Reconciliation in Ecumenical Relations: The Priority of Grace

Abstract

This article proposes a theological understanding of ‘reconciliation’ for the ecumenical model ‘unity in reconciled diversity’. Although reconciliation has become an important task in ecumenical relations, particularly after condemnations and violence in the past, the concept itself has not yet found sufficient theological grounding. Discussing a theology of the cross, the paper highlights the grace of being reconciled with God which stands before any division in the church and calls for re-establishing Christian unity. In order to relate this priority of grace to an understanding of reconciliation in the world and among Christian communities, the concept of the church as sacrament proves helpful. Both the theology of the cross and the church as sacrament provide significant specifications to the idea of a ‘unity in reconciled diversity’.