Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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Probably the most earnest of the Reformers for unity was Martin Bucer(Butzer) (1491-1551) of Strasbourg, who tried to mediate between the Swisstheologians and Lutherans. Luther tended to distrust the Swiss; he differedstrongly from them on the doctrine of the Eucharist, insisting on a ‘realpresence of Christ’ in the elements. Luther’s basis of unity, even among fellowProtestants, was truth (and truth as Luther saw it) rather than a yielding ofconviction for the sake of conciliation.Soon after Luther’s initial protest against Rome in 1517, reformed Swisstheologians such as Zwingli and Oecolampadius and German theologians suchas Melanchthon, Bucer and Osiander found themselves drawn, with Luther, toa Colloquy to be held in Philip of Hesse’s castle in Marburg in 1529. It onlylasted two days. The point of it all was to see how much these ‘Protestant’scholars could agree.After lively discussions they found they could agree on 14 of 15 proposals ondoctrine. Many of these, such as that on the Trinity, were universal doctrinesagreed by Catholics and Protestants alike, but it was on the nature of theEucharist that there was deep disagreement between Luther and the Swiss.Luther had gone to the Conference only reluctantly as he was sure the Swissview was heretical and that they would not change their minds.The issue was, is the body and blood of Christ really present in the elements ofthe Eucharist? Luther was adamant that Jesus’ words, ‘This is my body,’ mustbe taken at face value as literally true. Zwingli made the plea to Luther that thismust be taken figuratively, and called for a distinguishing between essentialdoctrines and non-essential ones. To Luther the question of the corporealpresence of Christ in the Supper was an essential matter, not a non-essential.They parted agreeing to differ and not to use bitter words against each other.The whole debate over ‘essentials’ and ‘non-essentials’ is ongoing and islargely a Protestant problem. The difference between the two is resolvedmuch more clearly by the Catholics (for whom it lies in accepting the traditionof the infallible teaching ministry of the church) and by the Orthodox (forwhom it lies in the teaching of the seven Ecumenical Councils of the universalChurch).What seems to be happening today is that very many Christians are seeingthat there are a few core truths that are true for all true Christians which aresufficient to provide grounds for unity, while allowing them to hold on toPage 67
denominational allegiances: confession of Christ as Saviour and Lord;submission to the Word of God; and confession of a classical Creed. Pressuresof secularism and pluralism are, perhaps, helping us to see more clearly theessentials from the non-essentials.A Conference on unity was called for at Eisenach in May 1536. Luther was illbut struggled to make some contribution to the discussion, and there wassome show of unity between the Germans and the Swiss. 46 As the outcome,the Augsburg Confession was signed by the delegates.One of the most disputed doctrines taught by the Church Reformers,justification by faith alone, was upheld by many Catholic theologians. MartinLuther, who made this truth his battle-cry, is perhaps the most famousexponent of the doctrine, but his own Augustinian superior at the Erfurtmonastery, Johannes von Staupitz (c.1465-1524), taught a strong doctrine ofgrace which made men righteous before God.Cardinal Contarini (1483-1542), who was the Pope’s representative at theColloquy of Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1541, which tried to bring Catholic andthe new Protestant theologians together, had come to an experience of savinggrace some time before Luther’s. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Churchsays of him, ‘His own mystical experience of 1511, which led him to put histrust in the merits of Christ rather than religious observances, antedatedLuther’s ‘Turmerlebnis’ 47 by several years.’Calvin, a young observer at the short Regensburg Colloquy, wrote to his fellowGenevan Reformer, William Farel, that the Catholics had conceded much onjustification. ‘For they have committed themselves to the essentials of what isour true teaching. Nothing is to be found in it (the article on justification)which does not stand in our writings.’ 48This is not at all to say that Contarini had embraced Protestantism, but is anindication that there was common ground between Catholics and Protestants46Atkinson, James, The Great Light, Luther and the Reformation, Paternoster ChurchHistory, Vol iv, The Paternoster Press, 1968, pp 111-113.47Turmerlebnis. Luther’s experience of justification by faith, as he studied the Scriptures in atower of his Augustinian monastery.48Matheson, Peter, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg, quoting a letter from Jean Calvin toGuillaume Farel, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972, p 109.Page 68
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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
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 and 68: Far more serious criticisms of the
Page 69 and 70: and the sacraments. He was tried by
Page 71: and his discovering that the Script
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
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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
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however, at a lower level, manifest
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In her study of the Evolution of th
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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
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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
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The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
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who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
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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
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Most Christians, in all three tradi
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of God may be complete, equipped fo
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CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
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c) For some Protestants ecumenism m
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The church at Corinth was full of C
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) It has become clear that, realist
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Christians who believe a Catholic d
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There are three confessions that ha
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‘The solution to the ecumenical i
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k) Christ has left us an example -
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day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
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APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON TH
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of the common good, and when one’
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eaten, as idols did not exist anywa
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14. That to continue in any known s
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What all three traditions have in c
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Calvin held that the Gospel of Jesu
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Relations between Protestantism, Ca
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Brandreth, Henry, R T, The Oecumeni
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Hopko, Thomas, All the Fullness of
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Rupp, E G and Drewery, Benjamin, Ma
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INDEXAAct of Uniformity, 114aggiorn
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Frame, John M, 91, 187Francis of As
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Richardson, Paul, 239Roman Catholic
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