More East than West: The World Council of Churches at the Dawn of the Cold War

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-63
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Cold War

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 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.

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.

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.

Rome

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-234
Author(s):  
Thomas Albert Howard
Keyword(s):  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Marxist Ideology ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Church

This chapter takes a look at the Second World War's aftermath and its profound and enduring implications for interreligious dialogue. It recounts the establishment of The World Council of Churches in 1948 to help rebuild society and promote Christian ecumenism, later turning to interreligious dialogue. The chapter also examines how the war accelerated processes of decolonization, beginning with India's independence in 1947 and soon spreading to other countries in South Asia and Africa. It then discusses the global spread of Marxist ideology and the specter of civilizational annihilation wrought by the Cold War. Ultimately, the chapter reveals that, for the first time in conciliar history, the church exhorted its members to enter into “dialogue and collaboration” with members of other religious traditions. It investigates how the conciliar documents and papal encyclicals appearing during the council affected the church and the wider world in the postconciliar (and postcolonial) era.

‘Peace, Peace and Rumours of War’

2000 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-770
Author(s):  
W. R. WARD
Keyword(s):  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Real Thing ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Cold War

Nationaler Protestantismus und Ökumenische Bewegung. Kirchliches Handeln im Kalten Krieg (1945–1990). By Gerhard Besier, Armin Boyens and Gerhard Lindemann (postscript by Horst-Klaus Hofmann). (Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungen, 3.) Pp. vi+1074. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999. DM 86. 3 428 10032 8; 1438 2326This is indeed a formidable offering – three and a half books by three and a half authors, all for the price of one and a half – and it must be admitted to those whose stamina or German quail at the prospect that some of the viewpoints and a little of the material by two and a half of the contributors has been made available in English in Gerhard Besier (ed.), The Churches, southern Africa and the political context (London 1999) at £9.99. The soft option is, however, no substitute for the real thing, which, like that other blockbuster, the late Eberhard Bethge's Bonhoeffer, is a contribution both to scholarship and to a struggle inside the German Churches. This, readers in the Anglo-Saxon world need to assess as best they can. It is not often that attempts are made by both the World Council of Churches and their principal paymasters in the German Churches to stop the publication of a work of scholarship, to be foiled (in best nineteenth-century style) by the liberalism of the German Ministry of the Interior; but that has happened here. And the rest of the world has the more reason to be grateful to the ministry for the authors have exploited the archives of the Stasi and the KGB, access to the latter of which has now been closed under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church, which appears to have more to hide than anyone.The link between all this and Besier's inquiries in America is provided by the sad fate of the Protestant Churches of the Ost-Block during the Cold War.

New walls to keep the bad out: populism and the totalitarian psyche

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-130
Author(s):  
Coline Covington
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
Psychic Development ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cold War

The Berlin Wall came down on 9 November 1989 and marked the end of the Cold War. As old antagonisms thawed a new landscape emerged of unification and tolerance. Censorship was no longer the principal means of ensuring group solidarity. The crumbling bricks brought not only freedom of movement but freedom of thought. Now, nearly thirty years later, globalisation has created a new balance of power, disrupting borders and economies across the world. The groups that thought they were in power no longer have much of a say and are anxious about their future. As protest grows, we are beginning to see that the old antagonisms have not disappeared but are, in fact, resurfacing. This article will start by looking at the dissembling of a marriage in which the wall that had peacefully maintained coexistence disintegrates and leads to a psychic development that uncannily mirrors that of populism today. The individual vignette leads to a broader psychological understanding of the totalitarian dynamic that underlies populism and threatens once again to imprison us within its walls.

The 1945 World Order – Process with «Open» Continuation

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-79
Author(s):  
V. T. Yungblud
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Order ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Bipolar Structure ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War

The Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations, established by culmination of World War II, was created to maintain the security and cooperation of states in the post-war world. Leaders of the Big Three, who ensured the Victory over the fascist-militarist bloc in 1945, made decisive contribution to its creation. This system cemented the world order during the Cold War years until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the destruction of the bipolar structure of the organization of international relations. Post-Cold War changes stimulated the search for new structures of the international order. Article purpose is to characterize circumstances of foundations formation of postwar world and to show how the historical decisions made by the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition powers in 1945 are projected onto modern political processes. Study focuses on interrelated questions: what was the post-war world order and how integral it was? How did the political decisions of 1945 affect the origins of the Cold War? Does the American-centrist international order, that prevailed at the end of the 20th century, genetically linked to the Atlantic Charter and the goals of the anti- Hitler coalition in the war, have a future?Many elements of the Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations in the 1990s survived and proved their viability. The end of the Cold War and globalization created conditions for widespread democracy in the world. The liberal system of international relations, which expanded in the late XX - early XXI century, is currently experiencing a crisis. It will be necessary to strengthen existing international institutions that ensure stability and security, primarily to create barriers to the spread of national egoism, radicalism and international terrorism, for have a chance to continue the liberal principles based world order (not necessarily within a unipolar system). Prerequisite for promoting idea of a liberal system of international relations is the adjustment of liberalism as such, refusal to unilaterally impose its principles on peoples with a different set of values. This will also require that all main participants in modern in-ternational life be able to develop a unilateral agenda for common problems and interstate relations, interact in a dialogue mode, delving into the arguments of opponents and taking into account their vital interests.

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

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document