Receptive Ecumenism as Transformative Ecclesial Learning Walking the Way to a Church Re-formed

Receptive Ecumenism asks not what other churches can learn from us, but 'what can we learn and receive with integrity from our ecclesial others?' Since the publication of Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism (OUP, 2008), this fresh ecumenical strategy has been adopted, critiqued, and developed in different Christian traditions, and in local, national, and international settings, including the most recent bilateral dialogue of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III). The thirty-eight chapters in this new volume, by academics, church leaders, and ecumenical practitioners who have adopted and adapted Receptive Ecumenism in various ecclesial and cultural contexts, show how Receptive Ecumenism has grown and matured. Part I demonstrates how Receptive Ecumenism itself is capable of being received with integrity into very different ecclesiologies and ecclesial traditions. In Part II, this approach to transformative ecumenical learning is applied to some recurrent ecclesial problems, such as the understanding and practice of ministry, revealing new insights and practical opportunities. Part III examines the potential and challenges for Receptive Ecumenism in different international settings. Part IV draws on Scripture, hermeneutics, and pneumatology to offer critical reflection on how Receptive Ecumenism itself implements transformative ecclesial learning. Addressing the seventieth anniversary of the World Council of Churches, Archbishop Justin Welby said that 'One of the most important of recent ecumenical developments has been the concept of “Receptive Ecumenism”.' This volume provides an indispensable point of reference for understanding and applying that concept in the life of the Christian churches today.

1 - Unity and Universality, Locality and Diversity in Anglicanism
2 - Unity and Universality, Locality and Diversity according to Baptist Thinking about the Church
3 - Receptive Ecclesial Learning through Ecumenical Engagement: An Orthodox Perspective
4 - Receptive Ecumenism and the Dynamics of Development within Pentecostalism
5 - Foundations and Openings for Ecclesial Learning: A Catholic Perspective
6 - The Call to Holiness: Catholics and Methodists in Dialogue
7 - To Receive From Each Other, First Receive Each Other: Receptive Ecumenism and the Global Christian Forum
8 - Finnish Luther Studies, Lutheran Dialogues, and Ecclesial Learning
9 - Reformed Catholicity: Catholic Calvin, Barth, Brown & Co.
10 - Receptive Ecumenism and ARCIC III
11 - What Does Rome Have to Learn from Geneva? Whole-Body Ecclesiology and the Inductive Turn
12 - 'Mutual Flourishing' in the Church of England: Receiving a Gift from the Orthodox Theological Tradition
13 - Women's Ministry: A Hidden Opening for Ecumenical Discussion
14 - Developing Catholic Understanding and Practice of Ordained Ministry through Receptive Learning
15 - Re-receiving Catholic Eucharistic Theology from the Hymns of John and Charles Wesley
16 - Not Problems but Pioneers: Interchurch Families and Receptive Ecumenism
17 - Learning to Love Differently Well: Human Sexuality, the Churches, and Receptive Ecumenism
18 - Receptive Ecumenism and the Local Church
19 - Ecumenical Involvement between US Black and White Churches Revisited: Old Obstacles and New Opportunities
20 - Receptive Ecumenism in African Perspective: Beyond the Scandal of a Divided Foreign Religion
21 - Receptive Ecumenism in a Latin American Context: Catholic and Pentecostalist Learning in Relation to Mariology
22 - Unlikely Siblings? Pentecostal Ethico-theological Insights from Catholic Teaching on Mary
23 - Australian Practices of Receptive Ecumenism
24 - Comparative Theology's Interesting Asymmetries with Receptive Ecumenism
25 - Two-eyed Vision: A Sufi Perspective on the Both/And Structure of Receptive Ecumenism
26 - A Total Ethic for a Broken Body: Receptive Ecumenism's Hermeneutical Virtue
27 - What is the Spirit Saying to the Churches through the Laments of the Faithful?
28 - Revelation, Sensus Fidelium, and Receptive Ecumenism
29 - What Prevents Christian Churches from Learning?
30 - Living Church: Practical Theology as a Locus for Ecumenical Learning
31 - Receiving Scripture Again From One Another
32 - Learning to be Church: Virtues and Practices Leading towards Koinonia in Colossians and Acts
33 - Interdependence, Need, and Reciprocal Asymmetry in the Body of Christ: A Reading of 1 Corinthians 12
34 - Mature Ecumenism's Daring Future: Learning from the Gospel of John for the Twenty-First Century
35 - Towards a Spirituality of Receptive Ecumenical Learning
36 - A Discipline for Living According to the Spirit: Chiara Lubich and Receptive Ecumenism
37 - Receptive Ecumenism and the Virtues
38 - Growing into the Fullness of Christ: Receptive Ecumenism as a Way of Ecclesial Conversion

Paul D. Murray is Professor of Systematic Theology at Durham University where he was the founding Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies (2007-2023). He has served on the editorial boards of Concilium International and Theological Studies, is a former President of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, a former member of the third phase of work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III), on which he continues as consultor, and an ecumenical canon of Durham Cathedral. In addition to three books, he has contributed numerous essays to leading journals and scholarly collections. His holds an M.Litt (Durham) and a PhD (Cambridge). Gregory A. Ryan (PhD, Durham) researches, teaches, and publishes on Receptive Ecumenism, contemporary Catholic ecclesiology, and hermeneutics. He is based at the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, developing formation programmes for lay and ordained ministry in the North of England. Paul Lakeland is the Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Professor Emiritus of Catholic Studies and was founding Director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Fairfield University, Connecticut, where he worked since 1981, with roles including chairperson of the Religious Studies Department and director of the Honors Program. In addition to his PhD from Vanderbilt University, he holds degrees in philosophy, divinity, and English. He is the author of ten books, and editor of two more, in the fields of Catholic ecclesiology, cultural theory, and religion and literature. In 2020 he received the Hellwig Award for outstanding contributions to Catholic intellectual life.