A Catholic View of the Joint Declaration
Just the other day this article was published on the First Things website, originally a talk given at a meeting on the JD jointly sponsored by a Catholic bishop and a Lutheran bishop: “The Skeleton of Genuine Reconciliation.” It’s well … Continue reading
All Hallows’ Eve, Reformation Day, and Two Anniversaries
According to legend, 493 years ago today Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on indulgences on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking off what came to be the Reformation. Of the ninety-five, these two are the … Continue reading
That They May Be One!
As we arrive in Rome today, the home of the popes, and our pilgrimage draws to a close, it is good to meditate on the opening words of the late Pope John Paul II who, a little more than 30 … Continue reading
Martin Luther’s Hymn “Dear Christians, Let Us Now Rejoice”
Luther composed a good number of hymns beside the well-known “A Mighty Fortress.” The first hymn he ever wrote, in 1523, was actually a martyr ballad for Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch, who were killed in Brussels for supporting Luther’s … Continue reading
An Interview with Prof. Annemarie Mayer
We chatted with Annemarie Mayer, a professor and scholar at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Tübingen, Germany. Tell us how you got involved in ecumenism. I studied Latin, Greek and Catholic Theology at Tübingen University and went abroad for … Continue reading
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Global Christian Forum
Ecumenism, Pentecostalism, and Evangelicalism are all roughly the same age, but the latter two have often had little to do with the former. There are a number of reasons for this. One is the longstanding distrust between Protestants and Catholics, … Continue reading
From Martin Luther’s “A Brief Introduction on What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels”
“The gospel is a story about Christ, God’s and David’s Son, who died and was raised and is established as Lord. This is the gospel in a nutshell. Just as there is no more than one Christ, so there is … Continue reading
An Interview with Jared Wicks, S.J., Catholic scholar of Luther
Jared Wicks is a theologian and writer at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. We asked him a few questions about his unusual vocation. How did you as a Jesuit become a scholar of Luther? My pre-ordination theology studies … Continue reading
Catholic Scholars of Luther
Johannes Cochlaeus was a contemporary of Luther’s and his first “heresiographer,” in the words of Ralph Keen*—in other words, the opposite of a hagiographer, one who demonizes a supposedly wicked and impious enemy of the church. Cochlaeus’s 1548 biography, “The … Continue reading
Developing an Ecumenical View of Luther
The wonderful and insightful statement “Martin Luther: Witness to Jesus Christ” (please! take ten minutes and read the whole thing!) stakes out some common ground for Lutherans and Catholics to share regarding the person of Luther himself. One important aspect … Continue reading
The New Catholic—and Lutheran—View of Luther
Luther is a stumbling block for Catholics—and often enough for Lutherans, who tend to have equally caricatured if more positive views of him. The real Luther is an incredibly complicated person. The absolute best statement of a mature, ecumenical view … Continue reading
Two Orthodox Contributions to Unity
The Orthodox have been right in the middle of the ecumenical movement from the get-go. They weren’t at the 1910 Edinburgh conference, the “birthday” of ecumenism, though that’s because they weren’t invited. But in 1920, as the whole Christian world … Continue reading
From Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians (1535)
“Christ is innocent so far as His own Person is concerned; therefore He should not have been hanged from the tree. But because, according to the Law, every thief should have been hanged, therefore, according to the Law of Moses, … Continue reading
The Fries-Rahner Proposal for the Unity of the Church
In the early 1980s, two Catholic theologians—Karl Rahner and Heinrich Fries—offered a proposal of their own for the unity of the church. It provoked widespread discussion after its publication under the title Unity of the Church: An Actual Possibility. Eight … Continue reading
The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity
Recent schemes for Christian unity are less grandiose and more practical than earlier on in the movement. It’s been recognized that you can’t just create church unity by fiat. There’s a tremendous amount of groundwork to be laid first. One such … Continue reading
