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Avenues Toward Christian Unity Jeffrey Kirch Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2015 Beyond Dialogue: Avenues Toward Christian Unity Jeffrey Kirch Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Kirch, Jeffrey, "Beyond Dialogue: Avenues Toward Christian Unity" (2015). Dissertations. Paper 1475. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1475 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2015 Jeffrey Kirch LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO BEYOND DIALOGUE: AVENUES TOWARD CHRISTIAN UNITY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGY BY JEFFREY S. KIRCH, C.PP.S. CHICAGO, IL MAY 2015 Copyright by Jeffrey S. Kirch, C.PP.S., 2015 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are countless people who deserve to be acknowledged for helping to see this project to fruition. Unfortunately, I cannot list everyone who has encouraged, cajoled, supported, and assisted me in this process. I would, however, like to acknowledge certain people who have played important roles over these past few years. First of all, my family and friends encouraged me to begin and complete the doctoral degree. The faculty and administration of Saint Joseph’s College gave me the time and opportunity to pursue the degree. The Missionaries of the Precious Blood supported me throughout these years of work. The faculty of the Theology Department at Loyola University imparted to me their wisdom and knowledge throughout the course work, exams, and dissertation process. James Smith, C.PP.S. provided invaluable technical assistance while I was away from Chicago. I also gratefully acknowledge my dissertation committee. Dr. Susan Ross agreed to serve on the committee after the project was begun. Dr. Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S. has served as my mentor in the areas of academics, theology, and Church for decades. His guidance and wisdom have been invaluable to me. Finally, Dr. Jon Nilson deserves my special gratitude for shepherding this dissertation to completion. He did so with patience, kindness, collegiality, and dedication. His service to the Church, Academy, and World has been a inspiration to me. !iii PREFACE The implementation of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council did not end with the promulgation of the documents. Over the past fifty years, the Church has initiated various reforms and has sought to apply the teachings of the Council to the Church’s internal and external life. This implementation has only been partially successful. There is still much to be done. One area in which further work is needed is in the area of ecumenism. Ecumenism is an important issue because division strikes at the heart of our Christian identity and mission. There is one Church, one Body of Christ. Unity is necessary in order to be a truly effective sign of the Kingdom of God in the world. So the issue of ecumenism is not a secondary or tertiary theological topic. Restoring the original unity of the Church is a crucial task for all Christians. It is for this reason that I chose this topic for the doctoral dissertation. Hopefully the work contained within this pages can further the cause of ecumenism so that the Church may continue to preach the Gospel effectively. !iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………. iii PREFACE……………………………………………………………………………….. iv CHAPTER ONE: ECUMENISM AND VATICAN COUNCIL II……………………… 1 CHAPTER TWO: WALTER KASPER…………………………………………………57 CHAPTER THREE: JOSEPH RATZINGER………………………………………… 113 CHAPTER FOUR: RICHARD MCBRIEN………………………………………….. 167 CHAPTER FIVE: ECUMENISM OF LIFE……………………………….…………. 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………..…………. 241 VITA………………………………………………………………………..…………. 252 !v CHAPTER ONE ECUMENISM AND VATICAN COUNCIL II Introduction Since the earliest days of the Church, Christians have experienced tensions related to divisions: Divisions between Jewish Christians and Hellenic Christians; divisions in Corinth between those following Apollos and those following Cephas; divisions between those from the countryside and those from the great urban centers. Yet, despite those divisions and often with great effort, the unity of the Church was maintained. Now, though, the Christian Church is divided. Realistically it is impossible to point to one specific event which led to the division of the Church. Prior to 1054, the Church had been growing apart liturgically, culturally, and theologically. Even before the East/West split, the unity had been sundered over issues relating to the Christological dogmas from the Council of Chalcedon. The effect of the 16th century Reformation, leading to the dramatic spilt of the Western Christian Church, is still recognizable in the 21st century. There is but one Church founded by Jesus and this unity is a mark of the Church, as seen in the Nicene Creed, and so the Church has gone to great efforts to reconcile those divisions. Christian Scripture contains several instances of this work of reconciliation. The Acts of the Apostles recounts the Council of Jerusalem, Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians urges unity in Christ, and Paul’s letter to the Romans is a !1 !2 veritable treatise on the relationship of the Jewish and Gentile Christians. The Council of Florence in the 15th century was an attempt to bring together the East and West, albeit an unsuccessful attempt because it was not rooted in an ecumenism which was “grounded in openness, freedom, and respect for the dialogue partner.”1 Even during the Protestant Reformation, both sides made efforts towards unity. Again, the end result was a continuing state of division. By the end of the 19th century, Christian church leaders were again actively working towards unity. The modern ecumenical movement finds its roots in the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910. Bringing together major Protestant missionary groups, there was a hope that the scandal of a divided Church, which hampered the proclamation of the Gospel, could be overcome. However, the largest Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, did not participate in the conference. Individual initiatives were made at times, such as Cardinal Mercier’s “Malines Conversations” in the 1920’s which sought to develop a basis for unity between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. Nonetheless, full scale Roman Catholic efforts for unity were not initiated until the Second Vatican Council. Quickly following the Council, great strides were made by the ecumenical movement. Dialogues between theologians and church leaders were established, documents were produced by the Vatican, and ecumenism was incorporated in theological education. Local communities embraced ecumenism through a shared prayer 1 Erin Brigham, Sustaining the Hope for Unity, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012), 66. !3 life and through a shared commitment to social justice. The thirty years following the close of the Council saw tremendous excitement around ecumenism. Most observers agree that now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the excitement has subsided. A proverbial ecumenical spring has been replaced by an ecumenical winter. Even with the various ecumenical breakthroughs, Joseph Ratzinger writes, “there was always somewhere some element remaining unresolved: for all the convergences, it never came to actual union.”2 Walter Kasper, the recently retired president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, also writes, “After the first rather euphoric phase of the ecumenical movement which followed the Second Vatican Council, the last decade has seen us experiencing signs of tiredness, disillusionment and stagnation. Some even speak of a crisis or a new ecumenical winter.”3 Have the easy to solve issues been attended to and now only the real difficult questions are left? Is there a lack of will? Or has the theological landscape significantly changed? Do the different Christian churches have drastically different understandings of Jesus or the Trinity? Have moral and ethical questions contributed to the stagnation? Philip Ziegler points not to issues related to God or ethics, but to issues related to ecclesiology. “The present ecumenical distemper is first and foremost ecclesiological. This involves a rather direct stocktaking of the place of the question of the church at this moment in our ecumenical 2 Joseph Ratzinger, Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2005), 253. 3 Walter Kasper, That They May All Be One (New York: Burns & Oates, 2004), 14. !4 history.”4 A new vision and a new avenue forward for ecumenism is necessary and both of these must attend to the ecclesiological factors affecting Church unity.5 Kasper offers an avenue forward which will bear fruit. Following Johann Adam Möhler and Yves Congar, Kasper distinguishes between tensions and contradictions among Christian communities. Tensions are inherent to Christian communities and stem from legitimate diversity. Contradictions are those positions which ultimately divide Christianity.6 The concept of tensions and contradictions is fairly simple, but determining what is a tension or contradiction is the difficult step. Confusion between the two has contributed to the stagnation of ecumenism in recent years.
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