Amsterdam and the Church's Former Teaching on Social Order

1950 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Stewart Mechie
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

None of the findings of the Amsterdam Assembly has excited more interest than that which calls upon the Church to refuse to identify itself with either Communism or laissez-faire Capitalism. On the one hand this finding has brought the World Council of Churches into bad odour with big business circles in America: on the other hand it has caused a certain quiet rejoicing among British Socialists. It is not surprising that Labour supporters in Britain should claim to have the desired solution intermediate between Communism and Capitalism. What is surprising, however, is that some churchmen appear to be inclined to agree. Without being an opponent of Labour one may question the wisdom of such easy acceptance of its views. Would it not be wiser for churchmen to recall the social teaching of the Church in earlier ages and seek there the inspiration for new creative solutions?

Religion, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Ecumenical Initiatives Amidst Human Brokenness and Community Division

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-111
Author(s):  
Jerald D. Gort
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
The One ◽  
Role Of Religion

AbstractAfter reflecting on the ambiguous role of religion in terms of violence, Jerald D. Gort in this article outlines, first, the conditions for true reconciliation among peoples (acknowledgement of Christian complicity; no cheap reconciliation; no utopian enthusiasm; no fatalistic view of human capacity); then, second, he outlines the initiatives ofthe World Council of Churches (WCC) toward justice and reconciliation in the world. Such initiatives involve the struggle against injustice on the one hand and a practice of the "wider ecumenism" (dialogue of histories, theologies, spiritualities, and life) on the other.

scholarly journals Christian Alterglobalization: How the World Council of Churches Is Inspired by the World Social Forum?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Kopiec
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
World Social Forum ◽  
Global Capital ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The One

Globalization becomes one of the chief issues of the activity of the World Council of Churches. As the biggest ecumenical organization, the WCC grasps globalization as being responsible for many tendencies that cause a global social and economic crisis: global poverty, global political instability, wars, economic depressions, crisis of the social institutions and a growing gap between the poor and the well-offs. As the driving force of globalization the WCC indicates the neoliberal free-market philosophy, the one, which is also assumed to be a tool of the global capital to achieve political power. This economic globalization is confronted with a so called alterglobalist vision promoted by the WCC. According to the Genevian organization, alterglobalism understands its objectives as a transformation towards more just social structures and social institutions. Many inspiration of the ecumenical interpretation of globalization is derived from the activity of the World Social Forum, the biggest platform where meet many alterglobalist organizations. Article discusses a basic components of Christian alterglobalism and inquires how they are inspired by the alterglobalist movement.

Porto Alegre 2006: Called to be the One Church: Ecumenism beyond its Crisis?

Exchange ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Houtepen
Keyword(s):  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The One ◽  
Economic Injustice ◽  
The Church

AbstractFrom 9-23 February 2006 the World Council of Churches held its 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brasil with the theme God, in your grace, transform the world. It gathered in an atmosphere of crisis in the ecumenical movement, caused by global political and religious developments, post-modern thinking on the value of plurality and difference and by the slow reception of ecumenical agreements. The Assembly, though, became a sign of hope beyond the ecumenical crisis. Its reflections and proposals on Globalisation and economic injustice, on Christian identity and religious plurality and on Church Unity and the Mission of the Church demonstrate a matured ecumenical and ecclesiological awareness, strengthened by a new method of decision-making by consensus. The document Called to be the one Church might be seen as the constitutional basis for a reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and as a refinement of the Toronto Declaration of 1950. It formulates a matrix of catholicity and of a legitimate diversity of church forms within an essential convergence about its structures of continuity and mission.

Benson and Miller in Perspective

1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 242-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Kuklick
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Stock Of Knowledge

Despite differences in coloration Miller and Benson are birds of a feather. Although he is no Pollyanna, Miller believes that there has been a modest and decent series of advances in the social sciences and that the most conscientious, diligent, and intelligent researchers will continue to add to this stock of knowledge. Benson is much more pessimistic about the achievements of yesterday and today but, in turn, offers us the hope of a far brighter tomorrow. Miller explains Benson’s hyperbolic views about the past and future by distinguishing between pure and applied science and by pointing out Benson’s naivete about politics: the itch to understand the world is different from the one to make it better; and, Miller says, because Benson sees that we have not made things better, he should not assume we do not know more about them; Benson ought to realize, Miller adds, that the way politicians translate basic social knowledge into social policy need not bring about rational or desirable results. On the other side, Benson sees more clearly than Miller that the development of science has always been intimately intertwined with the control of the environment and the amelioration of the human estate.

Post-Yugoslav Serbian Literature and Its Roots in the Social and Political Changes

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Milan Orlić
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
World Language ◽  
Cultural Paradigms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
The World ◽  
Socialist Realist ◽  
The One

Post-Yugoslav literature and culture came out of the stylistic formations of Yugoslav modernism and postmodernism, in the context of European cultural discourse. Yugoslav literature, which spans the existence of “two” Yugoslavias, the “first” Yugoslavia (1928–1941) and the “second” socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1990), is the foundation of various national literary and cultural paradigms, which shared the same or similar historical, philosophical and aesthetic roots. These were fed, on the one hand, by a phenomenological understanding of the world, language, style and culture, and on the other, by an acceptance of or resistance to the socialist realist aesthetics and ideological values of socialist Yugoslav society. In selected examples of contemporary Serbian prose, the author explores the social context, which has shaped contemporary Serbian literature, focusing on its roots in Serbian and Yugoslav 20th century (post)modernism.

Praying for Justice: The World Council of Churches and the Program to Combat Racism

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-96
Author(s):  
Kate Burlingham
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Foreign Missions ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Violent Action ◽  
The Church

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, individuals around the world, particularly those in newly decolonized African countries, called on churches, both Protestant and Catholic, to rethink their mission and the role of Christianity in the world. This article explores these years and how they played out in Angola. A main forum for global discussion was the World Council of Churches (WCC), an ecumenical society founded alongside the United Nations after World War II. In 1968 the WCC devised a Program to Combat Racism (PCR), with a particular focus on southern Africa. The PCR's approach to combating racism proved controversial. The WCC began supporting anti-colonial organizations against white minority regimes, even though many of these organizations relied on violence. Far from disavowing violent groups, the PCR's architects explicitly argued that, at times, violent action was justified. Much of the PCR funding went to Angolan revolutionary groups and to individuals who had been educated in U.S. and Canadian foreign missions. The article situates global conversations within local debates between missionaries and Angolans about the role of the missions in the colonial project and the future of the church in Africa.

“Although We Cannot Fully Meet” the Roman Catholic Response to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Peter R. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church

The publication of Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry by the World Council of Churches in 1982 was the culmination of more than fifty years of ecumenical discussion. The document was designed to elicit official comment from the churches involved in its production and also to involve a wide membership of the churches in the process of reception of the text by taking its insights into their spiritual, pastoral and theological life. This present article analyses the response of the Roman Catholic Church. The response is largely positive, but the methodology of the document reveals unresolved tensions concerning theological reformulation while the wider issue touching reception in the life of the Church is avoided.

International Ecumenical Networking and Exchange of Resources in Theological Education: Two Innovative Models from the World Council of Churches

2012 ◽  
Vol 123 (9) ◽  
pp. 435-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietrich Werner
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Program Coordinator ◽  
International Program ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
International Research Project

International ecumenical networking and the exchange of resources in theological education is an issue for many regions in World Christianity. This article written by the International Program Coordinator of the program on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) in the World Council of Churches, Geneva, introduces two innovative projects which contribute to these objectives in distinct ways: one is the global digital library for theology and ecumenism (GlobeTheoLib) which provides access to a great number of full-text resources for its registered individual users and is operating in a multilingual setting. The other project is the global survey on theological education which is an international research project, born out of the Edinburgh 2010 process and the desire to have more exact empirical data on recent trends, needs and challenges for theological education in the churches within and outside the membership of WCC.

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