28 Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning—Reflections in Dialogue with Yves Congar and B. C. Butler1

Abstract

Abstract Cardinal Yves Congar (1904-95) and Bishop Basil Christopher Butler (1902-86) were both dedicated to the renewal of Catholic Learning and to the promotion of Christian unity. Butler, a convert to Catholicism, followed a more ‘conservative’ line than Congar. For his part, Congar, the leading figure of the Catholic ecumenical movement in France and a member of the Catholic–Lutheran Commission of Dialogue since 1965, was profoundly influenced by Lutheran theology in the formulation of his later ‘progressive’ stance on ecumenism. This chapter explores the themes of Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning as they relate to the thought of Congar and Butler, respectively. It also seeks to extrapolate ethical implications for the present-day ecumenical movement. Specifically, it attempts to draw Congar and Butler into dialogue on the central doctrine of the incarnation, regarded by the former as ‘the key to the whole mystery of the Church’.