by
Dom
Henry
Wansbrough
Chairman,
Oxford
University
Theology
Faculty
Magister
Scholarum
of
the
English
Benedictine
Congregation
Outline of Lecture given to the Institute of Theology at Balamand
I. UNITY WITHIN THE CHURCH - DIVERSITY OF STRUCTURE
Communities of Acts of the Apostles council of elders + archisynagogos
Pastoral Letters episkopos + diaconoi
Corinth no judge - disunity - yperlian apostoloi
Rome individual house-churches
Focus of unity? Jerusalem? (Acts) James? (Galatians) Cephas? Rome (capital)?
II. UNITY WITHIN THE CHURCH - DIVERSITY OF TEACHING & PRACTICE
Rabbi Paul or Rabbi Matthew?
Matthew the Jewish scribe - dikaiosini - Eleos thelo kai ou thisian - Hillel's middoth
Must a Christian be a Jew?
Paul's re-definition of Judaism - Law as a paidagogos - circumcision and dikaiosini
Situation of the Church at Antioch - the weak and the strong at Corinth and Rome - koinonia?
III. GLOBALIZATION OF FAITH
A culture of McDonalds - the wisdom of The Simpsons - the Gospel according to Peanuts
Problems Excommunication of Russian Orthodox Patriarch: God & Allah
Eucharistic hospitality and philosophy
Nestorians and physis
African ancestor-worship and spirits
Freedom of conscience
Progress of revelation
Abraham and his Protector /not self-explanatory
Babylonian Exile - myths of Babylon & Garden of Eden>>/crown of creation
\failure of ideals
\divine perseverance
Job and the problem of lmmerited suffering
Jesus the ikon of God - his blood-sacrifice or his obedience to the Father
Imagery of the Last Judgement - self-formation or self-distortion.
Christianity and other religions
"The many religions of the world are metaphorical or symbolic systems encoding paradigmatic forms of spiritual experiences experience leading to liberation'. The goal of each is 'liberation from greed, hatred and ignorance to a reality of supreme wisdom and compassion'. (Keith Ward)
There is salvation without the gospel, although none without Christ or apart from him. The operative presence of the mystery of Jesus Christ in other religious traditions is concealed and remains unknown to their members, but is no less real for that.... because in Christ the openness to God inscribed in transcendental human experience finds its total realisation' (Jacques Dupuis)
'Wberever the human spirit opens itself in prayer to this Unknown God, an echo will be heard of the same Spirit who himself prays in us and on our behalf (John Paul 11, Message to the People of Asia, 1981) Compare Rm 8.26.