Evangelicals and Catholics Together

You may have heard about the ecumenical dialogue group "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" headed by Chuck Colson and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. The group has done some remarkable work in finding common ground and reaching consensus on theological and social issues.

You may also have heard that Fr. Neuhaus recently died, as did Avery Cardinal Dulles, another leader in this dialogue from the Catholic side. ChristianityToday (CT) recently ran this interview with Colson on the significance of Neuhaus to the movement and the good work for Christian unity that was done. I've included a bit of that interview because it also touches on some of the remarkable consensus that has been reached on the doctrine of justification by faith. As I have mentioned in the past, THE issue that touched off the Reformation no longer need be church-dividing. As you see in the CT article, Evangelicals and Catholics together have also been working on statements about Mary and other controverted issues.

I will keep "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" in my prayers - that God may continue to use this movement to reveal common ground and common faith - that we may all be one.


How will Neuhaus' death affect Evangelicals and Catholics together?
It's a terrible setback because Cardinal Avery Dulles died a month before Neuhaus died. It was like a double-barreled blow. They were the principal leaders on the Catholic side of the dialogue. In some respects, those are two giants of the faith that you can't replace. But God in his sovereignty, his providence, knows exactly what he's doing.
The timing of Neuhaus's and Dulles's deaths is really significant when you realize that Pope Benedict on November 19 in what was otherwise a routine audience in St. Peter's square, gave a homily on justification and fully embraced the position that Evangelicals and Catholics Together had taken [in the 1997 document, "Gift of Salvation"]. He didn't identify it as such, but that's what he did.
Eleven years after that document was written, the Pope, the head of the church, concluded his homily by saying Luther was right, so long as you don't exclude charity, that is love, and the works that flow from love. Which of course none of us does.
Almost at the same time that statement was issued, the two Catholics who were willing to say they agreed with what the reformers meant when they said sola fide died. It's as if "Okay, you finished your task. The big issue that divided us in the Reformation has now been settled, so you guys can come home and rest."
It's a little bit eerie. The two of them going just weeks apart does not suggest to me that God does not care about the continuing work of ECT but that the first major breakthrough had been accomplished. It's amazing timing.

Church as community, as institution

I want to highlight an article by Andrew Thompson (who blogs at Gen-X Rising) addressing generational differences on how the Church is viewed: builders and boomers seeing her as more an institution while Gen-X-ers seeing her more as a community (he doesn't talk much about millenials, but I think this would be true for them as well).

Of course, the Christian Church is both an institution AND a community, as Andrew points out. I have believed for a long time that any community that hopes to live for more than 2 generations must, by the very nature of human society, become more or less institutionalized. That truth is odious for many, and I understand why they feel that way, though I believe such feeling comes from too limited a view of the relationship between institution and community. The key will always be finding ways for the instutution to facilitate community, rather than always viewing the two as mortal enemies fighting for the soul of the Church, or some such unproductive (and untrue) approach.

The article is published at Duke Divinity School's new Faith and Leadership website, which I hope to frequent when I may.

Happy Valentines day everyone!

Willimon Interview on Wesley Bible

Shane over at "The Wesley Report" has this interview with Will Willimon, a prominent United Methodist bishop, regarding his work on the Wesley Study Bible that is due to be released this month by Abingdon press.

Bishop Willimon points out, significantly, that he sees his work on this study bible as part of his vocation as a bishop - traditionally bishops are to defend, teach, and pass long the faith of the Church.

I am looking forward to the release of this particular study Bible, and I hope it will become a standard resource for our pastors, teachers, and seminarians. It may be especially helpful for our seminarians now that there is a growing recovery of the 'theological interpretation' (in addition to simple historical critical interpretation) of the Bible in many quarters of the Church.

This Bible draws upon a wide spectrum of Wesleyan Christians including United Methodists (both of the editors are UM Christians), Wesleyans, Nazarines, independent Methodists, and others. The study notes themselves make good use of Wesley's own sermons and Bible notes, and often include references to paragraphs in his sermons (as Wesley's sermons all include section and paragraph numbers). As far as I am aware, no Wesleyan-perspective study Bible has been on the market since the Reflecting God Study Bible (a variant on the NIV Study Bible) was discontinued, so this is a very welcome volume (and this is coming from the person who often complains that there are too many study Bible's being produced for purely monetary reasons i.e. "the Men of Faith with Brown Hair study Bible" and so on).