Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199216452 ISBN 13: 9780199216451

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2008

Synopsis

This volume proposes a fresh strategy for ecumenical engagement - 'Receptive Ecumenism' - that is fitted to the challenges of the contemporary context and has already been internationally recognised as making a distinctive and important new contribution to ecumenical thought and practice. Beyond this, the volume tests and illustrates this proposal by examining what Roman Catholicism in particular might fruitfully learn from its ecumenical others.

Challenging the tendency for ecumenical studies to ask, whether explicitly or implicitly, 'What do our others need to learn from us?', this volume presents a radical challenge to see ecumenism move forward into action by highlighting the opposite question 'What can we learn with integrity from our others?'

This approach is not simply ecumenism as shared mission, or ecumenism as problem-solving and incremental agreement but ecumenism as a vital long-term programme of individual, communal and structural conversion driven, like the Gospel that inspires it, by the promise of conversion into greater life and flourishing. The aim is for the Christian traditions to become more, not less, than they currently are by learning from, or receiving of, each other's gifts.

The 32 original essays that have been written for this unique volume explore these issues from a wide variety of denominational and disciplinary perspectives, drawing together ecclesiologists, professional ecumenists, sociologists, psychologists, and organizational experts.

About this title

Review

This excellent book...really should be read by all Christians who take seriously their ecumenical responsibilities and Christ's call that 'they may all be one'. (Peter Tyler, FOOD for the journey)

No one with a serious interest in ecumenism can afford to miss this volume... All the churches have cause to be grateful for the imaginative way Dr Murray and his colleagues are promoting both ecumenism and the study of Catholic theology. (Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper)

The fundamental principle is that each tradition, before it offers what it can teach others, should focus on what it can learn and receive from others. It is thus essentially a corporate spiritual exercise in humility... To judge, not just by the admirable contents of this volume, but also by the process and the generous spirit (Spirit?), which drives it, the prospects for receptive ecumenism are brighter than some commentators, in Rome and at home, predict. (John Arnold, ACF Centro)

...it is heartening to see this sophisticated venture to revitalise ecumenical exchange explicity adopting interfaith strategies, guided by an intellectual humility inclining each to learn from the other. This tactic allows us to see how "ecumenism" can hardly be limited to inter-Christian exchange...This fivefold ordering offers clear direction in matters ecumenical to the superb participants. A properly eschatological intent is fleshed out in one essay after another by invoking the "pilgrim church" archetype: learning from others on the way to a goal all shre, but which none can confidently articulate, as it eludes human construction. (David Burrell, The Tablet)

there are many gems [within]. The book, and the movement it articulates, is like the tiny tips of spring buds on a raw day before spring has begun. (Christopher Hill, Church Times)

About the Author

Paul Murray is Lecturer, Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199216452
• ISBN 13: 9780199216451
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576
• Editor: Murray Paul