Mutual Enrichment

Abstract

This chapter highlights one of the virtues so evident in Avery Dulles, which was his capacity to leave room for respectful debate over positions that he himself rejected. Dulles never reversed himself in supporting the mission of Christian unity. However, the tone and substance of his Oberlin keynote indicated how much he believed the ground had shifted from those early years just prior to and after the council. For such a changed landscape, a new method was needed. The chapter then considers Dulles's concept of “mutual enrichment by means of testimony.” By that he meant not a dialogue aimed at producing agreements on doctrine as a means of advancing toward full communion in faith, sacraments, and ministries. It is something more modest: a sharing of one's gifts, including the theological convictions that are germane to one's confessional identity.