Lutherans and Pentecostals in Dialogue

This article provides an analysis of the ongoing ecumenical conversation between Lutherans and Pentecostals in Sweden. The material used in the article consists of written documents combined with references to the experiences from the participants in the dialogue. The aim of the article is threefold: first, to describe the setting, development, and character of the conversation; second, to analyze the contents of the conversation with a focus on the theme of pneumatology; and third, to relate this analysis to the ongoing international Lutheran-Pentecostal dialogue. A theoretical reference point is the growing field of receptive ecumenism, which is described as a third way of ecumenism. One result from this study is that more consensus is reached in areas of societal ministry and advocacy than concerning doctrinal issues. The analysis shows deep ecumenical ambitions built on trust but also reveals some difficulties on the path toward Christian unity.

“Keep Your Mind in Hell and Despair Not”: Dealing with the Wounds and Complicities of 20th Century Orthodoxy in Estonia Through the Theology of St Sophrony (Sakharov) and Arvo Pärt

The story of Estonian Orthodoxy, as often told through the narrative of collective trauma, is not homogeneous and uncontested. The co-existence of two Orthodox communities in present-day Estonia, each insisting on exclusive canonical legitimacy and holding different views of the past, the incomplete work of transitional justice, and the untold story of political collaboration appear as irreconcilable differences that challenge the ideals of Christian unity. In order to address these unresolved problems of a traumatic past, the paper will turn to the ascetic theology of twentieth-century Orthodox saints St Silouan (1866–1938) and St Sophrony Sakharov (1896–1993) and to the musical oeuvres of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). The approach of these Orthodox ascetics, the article argues, provides an important perspective on Christian mission in a wounded world.

A word about . . . Claude Broach, pastoral ecumenical activist

This article explores the life and ministerial career of Claude U. Broach (1913–1997), who served as the pastor of St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1944 through 1974 and in retirement served as the first full-time director of the Wake Forest University-Belmont Abbey College Ecumenical Institute. After detailing various aspects of Broach’s ministry as a pastoral ecumenical activist, the article identifies six features of Broach’s ecumenical activism that others can emulate today: (1) an emphasis on developing ecumenical relationships with the tradition with the greatest degree of difference from the Baptist tradition, the Catholic Church; (2) dialogue with Judaism as an aspect of ecumenical relations rather than inter-religious relations; (3) the development of personal relationships with Christians from other traditions; (4) the quest for Christian unity as the obligation of every believer; (5) receptive ecumenism, rather than the merger of denominations, as the path to the ecumenical future; and (6) the skillful use of media connections to serve as a public ecumenical theologian.

E. N. Trubetskoy and his dispute about theocracywith Vl. S. Solovyov

The paper examines E.N. Trubetskoy’s reception of Vl.S. Solovyov’s theocratic project. In addition, the author establishes the points of convergence and divergence of the two Russian religious thinkers on the nature and the possible ways of Christian unity. The two philosophers were close friends and in his texts devoted to Solovyov Trubetskoy repeat­edly emphasized the influence of his friend’s ideas on his own philosophical construc­tions. Nevertheless, Trubetskoy took those ideas critically. To prepare his answer to Solovyov’s arguments Trubetskoy need the years between the time of his master’s thesis “The world outlook of Saint Augustine” until the time of his doctoral dissertation. “The world outlook of Vl.S. Solovyov” became one of his fundamental works. It is in this work that Trubetskoy’s key arguments against Solovyov’s “free theocracy” project are presented. The author shows that despite adopting Solovyov’s views on Christian unity Trubetskoy did not accept the ways by which Solovyov proposed to achieve it. Trubet­skoy argues with the Solovyov of the 1880s, contrasting Solovyov’s ideas of that period with his later ideas and emphasizing that Solovyov’s key work on the topic was “War, Progress and the End of World History, Including a Short Tale of the Antichrist”. The pa­per also emphasizes that theocracy becomes one of the principal topics for Trubetskoy. In the process of analyzing Solovyov’s project of a “free theocracy” and studying the his­torical context in which the theocratic idea had been formed in the Western tradition Tru­betskoy formulates his principled views on the relationship between the church and the state and justifies the need for their separation.