Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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e) We should accept the place of paradox in Christian theology.A lot of disagreeable and unproductive argument would have been avoided inthe past if the principle of ‘Both-Neither’ had been applied where it could be.There is a place of paradox in Christian theology. Jan Amos Komensky’s ‘Both-Neither’ principle ought to be taken seriously. It cannot always be applied, ofcourse, but it is most helpful in the areas of justification by faith and works, onfree will and predestination, on the doctrine of the Trinity as an UndividedUnity and as a Composite Godhead, and on Christ as both truly man and trulyGod.f) We should stand together on the essentials of unity.Again and again in the history of Christian Unity we hear the cry to make the‘essentials’ the basis of unity and to leave aside ‘non-essentials’. The questionis, ‘What are the essentials?’, and great disagreements have resulted fromopening up this matter. Sifting through the many arguments and discussions,however, it becomes clear that Christianity is essentially a religion of grace,and that what makes a person a Christian is the heart-cry ‘God be merciful tome, a sinner’, expressed on the grounds of what Christ has done for methrough his death and resurrection. To become a Christian the indwellingChrist in one’s soul is enough.In the past, animosities grew between Christians as to what were theessentials, even to the point of doing violence to each other. There were oftenpolitical, international and even economic factors giving rise to such enmities.But it ended with people who were calling on Christ to save them persecuting,and even killing, other Christians who also were calling on Christ as Saviour. Forfellowship today (at its simplest level) it should be enough for Christians to crythe Jesus Prayer of the Orthodox: ‘Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me asinner.’The implication of this for ‘Now what?’ is that if only we can come to recognizethat the Christ-life in another person comes about by this cry of repentanceand faith, then we will want to seek to pray and worship with that person,since any strange doctrinal views they may have (from our point of view) donot destroy the Christ-life in that person.Page 217
There are three confessions that have been shared throughout the long historyof the Church, in harmony with the Vincentian Canon. They are:• A personal and corporate recognition of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lordcelebrated in daily living and in the Holy Communion (Lord’s Supper,Eucharist, Breaking of Bread).• A genuine readiness to submit to the Bible as God’s authoritativerevelation to us for faith and conduct.• A confession of the classical Creeds of the ChurchBeyond the boundaries of these confessions there is ample room for a diversityof views which do not undermine or deny them.Continuity and change are two sides of any doctrinal confession. The 18 th and19 th Centuries saw a break with the continuity of the Church’s past. Much oftheir theology and Biblical studies (for example in the demythologising of theNew Testament story), and modern ‘liberal’ hermeneutics, tend to breakcontinuity with the past.We need to ask of any modern scholarship, does it have continuity with thepast in such a way that it is in harmony with historic interpretations of the corebeliefs of the Christian faith?g) We should recognise the global koinonia of the Church.We should recognise and welcome the new global koinonia created by theHoly Spirit. A mark of the Spirit’s activity is the way in which the youngerchurches of the ‘global south’ are beginning to take the leadership of theChurch and be the centres of growth.As long ago as 1940 Alec R Vidler wrote that it is not impossible that in theprovidence of God, Europe would be re-evangelised by what are often called‘the younger churches’. 201 This is already happening – at present, African andSouth American bishops are consecrating bishops for American traditionalistdioceses. As a traditionalist bishop said to me recently, ‘the centre ofoperations’ is now in the young churches. Even at Edinburgh 1910 it became201Vidler, A R., God’s Judgement on Europe, Longmans, Green and Co 1940, p 107.Page 218
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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
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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
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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
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university formed by a federation o
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credo-baptists to accept the provis
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Horton Davies 137 points out in his
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However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
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(b) The Church of Christ in China (
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the Scriptures as the supreme autho
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In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
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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 and 206: s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
Page 207 and 208: My Protestant friends say to me tha
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: Christians who believe a Catholic d
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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