Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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Donatus led a protest group on the election of a bishop to the see of Carthage,North Africa. This was on the grounds that the bishop had been consecrated bya ‘traditor’, that is, one who in the heat of persecution had handed over copiesof the Scriptures to the Roman authorities, who destroyed them. As in the caseof the Novatians, Donatus’s followers wanted to see the church purged ofcompromise and to see it following a rigorist life-style.Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) saw the danger of Donatism and wrotestrongly against it. The Christians of Hippo where he had become bishop weredivided into Catholic and Donatist factions.Theologically the two sides had much in common, but they differed strongly onthe nature of the church. Some extreme Donatists in North Africa took toviolence against the Catholics and so brought the Donatists as a whole intodisrepute.The question at issue was, is the church a company who are holy, pure, anduntainted by any compromise, as the Donatists held it to be, or is it a companyof less than perfect, failing sinners, as Catholics held and Augustine taught?These differences of view are still with us today, though it seems that theDonatist view is still a minority one among the mainline churches. The churchis a school for sinners, not a sanctuary for saints.SabelianismAbout 250 AD the Church in Rome had to deal with a view of the relation ofFather and Son in the Godhead which was decidedly unorthodox. The catholicdoctrine was that the Godhead comprised three distinct Persons in one unityof Godhead. A teacher called Sabellius proposed that there is no realdistinction between the Father and the Son, that the two are modes or aspectsof the One God. His aim was to safeguard the oneness of Deity and, by blurringthe distinctions between the Father and the Son, show that the Father couldbe said to have suffered on the Cross.Page 27
ArianismArianism was the most important and persistent heresy which came to a headin the early 4 th Century. In Alexandria, Egypt, an ancient city of learning andGreek culture, the Christian Church had become well established. It upheld ahigh view of the full deity of Christ. But a presbyter of the city, Arius, taughtotherwise. Jesus could not be equated with deity and though he could becalled both Son of God and logos (John 1.1), he was a created being and noteternal with the Father, not sharing his deity. Arius probably taught that therewas a time when the Son ‘was not’.His views were refuted by many, especially a champion of orthodoxy,Athanasius (c.296-373 AD). Arius’s views were condemned at the Council ofNicaea (325 AD), called by Emperor Constantine, who suggested that the term‘homoousios’ (of the same substance) should be applied to Christ’s relationshipwith the Father. The term was embraced by the Council and became, forsubsequent Councils and Creeds of the Church, the classic way of defining therelationship of Father and Son.The fortunes of the Arian party in the Church were to fluctuate during the nextcenturies, sometimes seeming to become the new orthodoxy, but eventuallyrelegated to the role of a minor but persistent heresy, surfacing from time totime in history, even into the 20 th Century. If Arianism had won the day, nodoctrines of incarnation and atonement would have remained in the Church.Athanasius in On the Incarnation (c.318 AD) pointed out clearly that those twotruths were inextricably linked together.MacedonianismThe doctrine of the Person of the Holy Spirit also came under attack. The earlyApostles’ Creed has little to say about the Holy Spirit, simply asserting, ‘Ibelieve in the Holy Spirit’. The later Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 AD)says more:‘I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceedethfrom the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together isworshipped and glorified. Who spake by the prophets.’ (Book of CommonPrayer)Page 28
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 and 30: interpreted as being against the la
Page 31: was raised by the Novatian schism.
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
Page 83 and 84:
Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
Page 85 and 86:
Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
Page 87 and 88:
The restoration of the universal Ch
Page 89 and 90:
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:
Page 97 and 98:
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
Page 129 and 130:
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
Page 137 and 138:
hand that pours out sorrow’ and t
Page 139 and 140:
He died in England in 1853 an ‘ec
Page 141 and 142:
assembly, without much hesitation r
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‘Loving all whom Christ loves bec
Page 145 and 146:
says, the Broad Church was ‘a moo
Page 147 and 148:
far greater part for the laity in t
Page 149 and 150:
ehind some of the criticism of the
Page 151 and 152:
came together with the clear purpos
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In subsequent missionary conference
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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
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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
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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
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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