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Rome, Oxford and Edinburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2024

M.-J. Congar O.P.
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Ever since Christendom was divided, the longing for unity has filled many earnest souls. Constant efforts have been made by the Catholic Church to re-unite her separated brethren; but it is only during the last three-quarters of a century that, apart from a few ecclesiastics and university professors, there has been any noteworthy and extensive reunion-movement among the various Christian bodies separated from the See of Rome. To-day, under the name of “ecumenical movement” this movement is widespread, and may be regarded as one of the most important features of Twentieth Century Christendom. Already well developed in 1914, interrupted—or rather slowed down—by the war, it soon became a powerful force in the years that followed. The intense longing for solidarity and fraternity issued in two “ecumenical conferences” in 1925 and 1927 respectively.

This “ecumenicist” tendency in non-Catholic Christendom pursues two distinct but parallel lines, corresponding to two distinct viewpoints of the way in which unity is to be achieved. The older of the two movements, that called Faith and Order, which held its first world congress at Lausanne in 1927, had its origins towards the end of the last century among American Episcopalians. The younger movement, Life and Work, whose first world-congress was at Stockholm in 1925, is also of American origin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Blackfriars , Volume 18 , Issue 210 , September 1937 , pp. 646 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © 1937 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 We may here recall the words of Benedict XV to a delegation from Life and Work. After stating why Catholics could not participate he added: “Nevertheless His Holiness wishes it to be known that he does not in any way disapprove of the congress for those who are not in Communion with the See of Peter. On the contrary he prays with all his heart that those who take part in it will be enlightened to join the visible head of the Church who will receive them with open arms.

2 A short bibliography may be useful. The Acts (incomplete) of the Stockholm Conference will be found in La Conférence Univevselle du Christianisme pratique, (288 pp., 1926). Other works: H. Monnier, Vers l'union des Egliises (Fischbacher. 1926); Ad. Deissmann, Una Sancta (Bertelsmann, Gutersloh, 1936). For the history of both movements see: A. Paul, L'unité chrétrenne; Schismes et rapprochements (Rieder, Pans, 1930); M. Pribilla, S.J., Um kirchliche Einheit; Stockholm—Lausanne—Rome (Herder, Freiburg i B. 1929). This work of Fr. Pribilla is very remarkable and exceedingly well documented; it has been praised highly by the leaders of the Stockholm movement themselves. For a Catholic critique of the Stockholm movement see, C. Journet, L'union des Eglises et le Chvistianisme pratique. (Grasset, Pans, 1926.)

3 Message §2 [The translator regrets that he has no authorised English version of these documents to hand.]

4 W. Monod. Que signifie le Message à la chrétienté? dans La Conférence Universelle. pp. 47–48. Bishop Söderblom makes a similar distinction between fides qua creditur and Pdes quae creditur (cf. Pribilla op. cit. pp. 118 and 199). The first is a subjective feeling and is common to all Christians, the second—the doctrine believed—can be many and diverse.

5 cf. Monnier. op. cit. p. 59.

6 cf. e.g. La Conf. Univ. p. iii; Pribilla, op. cit. pp. 51 (“Lehre trennt, Dienst eint”), 52, 103. Actes du Congrès de Lawsanne, pp. 40–47 (W. Monod), and Söderblom's speech at Lausanne (p. 369) in which he likens the soul of the Church to the inspiration of the Spirit, its body to doctrines, rites, etc.

7 Thus Söderblom referring to the Catholic Church; vide Pribilla, op. cit. p. 47.

8 Published by Editions du Cerf, 29 Boulevard La-Tour Maubourg, Pans 7me. [This important study by Père Congar will be reviewed in a forthcoming number of Blackfriars.—Ed.]

9 cf. Pribilla, op. cit., p. 180. For information see Foi et Constitutim: Actes officielles de la Gonférence mondiale de Lausanne 3–21 août 1927 (Attinger, Paris, 1928), and La conférence oecumenique de Lnztsanne (Fischbacher, Paris, 1928).

10 Actes. p. 519, from the preamble accepted by the conference for transmission to the “Churches”. This Preamble was the only document unanimously accepted by the delegates.

11 Decree of 8. 7. 1927 (Acta Ap. Sedis 19 (1927). p. 278).

12 Mortalium Animos. 6. 1. 1928. (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 20. 1928.)

13 N. Berdyaev, L'oecuménicisme et le confessionalisme in Foi et Vie, Nov. 1931. p. 769.

14 Actes. p. 439. Apart from its references to the Pope, the speech of Mgr. Chrysostom, Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, expresses excellently the Catholic view. (Actes. pp. 122–132.)

15 e.g. the Contradictory views of the Kingdom of God debated at Stockholm, as Friedrich Heiler and Fr. Pribilla have already remarked.

16 e.g. in Sermon xlvi, c.8, n.18. (P.L. 38, 280–281.)