Reshaping Ecumenical Theology: The Church Made Whole? (review)

Despite its many important successes, the modern ecumenical movement has been in a state of flux for several decades. As it enters its second century, it is now commonplace to speak of the “tiredness,” “stagnation,” or “malaise” of ecumenism. A small industry turns out critical assessments and programmatic forecasts in an effort to address the ecumenical uncertainty, and Paul Avis’s latest offering, Reshaping Ecumenical Theology, stands as another title in this growing field.

Avis’s book is an attempt to provide an answer to his own basic question: “The ecumenical movement is undoubtedly ripe for reform and renewal, but what direction should this renewal and reform take?” (viii). In Avis’s opinion, to continue to move forward, ecumenists must rethink the relationship between unity and diversity, reclaim the connection between unity and mission, and reimagine the process by which unity will be achieved.

As general secretary of the Council for Christian Unity for the Church of England (C of E), Avis draws heavily upon his involvement in the deepening and formalization of C of E relations with European, Baltic, and Nordic Lutherans. He is also very familiar with the work of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission. It is clear at numerous points that the book is the work of an Anglican ecumenist, but Avis is certainly capable of engaging with the work of the World Council of Churches and the bilateral dialogues of other churches, as well as the aforementioned critical literature.

Avis contributes several helpful insights into three issues he sets out to address. On the subject of unity and diversity, he follows the current ecumenical trend of embracing diversity in the Church, but does so on the basis of the missiological principle of inculturation (27–31), rather than relying on essentially a non-theological rationale. To the question “How much diversity is compatible with unity?” he replies that nothing, short of outright denial of Christ, frees Christians of the obligation to seek unity with one another: it is baptism into Christ that creates communion, not our agreement (47, 95, 155, 188). On unity and mission, Avis makes the helpful point that any dualistic attitude on these two principles is the product of an ecclesiologically deficient missiology that mistakenly “assumes that mission is simply a matter of individuals evangelizing individuals and not also a witness of communities to communities” (32). Perhaps the most significant contribution in the book comes from Avis’s advancement of a “unity by stages” approach to our view of ecumenical progress (chapter 3). Avis characterizes this method as a more “realistic” vision of reunion because it encourages churches to formalize and draw official implications from the degree of communion that they currently enjoy, even as the goal of full communion is not yet possible. This approach is bolstered as Avis demonstrates its consistency with the ecumenical standards of communion ecclesiology and the notion of reception (chapters 5, 8, and 10).

The book does fall short in a few areas. Little in Avis’s vision, for instance, cannot be found in similar texts on the subject. Avis admits that much of his own material has been recycled from articles and lectures previously delivered over a number of years. While Avis insists he has “rewritten, expanded and corrected extensively” (ix), some of the inevitably disjointed flavour remains. The chapter advocating the episcopate does not really go beyond the conclusions of the 1982 World Council of Churches document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry in affirming that the ministry of episkope should be exercised in a personal, collegial, and communal way. The chapter on dialogue as hermeneutics, though an interesting reflection, contributes little to the central aims of the book.

While it is easy to be pessimistic about the future of ecumenism or the efforts to give it new life, Avis has chosen the more difficult path of choosing to have faith that ecumenical work is not in vain. He must surely be thanked for bringing the...