Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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and literature, concentrating solely on the Christian Scriptures. In his rejectionof Greek pagan ideas he was like Tertullian (c.170-200 AD), another greatchurch leader in Carthage, who once wrote, ‘What has Jerusalem to do withAthens?’ Some Christian leaders in the Early Church, like Clement of Alexandria(c.150-215 AD), had tried to encompass some aspects of Greek philosophywithin Christian truth; not so Cyprian or Tertullian.Cyprian is particularly important to a history of Christian Unity in that he livedand suffered during times of persecution and had to deal with the question of‘Does the Church have a place for Christians who have fallen away from thefaith but want to be restored to the Church? Is the Church only for those whoare strong and pure, or has it a place for the weak and sinning?’This is a question that Christians in Eastern Europe had to face on the demiseof Communism at the end of the 1980s. During the 1960s and 70s I got toknow one or two churches behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ and saw how one churchdealt with one of its members who had, for 20 years, gone over to theCommunists, becoming a Party member and spying on his fellow Christians.When he wished to rejoin the church he had left, it is good to record that hewas freely welcomed back into fellowship.Cyprian had fled in the Decian Persecution (205-251 AD), the first systematicpersecutions of Christians, and, returning to Carthage, found that the Churchthere (and generally throughout the empire) was bitterly divided about whatto do with the ‘lapsed’. The Emperor had demanded that all citizens shouldmake a pagan sacrifice and some Christians did (named the ‘sacrificati’); others(the ‘libellatici’) bought certificates (‘libelli pacis’) saying they had sacrificedwhen they had not.Cyprian also found that those who had stood firm (known as the ‘confessors’)were easing the lapsed back into the Church. Cyprian influenced two churchcouncils in Carthage which followed (251 and 252 AD) to lay down themoderate discipline that the lapsed should only be allowed back into Churchafter due repentance and penance. But for Cyprian it was the local bishopswho had the rule in the matter.The persecution had given rise to schisms of believers who could not acceptsuch easy restoration of the lapsed, and Cyprian’s high view of the authority ofthe bishop came into play. As long ago as the middle of the 1 st Century,Ignatius of Antioch had insisted that nothing ought to be done without thePage 37
authority of the local bishop; Cyprian followed this tradition. For him, thequestion of the lapsed was a matter for the bishops.The consequence of this was that the Church of the (accredited) bishopsbecame the only place where a Christian could find his home. Unity was theissue. Outside of the Church, the single, universal church throughout theworld, there was no salvation. The charismatic prophets of the days of theDidachē, 24 and the authority of the confessors in the days of persecution, gaveway to the supreme authority of the bishop from now on.Two more issues were raised at this time. The primacy of the bishop of Rome,the city in which by tradition both Paul and Peter had died, over the otherbishops of the Empire, was debated. Scholars are not quite clear as to whatCyprian’s position was on this, though he disagreed with the Papal teachingthat schismatics and heretics did not need to be re-baptised to enter the onetrue Church; he was a rigorist on this, insisting that they had not been reallybaptised in the former churches (even where that baptism had beenTrinitarian).After the death of Decius, the next Emperor, Valerian, also began to persecuteChurch leaders. Cyprian was arrested in 257 AD and the following year wasexecuted.What issues does all this history raise for us today? One is clearly that anEpiscopal form of Church government was established, rooted in the conceptof ‘apostolic succession’ of Clement of Rome and Irenaeus, and that this was tobe the unalterable form the mainstream Church was to take (Orthodox Eastand Catholic West) for the rest of church history.When non-episcopal churches appear from the time of the Reformationonwards, either they are impossible to integrate into a concept of Unity (animpossibility felt by the Orthodox) or they are somehow (as at present theCatholic Church maintains) to be seen as lesser churches than the true one.24Didachē, also called Teaching Of The Twelve Apostles, was the oldest survivingChristian document on church order, probably written in Egypt or Syria in the 2 nd Century.In 16 short chapters it deals with morals and ethics, church practice, and the eschatologicalhope (of the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time), and presents a general programmefor instruction and initiation into the primitive church.Page 38
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 and 32: was raised by the Novatian schism.
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: agreement into the terms and ethics
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
Page 99 and 100:
harmoniously ordered society of pea
Page 101 and 102:
interesting to note that the disput
Page 103 and 104:
• In the Eucharist, Komensky main
Page 105 and 106:
The Conference opened with much pom
Page 107 and 108:
a growing unity among Christians at
Page 109 and 110:
We cannot leave the 17 th Century w
Page 111 and 112:
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,
Page 117 and 118:
the West, the North and the South.
Page 119 and 120:
‘John Wesley, displeased at not b
Page 121 and 122:
formally, though it may have helped
Page 123 and 124:
In view of all this, Charles Wesley
Page 125 and 126:
Some of the refugees were persuaded
Page 127 and 128:
Isaac Watts (1647-1748), the pionee
Page 129 and 130:
CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
Page 131 and 132:
hymns and Eastern orthodox spiritua
Page 133 and 134:
eplied with a series of Eirenicons
Page 135 and 136:
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
Page 143 and 144:
‘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
Page 153 and 154:
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 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 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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