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Moving into the Ecumenical Future: Foundations of a Paradigm for Christian Ethics by John W. Crossin
Sandra Beardsall
John W. Crossin, Moving into the Ecumenical Future: Foundations of a Paradigm for Christian Ethics. Eugene, OR: Pickwick (Wipf & Stock), 2022. Pp. 177. $29.00, paper.
Engaging in ecumenical dialogue around ethics and moral discernment is not for the faint of heart. Even as churches make strides in their formal dialogues around faith and order, moral questions continue to cause disunity. These rifts also divide Christians within their own traditions, denominations, and parishes. Crossin, however, asserts the necessity of respectful ethical dialogues and bravely charts a path forward. In so doing, he models another elusive ecumenical goal: the reception of formal dialogue texts for use in Christian life and teaching.
Crossin, who died in 2023, was an Oblate of Francis de Sales and a prominent ecumenist. He served in numerous capacities through nearly fifty years of ordained ministry, including as executive director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and as President of the North American Academy of Ecumenists. In this book he weaves his pastoral, scholarly, ecumenical, and spiritual experience, including his embrace of virtue ethics, into a plan for engaging in dialogue on ethical matters. Ten short chapters take the reader through wide-ranging subjects to, finally, a paradigm for moral teaching. Each chapter builds on the previous one, inviting the reader to accumulate what one might call a "habitus" for ethical reflection.
Crossin's paradigm features both gospel wisdom and fresh developments. These latter include the ecumenical practice of "differentiated consensus," recent Faith and Order work that offers a "tool" for understanding how moral discernment occurs across traditions, and Pope Francis's practice of "dialogical thinking," which highlights contradictions in doctrine and practice that can [End Page 437] lead to a "synthetic moment" of new moral clarity (p. 137). Crossin asserts that moral teaching cannot be "universalized" and should be developed in teams. It must be hopeful, even joyful, and future oriented. He calls his project "exploratory" (p. 139). An appendix, "Preparing for Dialogue," is rich with prayerful meditations and preparatory questions.
This book lends itself to study and discussion at any level, especially in ecumenical groups. However, it also serves as a kind of spiritual memoir, in which we meet a wise, probing, and generous Christian who sought to grow in the virtues of love and friendship and to practice them in all he did. Through John W. Crossin, readers might learn a gracious and gentle and way of being ecumenical, being ethical, and being human.
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