Are we moving toward a "united Christianity"? That's the assertion made by Adrian Pabst on the Guardian's Comment is Free site. In the article, Pabst suggests that by opening a new chapter of theological engagement and concrete co-operation with Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, Pope Benedict XVI is changing the terms of debate about church reunification, leading to "the end of the Great Schism between east and west and a union of the main episcopally-based churches" - by which Pabst is referring to Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism. Leaving aside the miniscule size of Anglicanism compared to Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, this does not, of, course add up to a "united Christianity".
Showing posts with label Rowan Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rowan Williams. Show all posts
Rowan Williams on three millennia of Christianity
Diarmaid MacCulloch wrote a brilliant history of the Reformation and now he has turned his attention to 3000 years of Christianity.Rowan Williams reviewed the book in the Guardian:
The sections on Christianity's expansion eastwards and the tragic history of the churches of central Asia, still a little-known and under-researched subject, are among the very best in the book. Also outstanding are his treatments of the achievements and limitations of European Christian mission (he describes India as the "greatest failure" of Protestant mission effort, given the political advantage with which it worked), of the intimidatingly complex stories of Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox in the borderlands of the Russian empire, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and of the distinctive legacy of Calvin, whom he rightly sees as setting out not just to carry through piecemeal reforms of an existing institution but to reimagine the Catholic religion itself on the basis of the same biblical and traditional material that others used to defend the papal church.
The sections on Christianity's expansion eastwards and the tragic history of the churches of central Asia, still a little-known and under-researched subject, are among the very best in the book. Also outstanding are his treatments of the achievements and limitations of European Christian mission (he describes India as the "greatest failure" of Protestant mission effort, given the political advantage with which it worked), of the intimidatingly complex stories of Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox in the borderlands of the Russian empire, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and of the distinctive legacy of Calvin, whom he rightly sees as setting out not just to carry through piecemeal reforms of an existing institution but to reimagine the Catholic religion itself on the basis of the same biblical and traditional material that others used to defend the papal church.
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