Re-Membering for a Common Future: Lutherans and Catholics Commemorate the Reformation, 2017

precis:

This essay examines the significance of the joint commemoration of the Reformation by Lutherans and Catholics in 2017 as an opportunity for a healing of collective memories. It argues that the common re-reading of history proposed by the Lutheran-Catholic International Commission on Unity in From Conflict to Communion provides a corrective vision with consequences for identity-constituting memory and is key to a common future. The reception text of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic working group, Declaration on the Way, takes stock of the cumulative effects of fifty years of dialogue, rightly arguing for a move toward a more generous mutual ecclesial recognition.