Abstract
In a divided and often polarized world, the emerging ecumenical consensus on the church’s mission deserves much more attention than it generally receives. Increasingly, Christian theologians and leaders from a variety of churches are affirming that the church’s mission is to witness to, and to work for, the unity of the world. This chapter explores the ecumenical opportunity our shared ecclesiology provides for Christians to work together not only for Christian unity but also for the unity of all of creation. Much depends, however, on how the church’s mission is understood: this chapter also argues against some common distortions of communion ecclesiology, especially those that support not unity but uniformity.
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- 1.
Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope: on the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).
- 2.
Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1973), esp. 213–239. See also Raymond Bautista Aguas, “Relating Faith and Political Action: Utopia in the Theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 2007).
- 3.
Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope, 3 vols (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1986).
- 4.
For a helpful discussion of the meaning of the reign or basileia of God in the Jesus movement, see Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983), esp. 105–54.
- 5.
See the discussion in Leszek Kołakowski, Main Currents of Marxism: Its Origin, Growth, and Dissolution, trans. P.S. Falla (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 2 vols, ii, 430, as well as the discussion in Bloch, iii, 885–924.
- 6.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Nature and Destiny of Man (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1941–1943), 2 vols, ii, 244, 286.
- 7.
“Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,” in Walter M. Abbott, The Documents of Vatican II (New York: Guild, 1966), no. 42. The “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” similarly states “the Church is a kind of sacrament, or sign of the intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind. She is also an instrument for the achievement of such union and unity” in Abbott, Documents, no. 1.
- 8.
For a discussion of the influence of Orthodox thought on the Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council, see Marie-Dominique Chenu, “The New Awareness of the Trinitarian Basis of the Church” in Giuseppe Alberigo and Gustavo Gutierrez (eds), Where Does the Church Stand? Concilium 146 (New York: Seabury, 1981), 14–21.
- 9.
Aristotle Papanikolaou, The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-radical Orthodoxy (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012), esp. 1–2, 5.
- 10.
See especially John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 422–432, and Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1998).
- 11.
World Council of Churches, The Church: Towards a Common Vision, Faith and Order Paper No. 214 (Geneva; World Council of Churches Publications, 2013).
- 12.
WCC, The Church, 15.
- 13.
See, for example, the essays collected in Peter C. Phan (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
- 14.
“Called Together to Be Peacemakers: Report of the International Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and Mennonite World Conference 1998–2003,” at http://www.oecumene.nl/files/Documenten/Called_%20together_to_be_Paecemakers.pdf (accessed August 30, 2015).
- 15.
For a more thorough analysis, see Mary Doak, “A People Set Apart,” in Margaret R. Pfeil and Gerald W. Schlabach (eds), Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013), 77–86.
- 16.
Johannes Baptist Metz, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology (New York: Seabury, 1980), esp. 49–77.
- 17.
See Metz, Faith in History, esp. 115–8, and Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi (Encyclical Letter, 30 November 2007), §§25, 35 at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html (Accessed 12 August 2016).
- 18.
Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000). 7. See also Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 20.
- 19.
Gerard Mannion, Ecclesiology and Postmodernity: Questions for the Church in Our Time (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2007), esp. 52–63.
- 20.
See, for example, Bonnie Honig, “Toward an Agonistic Feminism: Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Identity,” in Bonnie Honig (ed.), Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995); and Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, An Ethics of Dissensus: Postmodernity, Feminism, and the Politics of Radical Democracy (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).
- 21.
Paul Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications (London: New York; Oxford University Press, 1954), 25, 67–71.
- 22.
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Richmond, IN: Abingdon, 1976), 13.
- 23.
Metz, esp. 60–84.
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Doak, M. (2017). The Unity (and Disunity) of Our Hope. In: Chapman, M. (eds) Hope in the Ecumenical Future . Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63372-5_2
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