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Three Forms of Ecumenism Within Christianity Peter Donnelly Union College - Schenectady, NY Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2014 Ecumenical Trends: Three Forms of Ecumenism within Christianity Peter Donnelly Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons Recommended Citation Donnelly, Peter, "Ecumenical Trends: Three Forms of Ecumenism within Christianity" (2014). Honors Theses. 511. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/511 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ecumenical Trends: Three Forms of Ecumenism within Christianity Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Anthropology, May 30th 2014 By Peter Donnelly Jr. Abstract This paper broadly discusses the concept of ecumenism based off of my personal experiences as a Christian and a series of interviews that were conducted. To understand ecumenism, I introduce ecumenism in relation to other concerns of a congregation and detail its historical and biblical groundings. I also introduce a framework by which to understand faith, and draw on this to make sense of the different ecumenical trends that I noticed within Christianity. These three trends are the governmental faith and order ecumenism, the service-oriented life and action ecumenism and the more exclusive biblical ecumenism. I conclude by speculating on how trends in larger society impact the forms of ecumenism that I have described and provide some thoughts on where ecumenism will go in the future. Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over. By comedian Emo Philips Voted 44th funniest joke of all time in "The 75 Funniest Jokes of All Time" in GQ magazine (June 1999) Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Literature Review and Methodology ............................................................................................... 1 Literature Review......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 4 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 6 Contextualizing Christianity ............................................................................................................ 8 My Christian Journey ................................................................................................................... 9 Contextualizing Christian Congregations .................................................................................. 12 Business Concerns ................................................................................................................. 15 Educational Concerns ............................................................................................................ 15 Political Concerns .................................................................................................................. 16 Charitable Concerns ............................................................................................................... 17 Ecumenical Concerns ............................................................................................................. 17 Developing a Framework ............................................................................................................... 19 Background: Constructing the Institutional Congregation ........................................................ 19 Historical and Biblical Groundings of Ecumenism ................................................................... 22 Historical Groundings: Division and the Ecumenical Movement ......................................... 22 Biblical Groundings: Jesus and Images of Unity ................................................................... 27 Historical Groundings: Accomplishments of the Ecumenical Movement and its Condition Today ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Applying the Themes of the Ecumenical Movement to Ecumenism in General ....................... 30 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 30 What Makes Christians “Christian?” ............................................................................................. 32 Introducing the Framework ........................................................................................................ 33 Jehovah’s Witnesses .................................................................................................................. 33 Unitarian Universalist ................................................................................................................ 37 Christian Science ....................................................................................................................... 40 Unificationist ............................................................................................................................. 43 What makes “Christians” Christian? ......................................................................................... 47 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 50 Faith and Order Ecumenism .......................................................................................................... 52 Denominations ........................................................................................................................... 54 Joint Declarations....................................................................................................................... 55 Villa Clergy Association ............................................................................................................ 56 Greater Townville Clergy Association ...................................................................................... 57 The Formula of Agreement ........................................................................................................ 58 The Capital Region Theological Center..................................................................................... 61 The Limiting Nature of the Theology of Ecumenism ................................................................ 64 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 66 Life and Action Ecumenism .......................................................................................................... 67 Case 1: A Simple Nursing Home Ministry ................................................................................ 67 Case 2: Cityville Ministries ....................................................................................................... 68 Case 3: Inter-Congregational Events and Campaigns ................................................................ 69 Case 4: Youth Programs ............................................................................................................ 70 Case 5: A Unique Homeschooling Group .................................................................................. 72 Case 6: College Christian Fellowship ........................................................................................ 74 Christian Living and Service as the basis for Life and Action Ecumenism ............................... 76 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 77 “Biblical” Ecumenism ................................................................................................................... 78 Theological Roots ...................................................................................................................... 79 Theological Branches and Leafs ...............................................................................................
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