Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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About the same time as Marcion was gathering followers, a man namedMontanus in Phrygia was teaching that the Church was too lax in its disciplineof those who had lapsed from the faith in times of persecution, and that itlacked earnestness and spiritual power. Montanus demanded an ascetic lifestylefrom his followers, but, unlike Marcion, Montanus’s emphasis was on thecharismatic gifts which were given to the first apostles.Montanus himself claimed, as did two of his female followers, to have beenendowed with the power of the Spirit of God in order to prophesy. Their mostforceful prophecy was that the end of the age was imminent and that the NewJerusalem (see Revelation Ch 21) was about to come down upon them inPepuza. Like so many subsequent Adventist sects in Christendom, theMontanists were undermined by the non-fulfilment of their prophecy.As the Marcionists took away some of the authority of Scripture from theChurch’s heritage, so Montanism added to it by advocating a supra-scripturalauthority.These two tendencies, to be one’s own authority as to what is and what isnot Scripture on the one hand, and to assert that Scripture is secondary to theimmediate dictates of the Holy Spirit on the other, have from time to time inthe history of the Church fractured Christian unity.NovatianismWhen the persecutions of the Church began, Christians had to come to termswith how to reinstate fellow Christians who had apostatised or lapsed duringthe time of trial. About 250 AD a schism formed around Novatian, a learnedpriest in Rome who wrote a completely orthodox treatise on the Trinity. Hisfollowers, similarly, were orthodox in doctrine; the issue causing the schismwas the lenient treatment of Christians who had, so it was held, denied theirfaith in the Decian Persecution of 249-250 AD.Novatian and his followers became a rival church to the catholic church andtheir congregations lasted some centuries, though not in large numbers. Herewe have a dispute about church order and discipline and not of heresy. Youcould argue, however, that the doctrine of the church is at issue here. Is thechurch a company of strong, pure believers only, or a mixture of the strong andthe confident, the frail and the vacillating? The whole question of authorityPage 25
was raised by the Novatian schism. Who has the authority to bar fromfellowship or accept into fellowship? More broadly, can there be a soleauthority which speaks for the whole church?At the time of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation the question ofauthority was the most important divisive issue. Was it the Papacy withtradition or ‘sola scriptura‘ (Scripture alone) that was to decide doctrine andchurch order?There was some agreement on doctrine at the Regensberg Colloquy of 1541between Protestants and the Catholic Church, but it was mainly on thequestion of authority that the Colloquy floundered. The reason for bothCatholic and Protestant persecution of the Anabaptists was largely a questionof their not submitting to authority and so undermining the foundations ofsociety. And so with the Novatian and Donatist schisms (Donatism: see below).By the time these schisms appeared a universal (‘catholic’) church wasemerging in the West, and a schism was a break away from her authority. TheEastern schism to come later in 1054 was also, at root, a dispute overauthority.For us today, in the 21 st Century, there is no one body which can realisticallyspeak for all Christians. We do not live, anywhere in the world, in a‘Christendom’, and while this may seem a great loss to many Catholic andOrthodox Christians, the break-up of Christendom has occurred and there isno going back to a condition in which there is one organised, visible ChristianChurch.What that means for Christian Unity is that each Christian denomination orgroup today has to work out its own ways of commanding authority anddiscipline, guided by its tradition and the Word of God. But it also means thateach denomination or group should seek dialogue with Christians of othertraditions to learn, with them, ways of dealing with issues of discipline andauthority.DonatismAt the later Diocletian Persecution, in 310 AD, in North Africa, a schismaticbody, the Donatists, came into being over the same issue as in the Novatianschism.Page 26
Page 11 and 12: Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
Page 13 and 14: ‘In the Trinity the three are one
Page 15 and 16: Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18: When John Wesley said that Christia
Page 19 and 20: (Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
Page 21 and 22: While organised Christian endeavour
Page 23 and 24: Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
Page 25 and 26: CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
Page 27 and 28: Almost all the heresies in the Earl
Page 29: interpreted as being against the la
Page 33 and 34: ArianismArianism was the most impor
Page 35 and 36: the Person of Christ. This was the
Page 37 and 38: Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
Page 39 and 40: He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
Page 41 and 42: agreement into the terms and ethics
Page 43 and 44: authority of the local bishop; Cypr
Page 45 and 46: Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
Page 47 and 48: guide the affairs of men: the Papac
Page 49 and 50: The distinction between laity and c
Page 51 and 52: ule. Christians were allowed to be
Page 53 and 54: fallen corruption and mortality but
Page 55 and 56: During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
Page 57 and 58: his repentance and restoration. The
Page 59 and 60: just before death, they might recei
Page 61 and 62: In both the East and the West heres
Page 63 and 64: The Waldensians were so named after
Page 65 and 66: CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
Page 67 and 68: Far more serious criticisms of the
Page 69 and 70: and the sacraments. He was tried by
Page 71 and 72: and his discovering that the Script
Page 73 and 74: denominational allegiances: confess
Page 75 and 76: aptism and substituting for it bapt
Page 77 and 78: Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
Page 79 and 80: Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
Page 81 and 82:
CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
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Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
Page 85 and 86:
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
Page 91 and 92:
Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
Page 93 and 94:
Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
Page 95 and 96:
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
Page 113 and 114:
In Dr Woodward’s account of the r
Page 115 and 116:
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
Page 151 and 152:
came together with the clear purpos
Page 153 and 154:
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
Page 163 and 164:
(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
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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
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the publisher’s foreword to Gee
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and so I have some golden opportuni
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CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
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‘Only he - only Christ - was able
Page 185 and 186:
c) Justification by Faith and Works
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However, in the Credo of the People
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f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
Page 191 and 192:
The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
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who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
Page 195 and 196:
However, there is a growing awarene
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encouraged to receive a blessing al
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c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
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witness. There is one such Sisterho
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Practically all para-church groups
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s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
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My Protestant friends say to me tha
Page 209 and 210:
Most Christians, in all three tradi
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of God may be complete, equipped fo
Page 213 and 214:
CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
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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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