Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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‘By the closing decades of the 20 th century, that century of remarkableecumenical advances, differences in Order would continue to divide, eventhough disagreement in Faith had lost much of its divisive power.’Michael Root writes in the same volume of essays 186 of the dilemmaecumenists are in today because of the different views of what the Church is.Each tradition is separated from the others by its ecclesiology, yet all share themarks of ‘Church’. Now even Orthodox and Catholic theologians have come (orare coming) to accept that Christian groups other than themselves can bethought of as ‘Churches’ in some sense. This points to an acceptance that therecan be some kind of Christian Unity without Churches being united organically.The answer to the dilemma is, first and foremost, to define who and what is aChristian. 187 The highly complex sacramental system which developed in theOrthodox and Catholic Churches would seem to tell us that the unregenerate isbrought to salvation by ceremonies conducted by the Church. The infant isbrought to Christ through baptism. This is the medieval way of salvation, whichbegan to evolve in Church history in the 2 nd Century.Even some Protestant churches today, heirs of the teaching of the MagisterialReformers who held to a medieval concept of the church as co-extensive withsociety, while not subscribing to baptismal regeneration, see infant baptism asbringing a child into God’s covenant with the Church. But these churcheswould insist that, for a child to become a Christian, there must be personalfaith in Jesus as Saviour.In 1990 Keith A Fournier wrote a book with the title Evangelical Catholics. 188 Init he claimed to be such a Christian and held it up as the most natural ofdescriptions for a believer in Jesus. Yet he remained committed to the teachingand discipline of the Roman Catholic Church. He writes of his conversionexperience:‘“Lord, I want to believe,” I cried out, “If you are real, please come to meand save me. I confess my sin, and I ask your forgiveness. I invite you, LordJesus Christ, to be my Saviour.”’186Ed Braaten, Carl E and Jenson, Robert W, The Ecumenical Future, William B EerdmansPublishing Co 2004, pp 106ff.187Coad, F R, A History of the Brethren Movement, The Paternoster Press, 1968, p 277.188Fournier, Keith A, Evangelical Catholics, Thos Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1990.Page 201
My Protestant friends say to me that he cannot be both Evangelical andCatholic. But if his turning to Christ was real (and only God knows his heart) Imust accept he has become my brother in Christ, even though he is holdingsome views which I reject. Fournier also writes:‘An evangelical wave is sweeping Christian churches of every tradition,including my own. And it is leaving in its wake renewed and committedbelievers who are striving to re-evangelise their churches and evangelisethe nations. But, for the most part, these believers are doing their workapart from one another.’Even in a sacramentalist system, personal faith is seen as essential to salvation.While devotion to Mary and the saints in the Catholic and Orthodox traditionsremains very high, they are not meant to eclipse a personal faith in Jesus, norto replace him as supreme Saviour of mankind.The doctrinal basis of the WCC is still a firm assertion of a belief in a Trinity andin the real humanity and deity of Jesus.The Orthodox ‘Jesus Prayer’, ‘Lord Jesus, Son of God, be merciful to me asinner,’ echoes in the heart of all true Christians of whatever denomination. Icannot separate myself from, ignore or despise anyone who cries out to Jesuslike this. They may be, from my point of view, mixed up with all sorts oferrors, but they share with me new life in Christ and I must make the effort tomeet them, pray with them and help them as I am able. If I makeunderstanding of the faith rather than possession of Jesus the basis of myfellowship with other believers, I am putting a stumbling block in the way ofreal unity.All three traditions see the Cross of Christ as the means of our forgiveness andhis Resurrection as the empowering of the believer to live a holy life. Thedoctrine of justification by grace through faith, a cause of contention in theChurch at the time of the Reformation, no longer seems to be a divisive factorfor many Christians today. At a ‘folk religion’ level there are Catholics who aretrying by their works to merit salvation, as there are Protestants who are doingthe same. It is the task of teachers in all three traditions to explain that this isnot the Gospel.The Eastern Orthodox emphasis on salvation as deification, ‘theosis’, is adoctrine rooted in the New Testament and one that is coming to bePage 202
Page 11 and 12:
Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
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‘In the Trinity the three are one
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Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18:
When John Wesley said that Christia
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(Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
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While organised Christian endeavour
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Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
Page 25 and 26:
CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
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Almost all the heresies in the Earl
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interpreted as being against the la
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was raised by the Novatian schism.
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ArianismArianism was the most impor
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the Person of Christ. This was the
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Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
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He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
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agreement into the terms and ethics
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authority of the local bishop; Cypr
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Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
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guide the affairs of men: the Papac
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The distinction between laity and c
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ule. Christians were allowed to be
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fallen corruption and mortality but
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During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
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his repentance and restoration. The
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just before death, they might recei
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In both the East and the West heres
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The Waldensians were so named after
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CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
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Far more serious criticisms of the
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and the sacraments. He was tried by
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and his discovering that the Script
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denominational allegiances: confess
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aptism and substituting for it bapt
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Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
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Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
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CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
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Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
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Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
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The restoration of the universal Ch
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Timothy Ware - 20 th Century:‘It
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Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
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Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
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Keith A Fournier - 20 th Century:
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concept of a contract between a rul
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harmoniously ordered society of pea
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interesting to note that the disput
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• In the Eucharist, Komensky main
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The Conference opened with much pom
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a growing unity among Christians at
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We cannot leave the 17 th Century w
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CHAPTER 7CHRISTIAN UNITY AND THE EV
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In Dr Woodward’s account of the r
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for Whitefield’s work in America,
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the West, the North and the South.
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‘John Wesley, displeased at not b
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formally, though it may have helped
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In view of all this, Charles Wesley
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Some of the refugees were persuaded
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Isaac Watts (1647-1748), the pionee
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CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
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hymns and Eastern orthodox spiritua
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eplied with a series of Eirenicons
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positively wrote on grace and love
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hand that pours out sorrow’ and t
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He died in England in 1853 an ‘ec
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assembly, without much hesitation r
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‘Loving all whom Christ loves bec
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says, the Broad Church was ‘a moo
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far greater part for the laity in t
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ehind some of the criticism of the
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came together with the clear purpos
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In subsequent missionary conference
Page 155 and 156: university formed by a federation o
Page 157 and 158: credo-baptists to accept the provis
Page 159 and 160: Horton Davies 137 points out in his
Page 161 and 162: However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
Page 163 and 164: (b) The Church of Christ in China (
Page 165 and 166: the Scriptures as the supreme autho
Page 167 and 168: In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
Page 169 and 170: indulgences, were all confirmed str
Page 171 and 172: however, at a lower level, manifest
Page 173 and 174: In her study of the Evolution of th
Page 175 and 176: Even within the Reformed Protestant
Page 177 and 178: the publisher’s foreword to Gee
Page 179 and 180: and so I have some golden opportuni
Page 181 and 182: CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
Page 183 and 184: ‘Only he - only Christ - was able
Page 185 and 186: c) Justification by Faith and Works
Page 187 and 188: However, in the Credo of the People
Page 189 and 190: f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
Page 191 and 192: The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
Page 193 and 194: who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
Page 195 and 196: However, there is a growing awarene
Page 197 and 198: encouraged to receive a blessing al
Page 199 and 200: c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
Page 201 and 202: witness. There is one such Sisterho
Page 203 and 204: Practically all para-church groups
Page 205: s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
Page 209 and 210: Most Christians, in all three tradi
Page 211 and 212: of God may be complete, equipped fo
Page 213 and 214: CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
Page 215 and 216: c) For some Protestants ecumenism m
Page 217 and 218: The church at Corinth was full of C
Page 219 and 220: ) It has become clear that, realist
Page 221 and 222: Christians who believe a Catholic d
Page 223 and 224: There are three confessions that ha
Page 225 and 226: ‘The solution to the ecumenical i
Page 227 and 228: k) Christ has left us an example -
Page 229 and 230: day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
Page 231 and 232: APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON TH
Page 233 and 234: of the common good, and when one’
Page 235 and 236: eaten, as idols did not exist anywa
Page 237 and 238: 14. That to continue in any known s
Page 239 and 240: What all three traditions have in c
Page 241 and 242: Calvin held that the Gospel of Jesu
Page 243 and 244: Relations between Protestantism, Ca
Page 245 and 246: Brandreth, Henry, R T, The Oecumeni
Page 247 and 248: Hopko, Thomas, All the Fullness of
Page 249 and 250: Rupp, E G and Drewery, Benjamin, Ma
Page 251 and 252: INDEXAAct of Uniformity, 114aggiorn
Page 253 and 254: Frame, John M, 91, 187Francis of As
Page 255 and 256: Richardson, Paul, 239Roman Catholic
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