Towards Unity: Ecumenical Dialogues 500 Years after the Reformation: Essays in Honour of Monsignor John. A. Radano eds. by Donald Bolen, Nicholas Jenson, and Donna Geernaert (review)

Given that it is 2018 and the five-hundredth commemoration of the Protestant Reformation has just passed, such a book would be timely: a hopeful review and insight into the progress toward unity in light of the five-hundred-year-long schism between Protestants and Roman Catholics. The book is a collection of eighteen essays celebrating both the life work of Monsignor John M. Radano, now retired head of the Pontifical Council for Unity, and the work of the various ecclesial relationships. Among others, contributors include the likes of Cardinal Walter Kasper, Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, the Canadian ecumenical theologian Margaret O'Gara, and Canadian Sister Donna Geernaert.

The celebrations, however warranted and deserved, are awkward. If the reader is familiar with ecumenical dialogues of any sort above the local congregation level, the essays say nothing particularly new of note. There are no suggestions on how to improve the dialogues, or what next steps are needed for continuance, and there is little welcoming for either. The essays all acknowledge the importance of the dialogue histories and are reflective on their present situation, but they provide little guidance for the future. If the reader is unfamiliar or has had little introduction to ecumenism and the work entailed, he or she may lose enthusiasm due to the repetition of issues at play, deciding that such things are better left to theologians and the clergy.

Most of the essays are written by Roman Catholic theologians. In some of these, the tone is unintentionally arrogant. Such a tone suggests that the Protestant partners are refusing to acknowledge some error in their theological stance, thus blocking paths to unity. Others avoid such implications, either by deliberately highlighting the areas that are working or glossing over the more divisive elements in order to celebrate the work being done. It appears to me that Protestant theologians are more apologetic in their tones. If the reader is familiar with Protestant texts of this nature, he or she would expect this as part of the Protestant identity. Defensiveness, ideally, should not be at work in these dialogues. As these essays suggest, the options for dialogue appear to be either full unity or no unity at all.

But what is the unity these writers are seeking? If it is to be an institutional unity as promoted by the Roman Catholic partners, then those Protestant partners who promote a more missional and ministerial approach will not be received as equals. There is no agreement, and can be no agreement, so long as there is no consensus on what unity is being sought. At times, the essays talk past and around each other on the issue without actually dealing with it head on. One essay illustrates this difficulty. In his discussion on Pentecostal–Roman Catholic dialogue (226–252), Cecil M. Robeck Jr. writes of attending a Roman Catholic Mass with his wife, herself an elder in their Pentecostal congregation. They worshipped, praised God, and were invited to present the Eucharistic elements. Though they did all things, they could not participate in receiving the consecrated bread and wine. If we can't gather at the table of the Lord together, receiving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ equally, then institutional unity looks pithy, and ministry is found lacking. Any dialogue that does not result in actual change becomes an exchange of words.

The problem with this book is that it adds very little new material to contemporary ecumenical dialogues. It gives summaries and reviews of what has already been said, discussed, and (perhaps reluctantly) accepted. That said, for those who are engaged primarily in one dialogue, the brief insight into what others have accomplished is worth noting. While my specialty is between Anglicans and...