ECUMENICAL REVIEW最新文献

The year 2024 marks 25 years since the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), along with an Official Common Statement and an attached Annex, on 31 October 1999. In reflecting upon the JDDJ, this article attempts to evaluate the impact of the declaration by addressing the following questions: What did the JDDJ accomplish, and what did it fail to achieve? What progress has been made since 1999 to build on the work of the JDDJ? What work still needs to be done moving forward in Catholic–Lutheran dialogue? The article concludes that the JDDJ has had a ground-breaking impact in ecumenical dialogue – both in and beyond the Catholic–Lutheran context – that continues to unfold today. While there is a long way to go in the ecumenical venture, the JDDJ represents a pivotal moment and a sign of hope for visible Christian unity, which is the goal of ecumenism.

This article discusses the latest document by the Francophone ecumenical group the Groupe des Dombes. The document advocates a “reformed catholicity” through the conversion of the churches, where catholicity is not seen as the exclusive property of the Roman Catholic faithful but encompasses the entire Christian church, and in which the word “reformed” also concerns the whole Christian church and not only Protestant churches. This article first explores the contribution of this text to ecumenical dialogue. It then discusses the “bold thesis” at the centre of the document, according to which the Catholic Church and the churches of the Reformation “form one Church, although in imperfect communion.” The article then goes on to highlight the eschatological dynamic of the document and the relationship between catholicity and mission. The article concludes with some thoughts about the path toward a truly universal catholicity.

Against the background of the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which will take place in 2025 around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” this article explores the marks of visible unity set out in the Gospel of John and the Letter to the Ephesians. The two texts show an astonishing convergence. Following a biblical exegesis, the article concludes that discussions about the visible unity of the church need first to establish the similarities and differences in the understanding of the eucharist. The question of the understanding of ministry must first be clarified in a differentiated way. If the unity of the church consists in the confessional fellowship of believers, then it is not the institutionalized uniformity of the ministerial structure that is decisive, but rather unity in faith in the one shepherd and Lord as head of the church and Saviour of the world. Unity becomes visible above all in common prayer and worship, not only within different traditions as in Ephesus, but even more so when different church traditions celebrate ecumenically.

As a tribute to the German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, who died on 3 June 2024 in Tübingen, Germany, this issue of The Ecumenical Review is publishing a chapter from his book Hope in These Troubled Times, launched during Moltmann's last visit to the World Council of Churches in 2019. This chapter offers a critique of a theological approach that puts the human being at the centre of the relationship toward nature, an approach that has become questionable because of the ecological crisis. Instead, this chapter argues for a paradigm shift from placing the human being at the centre of the world to a cosmic integration of humanity, from the arrogance of global dominion to cosmic humbleness, from a distinction between God and the world to a mutual participation of a “world in God” and “God in the world.”