April 29, 2017
DePaul University
Paul D. Murray
~ Member, Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III)
~ Professor, Systematic Theology and Director, Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University (UK)
Receptive ecumenism is a fresh strategy in Christian ecumenism which recognizes that further progress toward structural and sacramental unity is indeed possible but only if each church/tradition (singly and jointly) makes a clear, programmatic shift from asking "What do the 'others' first need to learn from us?" to asking instead, "What do we need to learn, and what can we learn (or receive) with integrity from the 'others'?"** This presentation aims to test and explore various assumptions related to receptive ecumenism such as
~ Is it really the case that ecumenism in the global South is in a fundamentally different place in all regards to traditional bilateral ecumenism?
~ Is it not at least the case that the specifically ecclesiological focus of much of this formal ecumenism is of abiding relevance from a Catholic (and Orthodox) perspective, albeit with significant contextual differences?
~ So, what does/would Catholic ecumenism look like if the Catholic Church were really to take seriously the move towards being a world church? Would Catholic ecumenism become a fundamentally different animal? Or would something like the same animal become a multilingual citizen of the world?
~ How can the diverse experience and insights of the diverse local Catholic churches of the world properly inform and re-shape Catholic ecumenism for the 21st century?
~ Most specifically of all, what contribution might "receptive ecumenism" have to make to the creative pursuit of formal Catholic ecumenism in global South contexts?
**Adapted from Paul D. Murray, "Introducing Receptive Ecumenism," The Ecumenist 51:2 (Spring 2014) 1.