Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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survived in Bohemian libraries despite official opposition and prohibition of thestudy of Wycliffe’s works, yet in 1410 his books were burned publicly.Jan Hus’s execution failed to extinguish his teaching that the Bible should bethe sole authority for faith and conduct and that civil or ecclesiastical authoritycould be challenged if it did not conform to its teaching. In the Church of StMartin-in-the-Walls, not far from Hus’s own Bethlehem Chapel, in 1414, HolyCommunion was celebrated for the first time by the congregation partaking ofthe cup as well as the bread.The cup (chalice-calix) became the symbol for a reforming section of theChurch who became known as the ‘Utraquists‘ (from utraque, ‘and the other’).The Utraquists were given a special status in the Catholic Church from 1433and only lost their position as the established Church in Bohemia after theThirty Years’ War, when full Catholicism was restored. Compromises are not atall common in the history of the Church and the Utraquite compromise wasshort-lived. The Utraquites themselves were opposed to the radical Hussites,the ‘Taborites’, based on the fortified town of Tabor in Southern Bohemia, anddefeated them in battle at Lipany, ending the Taborite rebellion.With Utraquist priests officiating at first, a group of reformers callingthemselves ‘Brethren‘ met in the village of Kunwald in 1457 and at Lhota in1467, and formed themselves into a Church, choosing three of their number bylot to be their ministers. Later these men were ordained by Waldensians, andattempts at union were made with the Waldensians and other schismatic,though not heretical, groups, but these attempts came to nothing.The Bible was central to the Brethren’s life, and a printed Bible in Czech wasproduced from Hebrew and Greek, the Kralice Bible (1579-1594). TheBrethren, like the Waldensians, anticipated the Protestant Reformation beforeLuther and John Calvin (1509-1564). They had some 200 churches in Bohemiaand Moravia by 1507, when Pope Alexander VI issued edicts against them. In1520 two of the Brethren contacted Luther, who approved of their confessionof faith.In Northern Europe, Johann Rucherat (‘John of Wesel’) (c.1400-1481), JohannWessel of Groeningen (c.1420-1489) and Johann Pupper of Goch wereReformers before the Reformation, all living in the Netherlands. John of Wesel,Canon of Worms, was accused of preaching Hussite doctrines on the ChurchPage 63
and the sacraments. He was tried by the Inquisition in 1479 and publiclyrecanted, but was imprisoned until his death.Wycliffe’s legacy of questioning Church authority was kept alive in theseNetherlands Reformers. Wycliffe taught that the Bible only was authoritative;he rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, the practice of grantingindulgences, compulsory fasting and extreme unction. Johann Wessel similarlyattacked indulgences (Luther came across his writings with delight in 1522),and criticised the Papacy even though he taught in Paris for many years.In 1570 ‘the Brethren’ inspired the Protestant United Synod of Sendormir inPoland, where Protestantism (Calvinist and Lutheran) was facing a revival ofthe Catholic Church. The ‘Consensus’ of Sendormir called for an avoidance ofdissension and an acceptance of the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. By theConsensus it was agreed to accept the orthodoxy of the Protestant traditionspresent at the Synod, Lutheran, Calvinist and Brethren, even to exchangingpulpits and to accepting their differences in discipline and worship. Frequentintercommunion and attendance at one another’s synods were advocated. 44These influences tended to loosen the ties of the Church and State and ledeventually to the situation we face in the West in the 21 st Century, that of thealmost complete secularisation of society It can be argued that theseloosening of the ties of State and Church were providential in that today’secumenical activities are so much freer without them.Soon the entire Roman Church system came under attack, as the Renaissanceinfluence of free enquiry brought scholars to re-examine the historical claimsof the Papacy to supremacy, and as the Scriptures were studied in their originallanguages of Hebrew and Greek.Erasmus’s Greek text of the New Testament appeared in 1516 and ArchbishopXimenes’s polyglot translation in 1522, though it had been prepared earlier.The invention of the moveable-type printing press in Europe around the 1450srapidly spread both scholarly treatises and polemical woodcuts throughoutChristendom. These publications criticised abuses of the Church and createdwhat were perceived by the Church to be new and dangerous teachings.44Slosser, G J, Christian Unity, its history and challenger in all communions, in all lands,Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd, London, 1929, pp 36-37.Page 64
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 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: Far more serious criticisms of the
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
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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
Page 139 and 140:
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
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
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university formed by a federation o
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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
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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
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
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‘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
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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
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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
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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