I’ve been very conscious of increasingly strong links between Catholics and evangelical Christians at various levels. The recent HTB Leadership Conference made a big impression – whether it was the high-profile plenary interview between Nicky Gumbel and Cardinal Schönborn, or the conversations between ordinary delegates about faith and mission. And you could even say that the warmth and commonality between Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby is another ‘Catholic-Evangelical’ signal.
If you are interested in following up this topic, and in case you have never seen it, take a look at this agreed statement that was made a long way back in 1994, Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. A couple of weeks ago I heard George Weigel mention the text, and then a friend from the Ordinariate brought it to my attention as well. Something is in the air!
Here is the ‘We Affirm Together’ section from the Evangelicals & Catholics Together document. You can see the full list of participants at the bottom of the statement. Catholic representatives included Weigel himself, Cardinal Avery Dulles, and Cardinal (then Bishop) Francis George.
Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final affirmation that Christians make about all of reality. He is the One sent by God to be Lord and Savior of all: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4) Christians are people ahead of time, those who proclaim now what will one day be acknowledged by all, that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2)
We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ. Living faith is active in love that is nothing less than the love of Christ, for we together say with Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2)
All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ. Evangelicals and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have not chosen one another, just as we have not chosen Christ. He has chosen us, and he has chosen us to be his together. (John 15) However imperfect our communion with one another, however deep our disagreements with one another, we recognize that there is but one church of Christ. There is one church because there is one Christ and the church is his body. However difficult the way, we recognize that we are called by God to a fuller realization of our unity in the body of Christ. The only unity to which we would give expression is unity in the truth, and the truth is this: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4)
We affirm together that Christians are to teach and live in obedience to the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible Word of God. We further affirm together that Christ has promised to his church the gift of the Holy Spirit who will lead us into all truth in discerning and declaring the teaching of Scripture. (John 16) We recognize together that the Holy Spirit has so guided his church in the past. In, for instance, the formation of the canon of the Scriptures, and in the orthodox response to the great Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the early centuries, we confidently acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In faithful response to the Spirit’s leading, the church formulated the Apostles Creed, which we can and hereby do affirm together as an accurate statement of scriptural truth:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
I’be recently attended the event at the link below, an Evangelical initiative. I see it as an opportunity to build cross denominational relationships in the workplace to bring more people to Christ.
http://www.licc.org.uk/work-
forum/events-courses/executivetoolbox/
I agree that these contacts are an encouraging sign, but I see a few problems with the document, cardinalatial signatures notwithstanding… It’s not quite right to say that the scriptures *are* the Word of God; they are part of it, sacred tradition being the other part; not all revealed truths are explicitly in Scripture (and ‘inerrant’ is more accurate than ‘infallible’, though that’s a more minor point). To say that the Holy Spirit has guided us to know the canon of Scripture is surely a verbal agreement not a real agreement, since we don’t agree what the canon is. The same is true about the phrase in the Creed ‘I believe in the holy Catholic Church'; we don’t agree what the holy Catholic Church is. The text also suggests that we are all already members of the Church, even though not in ‘perfect communion’ with each other; this suits a Protestant ecclesiology but not a Catholic one.
I don’t want to pour cold water for the sake of it, but I think this common declaration concedes too much.
Thanks for the comments Fr Thomas. My own quick responses:
Some of this depends on theological context. If I say ‘the Word of God is only found in Scripture’, this is clearly unacceptable for a Catholic, because of what you say about Tradition. But Dei Verbum 24 from Vatican II says that the Sacred Scriptures not only contain the Word of God but ‘really are the Word of God’ (‘vere verbum Dei sunt’). So in a context like this, where the issue is biblical inspiration, and it’s not a technical discussion about the relationship between Scripture and Tradition, it seems perfectly right to say that the scriptures ARE the Word of God.
The point about the formation of the canon seems to be more than mere verbal agreement. Yes, we don’t agree on the complete canon – and I’m not saying this is an insignificant agreement. But for me, the fact that evangelicals are here recognising the necessity of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church in the formation of the bible is hugely important (i.e. the fact that any canon at all needs the Church to be formed). In other words, if you are going to agree on which books are in the canon (I hope we will one day), then in order to do this you first have to agree on the role of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church (in history, and still today) to discern the canon. So to ask an ecumenical dialogue like this to agree on the canon before agreeing on the role of the Church seems back to front. (I know you are not asking this! But I’m just saying how hopeful this present dialogue is in this perspective).
Finally: I think it is perfect Catholic ecclesiology to say that all the baptised are members of the Church! As long as you accept and make clear that this does not mean that the degree of communion between each other is perfectly what it should/could be; and the document here states this quite clearly. For me, the deeper ambiguity in this area in the document is in the phrase, ‘However difficult the way, we recognize that we are called by God to a fuller realization of our unity in the body of Christ’, which could suggest that this full unity in the body of Christ is just a future hope and not a present reality, when in fact the fullness of communion is already found in the Catholic Church, even though not everyone shares perfectly in it yet.
On those same 3 points:-
1. I agree that context influences what can rightly or wisely be said. But inevitably part of the context in discussions between Catholics and Protestants is the historic debates on where the Word of God is found. So to speak in this context of the Word of God as Scripture without mentioning Tradition seems to me risky. Dei Verbum 24 takes care to mention Tradition.
2. The document seems to speak of the formation of the canon as something in the past. Do the Evangelical authors really think that it is still in process of formation/discernment?
3. Mystici Corporis 22 gives us an authoritative account of who are members of the Church:- “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.” This applies only to non-excommunicated Catholics. Later documents have shied away from talking about ‘membership’ at all, and introduced the phrase ‘imperfect communion’. This seems to me a rather confusing phrase and I don’t think it has ever been authoritatively defined; it has just been used as if its meaning were self-evident. The problem with it is that it suggests that the baptised non-Catholic is as such sufficiently united to the Church for salvation. Individual baptised non-Catholics may well be, but this is not a general assumption we can make for all.
I concur with Cordatus on this.
‘Dei Verbum 24 from Vatican II says that the Sacred Scriptures not only contain the Word of God but ‘really are the Word of God’ (‘vere verbum Dei sunt’). So in a context like this, where the issue is biblical inspiration, and it’s not a technical discussion about the relationship between Scripture and Tradition, it seems perfectly right to say that the scriptures ARE the Word of God.’
I struggle with your quote after discovering Lectivus 21
I thought the one true Church of Christ is the Catholic Church?