Inheritors of a Common Past

Following on from my last post , it is important to underline that we are all inheritors of the Christian past.  It may be tempting to turn on one tradition or another and blame them for the absurdities, and of course the violence, of the past.  In this and the next few posts, I want to explore how we deal with our past today.

Let me start with the Catholic Church .  There are 2 billion Christians in the world and half of them are Catholic.  We (I write as a Protestant) have to concede they must be doing something right.  Whatever you think of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, it cannot be true that so many Christians have got it wrong. 

The problem is, when we hear about Vatican politics, it can be frustrating.  The appointment of Pope Benedict has increased fears that the Catholics are returning to a more conservative stance.   

My experience is the Catholics I work with as an ecumenist, genuinely want unity and also recognise not all Christians wish to be part of a single church structure.  Possibly the next largest church movement is the new Pentecostal and Evangelical  churches.  There are half a billion of them, and they have grown from nothing over the last 100 years and continue to grow.  These are congregationalist Christians   and I see no prospect of them moving into any form of structural unity with other Protestant churches, let alone the Catholics.

Ecumenical Catholics can see this as clearly as I can and I believe are realistic about it.  It is not even about playing a long game, there is no game to play as far as universal structural unity is concerned.

My second point is that we must recognise the errors of the Catholic Church are not confined to the Catholic Church alone.  From the earliest Protestant Reformation, Protestant Churches copied the structures of the Catholic Church.  It is worth reading Pagan Christianity?  by Frank Viola and George Barna.  They argue the Pentecostal Churches are repeating the same mistakes together.  This suggests we are all in the same, or at least a similar boat.  If we are to resolve our competing ecclesiologies, it is going to be when we realise how much we all owe to the imperialism of the ancient Roman Empire.

Christians have killed each other and people of other faiths because of small differences of theology or ecclesiology.  If we are serious about ecumenism it is this tendency towards violence embedded in our structures we need to address.  I will develop this further in my next post.  To finish today, here are a few words from page 152 of The Song of the Bird  by Anthony de Mello:

If religious people had always followed the instinct of their heart rather than the logic of their religion we would have been spared the sight of heretics burning at stakes, widows walking into funeral pyres, and millions of innocent people slaughtered in wars that are waged in the name of God.

Compassion has no ideology.

Comments

[Jill]

Barna/Viola's "Pagan Christianity" wasn't a stand-alone book. The sequel is called "Reimagining Church", it's the constructive part of the discussion. He also has a new book that's the practical follow-up to both books. It's called "Finding Organic Church." Viola's article "Why I Love the Church" explains the motivation behind all three books. http://frankviola.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/why-i-love-the-church-in-praise-of-gods-eternal-purpose/

[Chris Sissons]

Thank you for these suggestions. I was aware there had been other books but I had not got around to finding them.