ECUMENISM

Ecumenism takes its name from the Greek term oikomene, meaning "the inhabited world" and from the first empire-wide councils of the church that were called by Constantine (325 CE) and his successors to settle matters of doctrinal debate. The term became used in the twentieth century to denote the quest for church unity in the context of European and global conflict.[1]

The reaction of the European churches to WWII led to important influences that eroded church boundaries as they had been known since the sixteenth century. In opposition to the Nazis and to European Fascism, it mattered less if one were a Protestant or Roman Catholic than if one were a member of the underground – and the growing horror and impact of what had been done to European Jewry had an added impact upon all Christian churches. Despite greater or lesser glimmers of opposition, it was realized how complicit European society, if not Christian faith and church life per se had been in the death camps. These factors associated with the war fostered a sense of transcending boundaries that would promote the growth of the ecumenical movement which had begun in the pre-war years.

The impact of the Holocaust upon all Christian organizations was profound. It is one of the lines of influence leading to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) for Roman Catholics. The promulgation of documents such as Lumen gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 1964), Unitatis Redintegratio (Decree on Ecumenism, 1964) and Nostre aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, 1965) which together proposed a form of Christian inclusivism, opened the way forward not only toward ecumenism and a positive reorientation toward Judaism but also to all religions.

As much as ecumenism became an expression of a kind of denominational triumph in the ecumenical sense as set forth by nineteenth century theorists such as Philip Schaff,[2] it also challenges contemporary Protestant denominationalism, Eastern Orthodoxy and post-conciliar Catholicism. It raises such questions as: What is the future of the church? Is it to be found in a union, conciliar, coalition or confessional model? Is the end in view simply some form of mutual recognition? These are all issues that confront a consortium like ours.

War-time cooperation, efforts at post-war spiritual renewal, and reactions to the Holocaust are some of the issues that have created a new “non-denominational” climate, different from oppositional Protestantism, a clcimate which fosters various forms of church union and the erosion of boundaries among religious groups. Such ecumenical momentum, at times inter-faith in nature (hence a confusion that often enters between what is essentially Christian ecumenism and a “wider” ecumenism of inter-faith relationship), often promotes new “trans-denominationalism”, a term yet to find settled meaning but connoting the freedom of inter-religious, in some cases, at least inter-communal flow of ideas. Schools of Theology, Seminaries and University Divinity Schools – many dating back to the period of denominational formation – find themselves increasingly shaped by such thinking.

[1] The history of the ecumenical movement is documented in the following three volumes: Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill, eds., A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948 , vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967); Harold E. Fey, ed., A History of the ecumenical Movement, 1948-1968, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970); and John Briggs, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Georges Tsetsis, Ruth Rouse and Harold E. Fey, eds., A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1968-2000, vol. 3 (WCC, 3rd ed., 2004)

[2] Schaff was one who developed the influential “Branch Theory” of church history which looked to a common source and final reconciliation of church difference George H. Shriver, Philip Schaff: Christian Scholar and Ecumenical Prophet (Mercer University Press, 1987).