Yves Congar – författare

How can communion be restored between the great traditions of contemporary Christianity, and yet diversity in theology and in liturgical and institutional forms still be retained? That is the major problem for ecumenism today.As a step towards a solution Pere Congar looks back on the main features of the debate as they have been inherited from the past. He looks at the New Testament and the early church and shows how in some respects Rome gradually stifled the possibility of diversity. He looks towards the Eastern churches and examines the concepts and patterns of life which determine attitudes towards unity. And he looks at the churches which have come into being through the Reformation and the way in which closer relations have become possible since Vatican II.Most important, he analyses terms which have become so much part of the debate over unity, like the 'undivided' church, 'sister' churches, 'ecumenical' councils, 'fundamental' articles of faith, and so on, showing the dangers of using these terms unthinkingly. No definitive solution is offered here, but as one would expect this is a book full of mature wisdom and the material it contains will prove a rich resource for the future.

It was in 1937 that Fr Congar's first book was published: Disunited Christians: Principles for a Catholic Ecumenism. This book called for dialogue among Christians with a view to a renewal of the church. Fifty years later, and twenty-five years after the Second Vatican Council, the church is very different. It has a new awareness of itself and its different charisms and ministries.There are those who have spoken of the changes that have taken place as a break with the earlier period marked by the Council of Trent; others stress that they are innovations within a degree of continuity. Fr Congar, who was a peritus at Vatican II and has much theological study and writing behind him, can bring both historical knowledge and a deep spiritual understanding to the developments which have taken place in his lifetime. In these conversations he comments on a wide range of theological issues, including authority in the church, the role of the Pope, liberation theology, Christianity and other religions, the numerical decline of the priesthood, the role of the laity, and the right to differ within the church.

The traditional date of the beginning of the Oriental Schism is 1054. Congar shows that the seeds of this break were sown centuries before when the creation of Byzantium, the Crowning of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor, and emergence of Islam divided East and West politically.