Three Views of One Great Tradition
Reclaiming the Great Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox in
Dialogue
edited by James S. Cutsinger
InterVarsity Press, 1997
(214 pages; $18.99, paper)
reviewed by John Thompson
In May 1995 the “Not of This World” Conference was jointly sponsored by Rose Hill College and Touchstone magazine in Aiken, South Carolina. Three Touchstone Associate Editors—Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, James Hitchcock, and S. M. Hutchens—presented papers or responses at this “Ecumenical Conference of Traditional Christians,” and a number of Touchstone’s other editors were present for the gathering, which attracted some 200 attendees.
The “ecumenical” nature of this gathering, however, is considerably different from what is commonly associated with that term. As James Cutsinger indicates in the introduction to this volume, the plan was to “test whether an ecumenical orthodoxy, solidly based on the classic Christian faith as expressed in the Scriptures and ecumenical councils, could become the foundation for a unified and transformative witness to the present age.” He goes on, “Is it possible, we asked ourselves, for those who are deeply committed to differing theological perspectives to help each other in defending and communicating their common faith?”
The discussion at the conference was carried on between unofficial representatives from the Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions. There were two plenary papers from each of the three traditions, with responses from the other two traditions, for a total of eighteen presentations. Reclaiming the Great Tradition consists of the six plenary papers, six of the responses, and a concluding epilogue by Carl Braaten. Each speaker was free to address an issue that could help to lay the groundwork for cooperation between Christians, and it is no surprise that the resulting topics go in widely divergent directions.
From Rome: Kreeft on Ecumenical Jihad, Neuhaus on Unity and Truth
Peter Kreeft in “Ecumenical Jihad,” driven by a desire to reclaim the Church’s religious and moral hegemony in society at large, advocates a joining of forces, not only among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox, but also with conservative and cooperative elements in Judaism and Islam. This suggestion, which was only one of a number of recommendations he presented, created the most controversy of any of the papers presented at the Rose Hill conference. In his response, Fr. Ted Pulcini suggests that the joining of forces may be helpful or necessary in some circumstances. The emphasis, however, should be not be on restoring the cultural and societal clout of conservative religion but on the formation of alternative Christian subcultures. There the Christian light—as a city on a hill—can flourish without the dilution that would inevitably take place by the addition of divergent elements (i.e., Jews and Muslims).
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’s essay, on the other hand, focuses on the ecclesiological dimension, particularly as Roman Catholicism relates to evangelicalism on the one hand and to Eastern Orthodoxy on the other. A new era of relations between Christians has dawned, as is testified to by events like the “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” (ECT) statement. The nature of these “relations,” however, is still emerging, and is better described as “cooperation” rather than any more formal term. He comments:
At our historical moment, it is enough that after four centuries of suspicion and hostility we have found one another; it is enough that we are able to address our differences with candor and clarity; it is enough that we are learning to engage one another in mutual respect for the institutions, traditions and patterns of discipleship that have developed over the years of our separation; it is enough that we discern together and embrace together the great challenges of moral and cultural renewal; it is enough that we witness to the world and witness to one another the saving gospel of Jesus Christ; it is enough that, toward that great end, we can admonish and encourage one another, always speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). It is more than enough, it is something like a kairos.
Fr. Neuhaus warns, however, that the deeper goal of Christian unity must not be seen in merely institutional terms:
. . . we come up against the familiar tension between unity and truth. The apostle enjoins us to ‘speak the truth in love,’ but in two thousand years of Christian history it seems we have seldom found the way of doing justice to both truth and love. It is commonly suggested that truth directs us to doctrine and love directs us to unity, but if what has been said about Christian unity is right, it should be obvious that the ecumenical imperative is itself a constitutive part of the truth that we affirm together. The new ecumenism, as reflected also in ECT, is adamant that truth and unity must not be pitted against one another, that the only unity we seek is unity in the truth, and the only truth we acknowledge is the truth by which we are united. As our existing unity is the gift of God, so the fuller expression of that unity will be the gift of God. If we are radically open to the Spirit’s leading, we will not attempt to force things; we will not, as has sometimes happened in ecumenism, try to achieve a unity that is finally false to both the truth of unity and the unity of truth.
John Thompson is a librarian and professor at Waynesburg University, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania
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