This volume proposes a fresh strategy for ecumenical engagement - 'Receptive Ecumenism' - that is fitted to the challenges of the contemporary context and has already been internationally recognised as making a distinctive and important new contribution to ecumenical thought and practice. Beyond this, the volume tests and illustrates this proposal by examining what Roman Catholicism in particular might fruitfully learn from its ecumenical others. Challenging the tendency for ecumenical studies to ask, whether explicitly or implicitly, 'What do our others need to learn from us?', this volume presents a radical challenge to see ecumenism move forward into action by highlighting the opposite question 'What can we learn with integrity from our others?' This approach is not simply ecumenism as shared mission, or ecumenism as problem-solving and incremental agreement but ecumenism as a vital long-term programme of individual, communal and structural conversion driven, like the Gospel that inspires it, by the promise of conversion into greater life and flourishing. The aim is for the Christian traditions to become more, not less, than they currently are by learning from, or receiving of, each other's gifts. The 32 original essays that have been written for this unique volume explore these issues from a wide variety of denominational and disciplinary perspectives, drawing together ecclesiologists, professional ecumenists, sociologists, psychologists, and organizational experts.
Reviews
Review from previous edition All the churches have have a cause to be grateful for the imaginative way Dr Murray and his colleagues are promoting both ecumenism and the study of Catholic theology. * Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper *
...it is heartening to see this sophisticated venture to revitalise ecumenical exchange explicity adopting interfaith strategies, guided by an intellectual humility inclining each to learn from the other. This tactic allows us to see how "ecumenism" can hardly be limited to inter-Christian exchange...This fivefold ordering offers clear direction in matters ecumenical to the superb participants. A properly eschatological intent is fleshed out in one essay after another by invoking the "pilgrim church" archetype: learning from others on the way to a goal all share, but which none can confidently articulate, as it eludes human construction. * David Burrell, The Tablet *
there are many gems. The book, and the movement it articulates, is like the tiny tips of spring buds on a raw day before spring has begun. * Christopher Hill, Church Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199587988
Author Paul Murray
Format Paperback
Page Count 570
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 157mm * 31mm