A CHRISTOCENTRIC TRINITARIAN UNDERSTANDING OF MISSION

Abstract

EMILIO CASTRO [*] I was awakened this issue by a sudden call from the former general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the late Dr W.A. Visser 't Hooft, immediately after I assumed that position in Geneva. I was invited his home in January 1985. There was the old man, the patriarch of the ecumenical movement, a monument an ecumenical vocation. He put me the question: Now that you begin as general secretary of the World Council of Churches, I would like know where you stand in relation the central christological affirmation of the ecumenical I would like know how you evaluate the present affirmation that a trinitarian theology is necessary in order escape from an undue or exaggerated Christomonism in the ecumenical movement. I was surprised by this question, but I could appreciate immediately his fears that the ecumenical movement, by entering into a trinitarian ideological frame of reference, could somehow be escaping from its sources in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and entering into a general atmosphere of all-inclusive relativism. Knowing the way in which Dr Visser 't Hooft had written about and spoken of the inclusion of the reference the Trinity in the basis of the World Council of Churches, I could not suspect that he was having problems with the doctrine of the Trinity per se. In The Ecumenical Review of April 1985, he told the story of the adding of the trinitarian character the basis: The demand for an explicit reference the Trinity came especially from the Eastern churches. At first it was not clear in which way the trinitarian dimension was be incorporated. But, at a memorable breakfast in Leningrad during the visit of the World Council delegation the USSR in 1959, the Russian and Greek Orthodox participants made it clear that they did not expect that the Basis should contain a description of the Trinity, but that it should set the Christocentric affirmation in a trinitarian setting. So I took the breakfast menu and wrote on it the doxological formula: to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This proved be acceptable all who were present. [1] As far as I know, there was never an occasion on which Dr Visser 't Hooft expressed any difficulty with the doctrine of the Trinity. His concern at the time he spoke with me was rather with the particular theological solutions which were being offered new and old problems confronting the missionary encounter of the church. New missiological challenges I could not share the fear of Dr Visser 't Hooft. In the corridors of the World Council and in the international theological discussions of contemporary issues I found people who were trying, out of their Christian conviction, reach out others and interpret the overall situation of humanity and nature from the perspective of faith, people who were rediscovering within the doctrine of the Trinity values that could help us embrace the totality of God's purpose for the world without any betrayal of the particular mission of Jesus Christ. It was then the question of the theological significance of universal history outside of relations with the church history and with the history of revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The old study of the World Council on the finality of Jesus Christ in an age of universal history was very much present. The second main challenge facing the oikoumene arose from the encounter with people of other faiths and ideological convictions. What theological meaning did their existence have? When the assembly of the World Council in Vancouver in 1983 addressed this question, it became entangled in a serious polemic about the theological values of God's presence in the religious life of other people. Vancouver tried say that we recognize God's creative hands in the religious experience of other people. But that was not accepted by the assembly and finally, through the Central Committee, a compromise formulation was agreed upon: one which recognized God's creative hand in the religious aspirations of other people. …