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, representatives of Pentecostal churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the Mennonite World Conference, and the second phase of conversations with the Baptist World Alliance. I had the privilege of serving as a member of the Baptist-Catholic joint commission with Fr. Henn, for which we both presented papers on the relationship between Scripture and tradition in the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum and co-drafted a preliminary version of the section on "The Authority of Christ in Scripture and Tradition" in The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between The Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010.

A month after the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis last year, Fr. Henn granted an interview to the National Catholic Reporter offering his perspectives on the ecumenical implications of the beginning of Pope Francis' papacy. I discovered it only today, but it's such an insightful article, with observations that hold true a year-and-a-half later, that I thought it worth calling to the attention of readers of Ecclesial Theology now.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of John L. Allen, Jr.'s interview article:

Rome – For years, experts on ecumenism have said that the main stumbling block to putting the divided Christian family back together again isn’t so much the papacy, but a certain overly monarchical model of it. If we could find new ways of exercising primacy, they prophesied, unity might move a massive step closer to reality.

One veteran expert believes those “new ways” may have arrived with Pope Francis, predicting that this pontiff will prove a “boon” to ecumenism.

“He’s bringing to life what Vatican II added about the role of the papacy being understood from within the college of bishops and the communion of churches,” said Capuchin Fr. William Henn of Rome’s Gregorian University....(read the full article at National Catholic Reporter)

Fr. Gregory Fairbanks on dialogue and unity

Fr. Gregory J. Fairbanks

Fr. Gregory Fairbanks has responsibilities for relationships with ecclesial communities of the West in his role as an official with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In that connection he was one of our dialogue partners in the conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church in which I participated from 2006 through 2010. (The report from those conversations, The Word of God in the Life of the Church, is available online on the Vatican web site.) In comments offered to the Catholic News Service for its May 8 story "Hope and hard work: U.S. priest trusts Christian unity is possible," Fr. Fairbanks reflects on these conversations in testifying to the surprising work of the unifying Spirit that can emerge from honest dialogue between divided Christian communities. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The issues dividing Christian communities have changed over the past 50 years, but a Philadelphia archdiocesan priest working in ecumenical dialogue at the Vatican is confident that Christian unity is possible.

"We are people of hope. We trust we have the same Scriptures, the same belief in Christ," said Msgr. Gregory J. Fairbanks, an official at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.... (read the full article at Catholic News Service)

Baptists and Catholics together--Twitter edition

(The following post was originally published by the Associated Baptist Press/Religious Herald ABPnews Blog]

What do Baptists and Catholics have in common?

That sounds like the set-up for a joke of some sort–or at least for a very brief response, given the anti-Catholicism that has marked much of the Baptist tradition (even when we were defining ourselves over against the Church of England).

When the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church engaged in a series of international conversations from 1984 through 1988 to see what they might be able to say together, the two communions were actually able to say a great deal about their agreement on “God’s saving revelation in Jesus Christ, the necessity of personal commitment to God in Christ, the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, and the missionary imperative that emerges from God’s redemptive activity on behalf of humankind,” as paragraph 2 of the 17-page report “Summons to Witness to Christ in Today’s World” summarized the matters on which Baptists and Catholics were able to say something together about our common commitment to the good news of our testimony that “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

That report also identified deep differences evident in those conversations that warranted continued exploration: theological authority and method; the shape of ecclesial koinonia; the relationship between faith, baptism, and Christian witness; and the place of Mary in faith and practice.

When I served as a member of the Baptist delegation to a second series of conversations between the BWA and the Catholic Church from 2006 through 2010, we directly addressed those ongoing differences. The result was a nearly 100-page report, “The Word of God in the Life of the Church,”  published last summer and presented at the annual gathering of the BWA in Jamaica that July. The document is not a description of our differences. It is rather a statement of our surprisingly substantial consensus on the church’s participation in the koinonia of the Triune God, the authority of Christ in Scripture and tradition, baptism and the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper, Mary as a model of discipleship, and the ministry of oversight (episkope) and unity in the life of the church.

We presented these agreements as a “differentiated consensus”: paragraphs set in bold type expressed our basic consensus, followed by paragraphs set in regular type that offered commentary on the nature of that consensus and/or identified the ways in which there are remaining differences in how each communion understands and embodies what Baptists and Catholics have been able to say together.

Having said these things together, Baptists and Catholics now have the responsibility of “reception” of the report. In a “Glossary of Key Ecumenical Terms” in my book Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity, I offered the following definition of that task:

Reception—The process by which worldwide communions, national churches and denominations, local parishes and congregations, and individual Christians become informed about, consider, and act upon the proposals and agreements that result from bilateral and multilateral ecumenical dialogue.

 

When the “The Word of God in the Life of the Church” went online last October, I launched an experiment in utilizing social media to encourage reception of the report. Beginning on October 11, I began posting a semi-daily “tweet” from my Twitter account summarizing in 140 characters or less a statement of agreement from the bold-type consensus paragraphs of the report (actually a good bit less than 140 characters, as the inclusion of the hashtag #BaptistsCatholics and the condensed URL link to the report left only 89 characters for summary and paragraph number reference). Since Facebook status updates don’t have the 140-character restriction, I posted a parallel series of Facebook updates with the full consensus statements from which the tweets were abridged.

I posted the final #BaptistsCatholics tweet on January 3 of this year. Here’s the tweet-by-tweet “Twitter edition” of the bold-type consensus paragraphs from “The Word of God in the Life of the Church,” sans hashtags and URLs:

7. The one God exists from eternity in a life of relationship–a koinonia of persons

7. Jesus Christ, God’s self-revelation, draws us into communion with God & each other

7. The Word of God in the church in the fullest sense is Christ himself

11. The church is a koinonia (fellowship) grounded in the koinonia of the triune God

11. Believers are joined in koinonia through participation in communion of Triune God

11. Believers also in koinonia through participation in community gathered by Christ

11. “Communion ecclesiology” expresses the heart of the nature of the church

12. Principle of koinonia applies both to local church & to gatherings of congregations

12. Local church does not derive from universal church, nor is universal a mere sum of local forms

12. There is mutual existence & coinherence between local and universal church of Christ

16. The koinonia of the church may also be understood as a ‘covenant community’

16. Covenant is God’s initiating relationship with us & our commitment to each other & God

16. Church is gift in being gathered by Christ, & gathers in response to call of Christ

16. Koinonia of church is both gift & calling, as unity of church is both gift and task

20. Communion with triune God & whole church is continually actualized in Eucharist/Supper

20. In Euch we share communion not only w/ congregation but whole church in time & space

20. Because we hear word of God in eucharist, it is a sharing in both word and sacrament

23. Local churches must be in visible communion w/ each other, or communion lacks fullness

26. Local churches have communion w/ each other to hear Word of God & find mind of Christ

37. The Bible is the divinely-authorized written norm for faith and practice

37. The normativity of Scripture is principally located in the worship of the church

37. The Bible was canonized by and for the worshipping community

37. Bible supplies narrative content of acts of worship that recall/represent acts of God

37. Scripture is the source of story of the triune God in which worshippers participate

41/42. God is the author of Sacred Scripture…through human instrumentality

46. OT and NT together form coherent story that requires a Christ-centred interpretation

56. Bible is written embodiment of living tradition handed down through work of H. Spirit

56. The source of this process of transmission is the living Word of God, Jesus Christ

58. Scripture & tradition coinherent–mutual indwelling & interweaving of 1 in the other

58. Scripture and tradition should not be considered as separate and unrelated sources

58. Scripture & tradition = 2 streams flowing together from same source: God’s revelation

63. Apostolic tradition distinguished from merely ecclesiastical trad; apostolic normative

73. Sacraments/ordinances = signs through which God acts, visible signs of invisible grace

77. Sacrament and ordinance express both God’s gift of love & faith-filled human response

77. Sacrament/ordinance becomes intersection between divine commitment & human commitment

79. Christ central to meaning of sacraments/ordinances & their relationship to the church

81. There is a coinherence between sacraments/ordinances and preaching of the Word of God

83. Baptism and the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper are central to the life of the church

85. Sacraments/ordinances are encounters w/ Christ that transform worshipers by the Spirit

85. No experience of salvation is fully whole without entrance of the believer into church

85. There can be no experience of grace apart from faith

91. Rel. of faith & sacrament/ordinance involves faith of individual believer & community

93. We baptize in obedience to Christ’s command ‘Go therefore..baptizing them’ Mt 28:19-20

93. Baptism has its foundation & meaning in the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology

93. Through baptism we are brought more deeply into the communion of the triune God

93. Through baptism…we [also] share in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ

97. Faith is always necessary for baptism

101. Initiation into Christ & his church is a process wider than the act of baptism itself

101. Can recognize different forms of initiation as an entire journey of faith and grace

107. Baptism is with water, in name of Father & Son & Holy Spirit, & a once-for-all event

109. In baptism we are united with other believers in the church of Christ (1 Cor 12:13)

113. Baptism signifies forgiveness of sins and new birth

116. Eucharist/Lord’s Supper is essential to the church & celebrated in obedience to Jesus

119. The Bible must play a formative role in the liturgy of the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper

121. There is a trinitarian pattern in the order of worship of the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper

125. Christ is really present to his disciples in celebration of Eucharist/Lord’s Supper

130. There is a strongly ethical & eschatological dimension to the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper

133. Mary has significant place in NT–witness to Christ, mother of Savior, called blessed

133. Beliefs about Mary should be rooted in, warranted by, & not contradicted by Scripture

135. Mary belongs to the Jewish people….Mary may be called ‘Daughter of Israel’

137. A number of Old Testament passages may be interpreted as referring to Mary

139. The Gospels present Mary as ‘hearer of the Word’–a disciple who heard, obeyed Word

140. Jesus conceived by Spirit, born of Virgin Mary–sign of divine origin & true humanity

143. Mary is properly named the Theotokos or ‘God-bearer’–safeguards identity of Christ

146. Mary has a special calling in plan of salvation, but also redeemed by Christ by grace

150. Mary is a model of discipleship in faithful listening and obedience to God’s Word

154. Mary is not only a member, but also representative figure, of the church of Christ

156. The church prays with Mary and learns to pray like Mary in the communion of saints

159. The representations of Mary in particular cultures are subject to the gospel as norm

162. Christ is the head of the church, her founder, creator and cornerstone

162. The church owes her whole existence to Christ, who is her ‘episkopos’ (1 Pet 2:25)

162. Christ nourishes/sustains church with Gospel & celebration of sacraments/ordinances

165. Episkope (oversight) is Christ’s gift to church to enable ministry of people of God

165. Christ calls whole people of God to share in his ministry as prophet, priest & king

165. The episkope of some is a gift of Christ to enable & equip body of Christ as a whole

168. Our differing patterns of episkope seek to be faithful to Scripture & apostolic trad

173. Episkope is exercised in personal, collegial and communal ways in the church

176. Episkope primarily exercised in local church, but always in communion w/ wider church

179. Personal episkope is established by Christ for the good of the church

182. One principal purpose of the ministry of episkope is the promotion of Christian unity

184. Jesus’ prayer for unity (=both spiritual&visible) sets out vocation of all Christians

186. The unity of the church reflects its apostolicity, expressed both by faith & ministry

186. Ministry is apostolic if it hands on apostolic faith & fulfills missionary mandate

200. Past failures of both Baptists & Catholics must be addressed with due repentance & appropriate action

The report itself says those things much more fully and with all the necessary qualifications and distinctions. I hope this radical abridgement of the essential Baptist-Catholic consensus expressed in “The Word of God in the Life of the Church” will pique the interest of ABPnews Blog readers enough to encourage further reception of the report—which is not necessarily agreement with its take on Baptist-Catholic consensus, but “the process by which worldwide communions, national churches and denominations, local parishes and congregations, and individual Christians become informed about, consider, and act upon the proposals and agreements that result from bilateral and multilateral ecumenical dialogue.”

That sort of reception starts with reading—even if it’s only 140 characters (or less) at a time.

Trio of articles on Baptist ecumenical dialogue

The current issue of Baptist World: A Magazine of the Baptist World Alliance (vol. 60, no. 4; October/December 2013) includes a trio of articles on Baptist World Alliance participation in ecumenical dialogue: my article "Gathering Discusses Baptist-Catholic Dialogue Report" on the presentation and discussion of the report from the 2006-2010 conversations between the BWA and the Catholic Church during the BWA annual gathering in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in July 2013 (p. 22); "BWA to Dialogue with Methodists" on plans for an upcoming series of conversations between the BWA and the World Methodist Council (pp. 22-23); and "Why Theological Dialogues Are Challenging" reporting BWA General Secretary Neville Callam's perspective on four major challenges facing Baptists when they participate in international theological dialogues with other Christian communions, shared during the 8th Baptist International Conference on Theological Education that preceded the BWA annual gathering in Jamaica (p. 23). The complete contents of this issue of Baptist World are viewable online by clicking on the hyperlink above.

Ecumenical theology in 140 characters or less

To encourage reading and reception of The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between The Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010, I've launched a series of occasional Twitter tweets on what #baptistsandcatholics affirm together, drawn from the bold type sections of the report that summarize Baptist-Catholic agreement (section numbers in parentheses). To keep up with this series, follow @srharmon on Twitter. Tweets in the series are searchable by hashtag #baptistsandcatholics.

Baptist-Catholic dialogue report (2006-2010) now online

Baptist-Catholic joint commission in Rome, December 2009

The report from the 2006-2010 series of conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church, The Word of God in the Life of the Church, is now available online.

The full text of The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between the Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010 is linked from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity page on the Vatican web site (click on hyperlinked title), along with the official Catholic commentary on the report by Thomas A. Baima, "Commentary on The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Catholic Reflection on the Report of the International Conversations between the Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010."

The report from the first series of conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church (1984-1988), Summons to Witness to Christ in Today's World: A Report on the Baptist-Roman Catholic International Conversations, is also linked from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity page along with an official Catholic commentary on the report by Thomas A. Stransky.

The Word of God in the Life of the Church had its initial print publication in a special issue of the American Baptist Quarterly (vol. 31, no. 1) that includes the full text of the 95-page report along with introductions and commentaries. An editorial introduction by Curtis W. Freeman, who is co-editor of the American Baptist Quarterly as well as Research Professor of Theology and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School, makes connections between these recent international conversations and the national-level conversations that began in 1967 soon after the Second Vatican Council between representatives of the American Baptist Churches USA and the United States Catholic Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Baptist-Catholic dialogue commission co-chair and report co-editor Paul S. Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology at Oxford University, provides an extensive introduction to the report that contextualizes the themes of the report in relation to other ecumenical dialogues the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church have held with other Christian communions. The text of the report itself is followed by a pair of responses to the report by two Baptist theologians of note who were not members of the Baptist delegation to these conversations: a commentary by Josué Fonseca, who was Professor and Academic Dean at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Santiago, Chile from 1978 to 2008 before his current service as pastor of First Baptist Church in Concepcion, Chile, and a commentary by Stephen R. Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who is also a minister in the Baptist Union of Scotland. Single copies of the American Baptist Quarterly issue with the report may be ordered for $5.00 plus $3.00 shipping (in the continental United States) from Callie Davis at Duke University Divinity School: cdavis@div.duke.edu.

At some point the text of The Word of God in the Life of the Church will also be posted on the Baptist World Alliance web site and issued by the BWA as an e-book on Amazon.com. When the text is available in those ways, notice will be given here at Ecclesial Theology.