Book Review: Book Reviews

Abstract

a Renewal Movement Be Renewed?: Questions for Future of Ecumenism. By Michael Kinnamon. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 2014. 167 pp. $24.00 (paper).andWhat Christians Learn from Other Religions. By J. Philip Wogaman. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.135 pp. $15.00 (paper).Ecumenism and interreligious relations begin world, lead us more deeply into world, and are proved vital or hollow by how they engage with world. These two new books by senior leaders of national and global Christian movements and churches explore starkly ways critical questions for a new century of interdependence and mutual and multifaith understanding.in 2000, at General Convention of Episcopal Church meeting Denver, Michael Kinnamon offered poignant insights into a bold experiment of bilateral shared communion and common mission proposed that summer with Evangelical Lutheran Church America. As an ecumenical guest, Professor Kinnamon, a minister and seminary teacher Christian Church/Disciples of Christ, assessed Episcopalians (and Lutherans) with compassion and insight, and asked questions that helped move agreement now known as Called to Common Mission to adoption. His method for engagement was threefold: make relationships with diverse partners and show up to work with them every day; ask good, informed questions; and, look with hope toward unimagined mission partnerships with a wide range of neighbors.The same tack is at core of Michael Kinnamon's recent collection of highly readable (and often quotable!) essays on future of Christian ecumenism. Each of fifteen chapter titles present a pressing question for church and for world watching followers of Jesus Christ today. Fellow preachers, try some of these as openers for a homily: Are Councils of Churches a Thing of Past?'; Can Tension Between Unity and Justice be Overcome?'; What Churches Say Together About Environment?; Has Ecumenical Movement Become Too 'Political'?Naming question is first frame for Kinnamon, but order to examine several problems with greater generosity and wisdom he presents propositions a nearly scholastic manner, offering patient reader a broad range of creative solutions to problems that long have separated and harmed church. In a chapter asking Is Ecumenical Movement a Movement for Peace? Kinnamon, a past president of National Council of Churches America, suggests that the churches need to focus less on top-down pronouncements and more on programs of congregational formation, and goes on to offer a list of corporate 'disciplines' that he believes may help form a peacemaking sensibility local communities (p. 31). These disciplines include: (1) praying regularly for people who are regarded as enemies by our nation or group; (2) practicing peace by committing ourselves to seek relationship with people we prefer to avoid; (3) partnering with a nearby congregation with different approaches to matters of war and peace; and (4) joining other congregations in a local activity that counters violence {pp. 31-32).Regrettably, we hear little about background of decisive agreements or of Great Ecumenists this slim volume. Anglicans will find both William Temple and Lesslie Newbigin, but not a word about George Bell or Stephen Bayne, to say nothing of Cynthia Wedell or Desmond Tutu. The essays do render trustworthy advice for engaged ecumenists, but lack potent illustrations of a deep spirit of ecumenism, that archetype so many Episcopalians first make connection with, and feel passion for, as they are led to new connections, networks, and partnerships. …