Becoming Christian: Relations between Faith and Sacrament in Christian Initiation

This article attempts to account for the almost complete lack of official mutual recognition expressed by the Christian churches, despite the unprecedented level of convergence between them. Analysis of the important body of literature issued from the ecumenical dialogue that has taken place over the last fifty years leads the author to several conclusions: Christian salvation can be understood, without contradiction, as both instantaneous (effected by God at the moment of baptism) and progressive (via the continual renewal of the believer's life in the sacraments of Eucharist and penance). The Church can be conceived as a multilevel entity not composed of confessions but of three fundamental and complementary types of believers (zealots, proselytes, and spirituals). On this basis, the author argues for the necessary coexistence, within the Church, of difference and complementarity. For Church unity to be lasting and faithful to Christian life, it ought to be found in and actualized as integrated diversity.