{"title":"Thrown into God’s Arms: The Sacrificial Grace of Dietrich Bonhoeffer","authors":"Robert B. Slocum","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract (Lang: English):Dietrich Bonhoeffer encountered Aryan nationalism and racism with sacrificial grace and Christian opposition. One of the first and the very few to speak out against the Nazis and to follow through with active resistance, he resisted Nazi intrusions into the life of the German church and the impact of Nazi bigotry on Jews and others excluded from full participation in German society. During his time in New York City at Union Theological Seminary and at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, he witnessed the impact of racism in the United States. Identifying with the oppressed in both the U.S. and Germany, he said the church of Christ lives in all people, beyond all national, political, social, and racial boundaries. Offering an ecumenical vision of the Christian church that greatly transcends the Christian nationalism of National Socialism, he moved from academic and pastoral ministry to direct action against Nazi oppression by smuggling Jews out of Germany, using ecumenical contexts to spread word about resistance to the Nazis, and seeking the overthrow of Nazi leadership. Self-sacrificing in his devotion to public activism, he saw that God’s love for the world and incarnational Christian spirituality could be expressed through political action. He expressed faith through prayer and justice, not in powerful religious organizations, and sought a future form of the church that might be unexpected—nonreligious in a conventional sense, but able to convert and transform. He consistently sacrificed his own safety to resist the oppression of the German people, while expressing the unity of faith and action in the world through sacrificial grace.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"58 1","pages":"16 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45884819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neo-Perennialism: A Trap to Avoid or a Valid Research Program?","authors":"Christopher C. Knight","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract (Lang: English):In a previous essay in this journal, I suggested that the kind of perennialism associated with the names of René Guénon and Fritzjof Schuon may—despite its obvious defects—remain relevant to our thinking about religious pluralism. Anything that seems to echo the perspectives of their classic perennialism is, however, often dismissed by scholars in the field of religious studies as invalid. Here, I suggest that this dismissal is often based on what sociologists call “recipe knowledge” and that a number of factors point toward the possibility of developing a more nuanced kind of perennialism. These factors include developments within the cognitive science of religion and of anthropology, which are reinforced by considerations related to psychology and sociology that allow a new appreciation of the notion of archetypes to be found in the writings of C. G. Jung and Mircea Eliade. All these factors, when viewed in light of empirical research into religious experience of the kind initiated by Alister Hardy, point toward the way in which religious experience is to be understood as a significant factor in exploring religious pluralism. In the “neo-perennialism” that I shall advocate, the valid aspects of current thinking within religious studies are affirmed, while, at the same time, the recipe knowledge that tends to distort judgments within that field is discarded.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"58 1","pages":"60 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41488789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry: A Call to Conscience by Fred A. Lazin (review)","authors":"E. Fisher","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"58 1","pages":"123 - 124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43833141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christian and Zen Contemplative Practices: The “Mysticism” of Evelyn Underhill and D. T. Suzuki","authors":"Taehoon Kim","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2023.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2023.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract (Lang: English):This essay aims to analyze comparatively similarities and differences found in Christian and Zen Buddhist forms of “mysticism.” Drawing on the works of Evelyn Underhill and D. T. Suzuki, it explores how the Christian prayers of Recollection, Quiet, and Contemplation can be paralleled by various aspects of Zen meditation, such as koan and zazen. The main comparative analytical tool critically adapts two connected but distinct methodologies from Donald Mitchell and Michael Washburn. It also draws on aspects of New Comparative Theology. While maintaining a critical stance toward syncretism, it argues that the mysticism of Underhill and Suzuki provides multidimensional and interreligious paths to spiritual transformation, contributing positively to creative exercises in comparative theology.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"58 1","pages":"122 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46135247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Martin Luther’s Personalist Spirituality: Faith, Sacraments, and the Song of Songs","authors":"Christopher M. O’Brien","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Without attempting to associate Martin Luther historically with the many complexities and implications of the twentieth-century philosophical school of personalism, this essay aims to trace the development of “personalist” tendencies in Luther’s works, particularly with regard to his treatments of faith and the sacraments. “Personalist” refers to Luther’s emphasis on Christ’s intimate and personal relationship with each individual Christian. This essay traces the personalist elements of his spirituality chronologically by dividing his works into three sections: early (1509–17), middle (1517–21), and late (1522 onward). Between the sections on Luther’s middle and late work, a brief excursus is taken to explore Luther’s understanding of the Song of Songs to highlight the development of his spirituality. The essay concludes by summarizing the trajectory of Luther’s spirituality and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the theology that comes out of it. Positively, Luther’s spirituality highlights the personal and relational aspects of the Christian life and guards against overly mechanistic or impersonal understandings of grace. Negatively, Luther’s framework fails to incorporate an ecclesiological component adequately. Further work remains to be done to integrate his personalist theology into a “personalist ecclesiology,” in which Christ the bridegroom unites himself mystically not only to the individual Christian soul, but to the entire church, his bride, especially through the sacramental encounter.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"547 - 568"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48680135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Alterity and Religious Violence in Nigeria: Toward an Interfaith Theology of Recognition","authors":"S. Aihiokhai","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0038","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Depending upon the diametrically opposed views of interpreting the sacred text, religion, which is an increasingly vital and shaping force in both personal and public life, can promote either global peace or pervasive conflict. Therefore, peace among nations cannot be achieved without peace among religions. The Sword Verse in the Qur’ān (9:5) is assumed to have abrogated numerous verses that advocate peaceful coexistence and religious freedom. Accordingly, Muslim extremists take this verse as the foundation on which to interact with people of other faiths. Adopting the contextual approach, this essay explores how the verse is understood by analyzing its historical circumstance and linguistic settings and compares its correct meaning with other verses of religious freedom and dialogue. It concludes that the above verse, when appropriately read within its circumstantial boundaries, never condones coercive conversion or militancy. Turning a blind eye to the context as a guiding methodological tool is an error that at times has serious implications for intrahuman relations, such as the case in point.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"569 - 594"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47270889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interreligious Heroes: Role Models and Spiritual Exemplars for Interfaith Practice ed. by Alon Goshen-Gottstein (review)","authors":"C. H. Grundmann","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0042","url":null,"abstract":"While Lubet briefly mentions the Antisemitism in Odeh’s upbringing and the PFLP, he only hints at how antiJewish fallacies served her U.S. defense. The Palestinianrights activists who supported her resorted to conspiracy theories of undue Jewish power’s influencing the American legal system to persecute an innocent woman, ironically in the presence of family members of the murdered students. For the uninitiated into the leftwing paradigm of the world’s oldest hatred, a reader might miss its relevance to this story. To assuage this potential misunderstanding, the author could have included a paragraph describing the function of Antisemitism in the guise of antiZionism among social justice movements. This book reveals how a breakdown in interideological dialogue perpetuates false narratives and demonization of the other. Outside the Levant, the worldwide obsession with the IsraelPalestine conflict reflects personal ideology more than complex understanding. Sidetaking is de rigueur. Lubet’s balanced recounting of Odeh’s trials juxtaposes the antiIsrael bias of her supporters and reminds any lucid activist of the Antisemitism that threatens to delegitimize movements for Palestinian selfdetermination.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"616 - 618"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47185675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Trials of Rasmea Odeh: How a Palestinian Guerrilla Gained and Lost U.S. Citizenship by Steven Lubet (review)","authors":"Angela Berliner","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"615 - 616"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46131597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Legacy of The Fundamentals in the Historiography of American Ecumenism","authors":"Josiah Baker","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0046","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The historical narrative of American ecumenism’s origins in the early twentieth century has not been revisited for generations. When future scholars revisit it, they should study the period for the sake of supporting the future work of ecumenism. Part of this work is the expansion of ecumenical bodies to include churches not currently engaged. I propose that the early pamphlet series, The Fundamentals, offers a good place to start. The pamphlets predate modernist schisms and do not reflect the sectarian posture of later groups. Editors of the text appealed to a broad Christian identity among American Protestants to promote cooperation in society. The included essays espouse a common confession while allowing for divergences on numerous doctrinal issues. Though many contributing authors would later become Fundamentalist leaders, others are remembered for their work to unite churches. The text is a product of the same unitive impulses that gave rise to ecumenical structures. I revisit the historical narrative of American ecumenism to discern how The Fundamentals offers insight into the doctrinal discourse of the period among churches, and I argue that the exclusion of the text from ecumenical historiography thus far reveals a modernist bias in American ecumenism.","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"521 - 546"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45218909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue by Terrance L. Johnson and Jacques Berlinerblau (review)","authors":"David M. Krueger","doi":"10.1353/ecu.2022.0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2022.0043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43047,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES","volume":"57 1","pages":"618 - 620"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44048161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}