Theology 7372, Fall 2009

I serve on the Committee for Interchurch Relations for the Church of the Brethren. I also teach at Truett Theological Seminary. These contexts prompted me to ask about ecumenics. I posted the question on Twitter and Facebook: How do you see the future of the ecumenical movement. I will try to pull together what I heard. It was interesting that Stewart Hoover observed that during “his career denominational religion has been a consistent narrative of contraction.” The contraction fuels a different sort of ecumenical dialog.

Paul Andresen observed “It sounds like you (that is me) are asking what condition its condition is in. “ He later  suggest that “We are the sheep of different folds and as long as there are people and  our sinful (going toward the errant angle, not the evil angle) understandings there will continue to be different folds, and that’s not bad.”

James J. Gorrell  gave the most optimistic assessment arguing that  groups are “growing and becoming more intertwined to the point that there is one religion.” I am not sure that I have that level of optimism or share a perception of growing coalescence.

Jim Beckwith helped me think in a new way, in almost the way the George Lindbeck in his work on the Nature of Doctrine highlighted many years ago. He said, “I’m trying this response on for size: learning to speak with each other’s language so that we get a feel for other’s perspectives, even though we never lose our sense of identity with our mother tongue.”

David Hendricks: Good question! I imagine it depends where you live. Many places there seems to be lots of cooperation on a local level, but financial pressures seem to call for cutbacks on the national and international level. A few years ago when I was in Europe I was very encouraged by the degree of interaction I saw in Geneva at the WCC and also at Taize.

Bob Bowman gave the most historical response. “It (the ecumenical movement) grew out of an era when the major tensions were between denominations. That doesn’t seem to be where the fracture lines fall in this day.”

All of these observations from Gorrell’s optimism to Beckwith’s cultural linguistic metaphor to Bowman and Hoover’s observations that the era has turned all seem to invite a different sort of conversations. Next week noted theologian Lamin Sanneh will speak at Truett Theological Seminary maybe that will be a venue for more reflection on the future of ecumenics and denominations.