Volume 41, Issue 3

Abstract

Abstract

After the First World War visions of peace and reconciliation were cherished by both secular and ecclesiastical leaders, such as Wilson, Söderblom and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During the Twenties, when the League of Nations proved incapable of establishing peace, it became inevitable for early ecumenical theology to change perspectives. Though the ‘pre-dialectical’ period is usually being accused of compromises with liberalism and progressivism, there is more to say in favour of it than to disqualify it that way. Men like Ragaz, Heering and Siegmund-Schultze set a trend to found the ethics of international behaviour in the Word of God, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, as an ultimate and absolute criterion for mankind. Their influence upon the ecumenical movement in the Twenties should not be underestimated. As far as optimism remained, it was due to the experiences with political reality in the later Twenties. When reality changed, in the Thirties, ecumenical theology was faced with new challenges, as was the Ecumenical Movement itself.

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/content/journals/10.5117/NTT1987.3.002.BROE
1987-07-01
2024-03-28
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