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 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.

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.

Visser ’t Hooft, 1900-1985

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Early Age ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Student Christian Movement ◽  
General Secretary ◽  
The Church ◽  
Formal Establishment

God’s diplomat, the pope of the ecumenical movement, but also an acerbic theologian and a difficult person: this is how journalists characterised Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft (1900-1985). He was one of the best-known Dutch theologians outside the Netherlands and he left his mark on the world church. Even at an early age, he made profound efforts in support of international ecumenical youth and student organisations (Dutch Student Christian Movement, YMCA and World Student Christian Federation). He led the World Council of Churches during its formative stages (from 1938), and after its formal establishment in 1948 became its first general secretary, serving until 1966. To Visser ’t Hooft, the unity of the church was both an article of faith and a pragmatic organisation of church influence in a disunited world.

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.

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.

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.

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