Abstract
A Future for Ecumenism?
Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, Apostolic and Prophetic: Ecclesiological Perspectives (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2012. £19.50. pp. xiii + 192. ISBN: 978-0-227-68025-4).
As Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen admits to us right away, the present book does not pretend to offer a comprehensive treatment of its subject. Ecclesiology may be ‘the study of the Church’, but it is a discipline deeply formed by our participation and location in churches plural, such that the failure to take our ‘church-perspective’ into account bodes poorly for our account of the Church in general. Thiessen’s perspective, then, is that of a Lutheran theologian with a deep commitment to the aspirations of twentieth-century ecumenism. She is upfront that ecumenism is a tired discussion whose spiritual revival may be long in waiting; yet one thing she believes we can and must do as Christians – and here she has in mind particularly Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans – is to honour and act upon our written agreements before those agreements fade from memory (e.g. Porvoo Common Statement). Here she is not thinking only of Church leaders, but calls upon leaders to take seriously ‘how de facto apostolicity is lived and understood among contemporary believers’ (p. 62). She echoes Karl Rahner’s lament about the severe disconnect between official church documents spelling out a position of unity, and the actual lives and ‘existential questions’ embodied by modern believers. We must be more creative and pro-active in ‘advocating the “normative meaning of factual faith”’ (Rahner’s phrase), helping believers re-connect with the wider apostolic and prophetic tradition of the Church. This obviously entails taking this tradition seriously as the starting point and foundation of our common life in Christ. As a Lutheran, Thiessen is sympathetic to the Roman Catholic emphasis on apostolic succession, but finds no warrant in Scripture or early Church tradition to link this succession to the Holy See (pp. 48-50). Rather the ‘binding content of the apostolic faith’ is the ‘teaching of the good news of Jesus Christ’ (p. 49), acknowledgement of which is crucial for future ecumenical progress. Thiessen is less than optimistic that such progress can be achieved without drastic changes to church structures. Her closing essays, the less informative of the bunch, focus on the legacy of contemporary reformers Dorothee Sölle and Terry Eagleton, outlining their controversial proposals for a new and radical form of modern church life. Eagleton wants to reform parish life by embedding the church within pre-existing social structures, and rendering its activities more flexible and spontaneous (p. 160). Church ‘on the fly’ may be an attractive option for many people, Christian or non-Christian, yet in an age that treats most things as infinitely malleable that hardly seems like a radical alternative. Apostolic and Prophetic makes other powerful suggestions, however, and should be part of the contemporary conversation around Christian witness, discipleship, and pursuing more visible Church unity among traditions.
IAN CLAUSEN
School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh