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The challenge before the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of careful study and evaluation of the work and recommendations of this dialogue.... The work of this series of dialogues offers possibilities to these two churches, and to all churches committed to the ecumenical movement, to move beyond their present separation and disunity toward full communion, but not structural merger. It is in this spirit that the dialogue offers its work to the churches.
The truth claims of Christianity appear compromised by the division of Christ’s followers into different denominations. What keeps Christians separated, retreating to their corners labeled Catholic, Orthodox, and various types of Protestant? Elizabeth Smith Woodard accounts for Christian disunity in terms of ecclesiology, episcopacy, and apostolicity: in brief, Who are we? Who is in charge? And are we who we say we are? Woodard argues that the controversial issues dividing Christians today stem from these questions of authority and identity. What would it look like, Woodard asks, if Christians did not insist on making “others” more “like us,” but instead worked toward all of “us” becoming more and more like Christ? She answers that growing in such cruciformity should serve as the basis for unity. Using recent unity-achieving Anglican-Lutheran discussions as a case study, she examines the crucial intersection of ecclesiology, episcopacy, and apostolicity to argue that Christians’ growth in Christ’s mission necessarily entails growing in unity and cruciformity.
It is often said that in polite conversation the topics of religion and politics should be avoided but how long can most of us carry an engaging conversation on the weather? One who is concerned about the directions in which this nation is moving must necessarily discuss controversial topics. Have the labels liberal and conservative outlived their usefulness? Is liberalism truly a bad word? What are conservatives trying to conserve? Is it possible to rise above the din of partisan debate? These brief essays are critical comments on society, politics and religion in which the author avoids the pitfalls of extremism. The author, a minister of the Lutheran Church and with an interest in education, sees danger in extreme positions, religious or political, noting that the "right" produced Mussolini's Fascism and Hitler's Nazism whereas the "left" resulted in Stalinist Communism. Against rigid, absolutist positions as well as spineless relativism, one is reminded of the church mouse who once delivered a pertinent aphorism: "If you stand in the middle of the road, the traffic in two directions will flatten you into road kill" (Essay 10). The point is that controversial topics must not be ignored. Problems of narrowness, for example, have been tackled by the author in Essay 6, which begins with this paragraph: Some years ago an acquaintance who liked to speak in grand terms said to me in all seriousness, "My philosophy is the pursuit of happiness". It was narrow and egocentric but at the time I had no response. However, now, many years later, I have an answer to that unforgotten statement, thanks to a guest at St. James. Last month Dr. William Foege ... [from the Carter Center and Emory University], speaking at St. James, stated that there have been many attempts to define civilization. One of these is happiness, which caused him to wonder whether a three-year-old with a chocolate might be more civilized than the parents.
The articles and talks included in this collection cover fifty years of theological engagement, the primary focus being on education for ministry in Australia and abroad. Despite the diversity of topics, such as hermeneutics, New Testament theology, preaching, ecumenical relations, and early church history, there is a connecting concern to listen to the unique voices of early Christian witnesses as foundational for the faith and the apostolic claims of the church in its present-day witness. The publication of these essays has been suggested for some time. Despite my reluctance to reissue articles written over a period of more than five decades, I have relented in the hope that there will be enough to engage the interest of a variety of readers, and not only former students in seminaries and theological colleges in Australia and various places overseas. Included here are mainly articles written specifically for publication in journals, but also lectures and talks to various groups of clergy, lay people, and theological students. Of prime concern has always been the explication of the Christian faith according to its earliest witnesses in the early church of apostles and martyrs. Faith remains attested and lived, approved not proven.
In recent bilateral ecumenical dialogue the aim of the dialogue has been to reach some form of doctrinal consensus. The three major chapters of the book discuss the variety of forms of doctrinal consensus found in ecumenical dialogues among Anglicans, Lutherans and Roman Catholics. In general, the dialogue documents argue for agreement/consensus based on commonality or compatibility. Each of the three dialogue processes has specific characteristics and formulates its argument in a unique way. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue has a particular interest in hermeneutical questions and proposes various forms of "differentiated" or perspectival forms of consensus. The Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue emphasises the correctness of interpretations. The documents consciously look towards a "common future", not the separated past.
German Protestant and Anglican experts outline and explain the different understandings of episcopacy and oversight which arose during the German and English reformations, and how these have developed since. Their contributions draw on research presented at the second conference held under the Meissen Agreement.
The contemporary trinitarian paradigm in systematic theology has been internationally well-known since the time of Karl Barth and Karl Rahner and, particularly, since the contribution of their famous successors. Many of them, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Robert W. Jenson among others, have intentionally shown in their writings what the general ecumenical relevance of the findings of trinitarianism might be. However, the academic research of ecumenism has not yet fully investigated how ecumenically-oriented trinitarian theology has been factually applied in varying ecumenical relationships and agreements. Unity in the Triune God focuses on the ecumenism of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with its full-communion partners--the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ (1997); the Episcopal Church (1999); the Moravian Church in America (1999); and the United Methodist Church (2009). Together all these ecumenically active denominations have shown in their full-communion agreements that the doctrine of the Trinity and the church's common trinitarian confession are not meaningless relics from ancient times, but rather are dynamic and many-sided ecumenical resources that can be used for several functions in full-communion agreements. The goal of this study is to reveal the differing ways in which to utilize this ecumenical potential of the trinitarian faith.
This collection of essays highlights the thorny and divisive issue of the admission of women into the sacramental diaconal priesthood of the Christian Church from the Orthodox theological perspective. The contributions here stem from scientific papers presented at an international conference titled “Deaconesses, Ordination of Women and Orthodox Theology”, organized in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2015 by the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies (CEMES). They cover almost all the fields of biblical, liturgical, patristic, systematic, canonical, and historical theology. The volume’s main focus is the ancient order of deaconesses, in connection with the overall issue of the ordination of women. Although most papers address the issues from an Orthodox perspective, their sober analysis can provide theological argumentation for the wider Christian community, both the Churches and Christian denominations that exclude women from the sacramental priesthood, and those that have already adopted their ordination.