Justice, Peace, Economy of Life

Prof. Dr Ulrich Duchrow, theologian, social ethicist, and long-time activist, was present at a defining moment: the World Council of Churches 6th Assembly, in Vancouver in 1983. Together with figures such as Konrad Raiser, he helped launch the conciliar process for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC). Through the 1980s, in part as a WCC consultant, he accompanied that process and watched its language and vision take hold across the worldwide church in all its social forms, including ecumenical grassroots movements. In this book, translated from the German, Duchrow looks back on that journey, illuminating how the JPIC process unfolded across all church families, leading to a clear confession of an economy of life against imperial capitalism in the period from 2003 to 2013. Part intellectual biography, part reflection on the struggles of ecumenical social theology and witness, it traces the ecumenical movement’s engagement with the questions that confront us anew in a very dangerous political situation: justice, peace, and the survival of creation. Appearing just after the ecumenical movement marked the 100th anniversary of ecumenical social action since the 1925 Stockholm Conference, this is a vital witness to where we have been—and where we must still go.