MM Thomas - Life, Legacy and Theology

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THEOLOGY OF MADATHILPARAMPIL MAMMEN THOMAS Jesus Christ frees and unites" we sang in the midst of Nairobi's life: people from around the earth, standing before God in our captivities and disunities and naming a divine possibility CHRISTIAN UNITY AT NAIROBI: SOME PERSONAL REFLECTIONS 1976 , Bishop J.E. Lesslie Newbigin Mid-Stream: The Ecumenical Movement Today http://www.newbigin.net/assets/pdf/76cuan.pdf “The two major addresses of M. M. Thomas (Moderator of the Central Committee) and Philip Potter (General Secretary) Were - in different ways - masterly interpretations of the way the Council had travelled since Uppsala and of the situation which the Fifth 103
THEOLOGY OF MADATHILPARAMPIL MAMMEN THOMAS Assembly must confront. The World Council has been severely criticized since Uppsala on the ground that it has become too much absorbed in the ‘horizontal' dimension of the Christian life and not enough in the ‘vertical.' Some of the criticism has been, in my opinion, justified, but the issues have been confused. It is not a question of finding a right compromise between ‘vertical' and ‘horizontal' (which would presumably be a trajectory of 45 degrees, leading into an orbit which would touch neither earth nor heaven!). It is a matter of finding the right relation between the law and the Gospel. It is a matter of so speaking and acting that it becomes clear both that it is Jesus Christ and he alone who frees and unites, and that the freedom and unity which he has given is not a merely private and spiritual affair but is a freedom and unity which be-comes operative in the public life of men. Both Thomas and Potter, in their different ways, pointed us to the center of our faith and called for a profounder spirituality, but one which would not be a spirituality of escape but "a spirituality for combat" (Thomas), a "spirituality for engagement" (Potter). As Desmond Tutu of South Africa put it: "It must be seen to be the case that it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the source of our concern for shalom." As compared with Uppsala, Nairobi was much more truly centred in the Gospel, but it did not for that reason lose any of the sharpness of Uppsala's call for action in the world." To quote Roger Mehl (France), "Faith must always be translated into tangible deeds in regard to one's neighbor . . . . our actions add nothing to the work of salvation carried out by God alone : they are merely testimony that we have not received his salvation in vain, that we have not belittled it. . ." To my mind this was the most important difference between Nairobi and Uppsala. Uppsala was a shattering proclamation of the Law - a law by which the Christian world is condemned as under God's wrath. Perhaps God intended us to hear only the law at that moment; we did not hear the Gospel. The fundamental criticism that can be made against the programs of the WCC during the seven years since Uppsala is that they have given the impression of being the work of those who are under the Law rather than under the Gospel. At Nairobi we really heard the Gospel; we heard the call to faith in Jesus Christ; we were able to make together that true confession of sin which is only possible to those who know that they are forgiven. I hope and believe 104
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MM Thomas - Life, Legacy and Theology

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