THE CULTURE OF REMEMBRANCE: AN ECUMENICAL APPROACH

Abstract

There are many ways to build the common Christian identity. The whole of ecumenical striving for the unity of divided Christianity encompasses an enormous space of various acts and relations. In fact, the famous typology of the kinds of ecumenism proposed by the Second Vatican Council seems to cover to the certain degree only an enormous space of the interconfessional relations towards unity. The Decree on Ecumenism has distinguished between spiritual ecumenism (oecumenismus spiritualis), doctrinal ecumenism (oecumenismus scientialis) and practical ecumenism (oecumenismus practicalis)1. The oncoming celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of signing of the Decree demand to consider new and alternative ways of doing ecumenism. In opinions of many, ecumenical movement needs to search various inspirations from the cultural and intellectual patterns of the present day. This is the task of the highest importance as Christianity and Christian Churches, above all in Europe, face a deep crisis. The clearest signs of this crisis are “the collapse of religious practices, a progressive deterioration of beliefs and a constant erosion and loss of the credibility of the institutions, a lack of the presence of the established religions in society. (...) a number of religious persons and theologians keep denouncing and lamenting underneath the evident religious crisis, a real crisis of God”2. Ecumenism must simultaneously be the response as well as the way of Christian Churches when facing various challenges of the contemporary world.