The Good Ship Oikoumene

Worldview ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Elliott Wright
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
World Council ◽  
John Foster Dulles ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Present Understanding

The World Council of Churches was bom in the cold war era. That's important for present understanding. At its beginning John Foster Dulles warned against Christian obeisance to the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” And Josef L. Hromádka, the eminent Czech theologian, spoke of the future bliss of socialist “material trust, free responsibility and service.” The WCC has been repeatedly accused— notably but not exclusively by Western conservatives— of damning the evils of the West while closing its eyes to injustices in Communist lands. At the same time, doctrinaire Marxists dismiss the Council as a product of the West and therefore unable to understand or act upon socialism's criticism of capitalism.

General Secretary of the World Council of Churches 1948-1966

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cold War ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
International Crises ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
General Secretary ◽  
The Church

This chapter explores the central role Visser ’t Hooft played in the World Council from 1948 to 1966, showing how his vision and style influenced the direction the World Council took in dealing with issues like syncretism. We see the strong practical bent of the World Council in topics like the Cold War and international crises such as South Africa, Cuba and Cyprus. The chapter traces how Visser ’t Hooft involved the missionary nature of the church at every turn. We also learn how the revival he hoped for did not materialise. Instead, after 1960, secularisation grew, and Visser ’t Hooft’s ability to appeal to younger generations began to wane.

The Future of the World. The World Futures Studies Federation and the Future as Counter Expertise

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Order ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Peace Activist ◽  
The Cold War

Chapter 8 explores the making of futures studies as a counter reaction to futurology and protest against the Cold War world order. Taking as its focus the World Futures Studies Federation, created by the West German journalist and peace activist Robert Jungk and the philosopher and international relations theorist Johan Galtung, the chapter returns to futurism as an interrogation into the nature of humanity, and to the future as a fundamental utopian category. Futures studies were an example of a kind of neo-utopianism, which not only claimed that alternative worlds were possible but also tried to construct new ways of envisioning and realizing such worlds. Futures studies were constructed as a kind of militancy that straddled the boundaries of social science and politics, and mixed in religious and eschatological notions too. Crucial to this enterprise was the willingness to transcend the Cold War world order and create a united Mankind.

scholarly journals Between Dialogue and Denunciation: The World Council of Churches, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights during the Cold War

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Bastiaan Bouwman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
Christian Fellowship ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Cold War

While the historiography on the religious Cold War has tended to focus on Christian anticommunism, the World Council of Churches (WCC) sought to transcend the Cold War while simultaneously advancing religious freedom in the Soviet Union. This article connects the WCC's ecclesiastical diplomacy to the wider story of human rights, from which religion has too often been excluded. The WCC's quest for Christian fellowship led it to integrate the Russian Orthodox Church into its membership, but this commitment generated tensions with the rise of Soviet dissidence. Moreover, the WCC's turn towards the left and the Third World contrasted with newly ascendant voices for human rights in the 1970s: Amnesty International's depoliticised liberalism, evangelical anticommunism, and the Vatican under John Paul II. Thus, the WCC, an early and prominent transnational voice for human rights, ran afoul of shifts in both the Cold War and the politics of protest.

Islam and the West: Coexistence or Clash?

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 363-374
Author(s):  
Noor Mohammad Osmani ◽  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
The West ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
The Cold War

Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) claimed that there would be seven eight civilizations ruling over the world in the coming centuries, thus resulting a possible clash among them. The West faces the greatest challenge from the Islamic civilization, as he claimed. Beginning from the Cold-War, the Western civilization became dominant in reality over other cultures creating an invisible division between the West and the rest. The main purpose of this research is to examine the perceived clash between the Western and Islamic Civilization and the criteria that lead a civilization to precede others. The research would conduct a comprehensive review of available literatures from both Islamic and Western perspectives, analyze historical facts and data and provide a critical evaluation. This paper argues that there is no such a strong reason that should lead to any clash between the West and Islam; rather, there are many good reasons that may lead to a peaceful coexistence and cultural tolerance among civilizations

Education Between Iran and the West

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K. Shannon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War

The introduction reconstructs Iran’s historical educational ties the West and explains how the United States became the primary destination for Iranian student during the Cold War era. It also engages with various historiographies to situate the book within the appropriate scholarly context.

From Indianization to Globalization: Tracking Bond in Bollywood

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajay Gehlawat
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The West ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter uses Bollywood Bond “adaptations” to chart the shifting relationship between India and the West, from the Cold War era to the neoliberal present. It examines how elements of the Bond films were incorporated and “Indianized” in earlier films and how these elements, and the Bollywood film itself, subsequently became more globalized, as can be seen in contemporary Bond adaptations like Farhan Akhtar’s Don (2006) and Don 2 (2011). Whereas previously the Bond figure was “Indianized” and elements of the Bond film similarly indigenized via the Bollywood masala formula, what one witnesses in the ensuing transition leading to the contemporary era is how the Bollywood film has become more aligned, both aesthetically and culturally, with contemporary Hollywood film forms.

The Cold War, the Unity of the Church and Eastern Orthodoxy, 1948-1966

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Church ◽  
East West

Chapter 7 traces Visser ’t Hooft’s activity as a (controversial) bridge builder during the period of the Cold War, on the unity of the church, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite the Cold War, which prevented Eastern Orthodox churches from joining the World Council, Visser ’t Hooft held firmly to the direction set by the World Council as a third way between East and West, utilising insights he laid out in earlier publications. At the same time the World Council had to deal with the question of churches recognising other churches as true. In this chapter we see how Visser ’t Hooft inspired people to apply ecumenicity across the East-West divide. The chapter also looks at criticism of Visser ’t Hooft’s approach.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document