This volume is the first comprehensive study of a topic that is essential for the understanding of German Evangelical-Catholic dialogues and contemporary ecumenism in general: the meaning of witness.
This volume is the first comprehensive study of a topic that is essential for the understanding of German Evangelical-Catholic dialogues and contemporary ecumenism in general: the meaning of witness. The study reveals that these dialogues are characterised by a traditio-historical understanding of revelation, with witness being the key fundamental element for the groups' understanding of the word of God, the scriptures, tradition, unity, and the like. The dialogue groups see the event of God's self-attestation as the starting point for all human witness and gain access to it only through mediated human testimony. From this perspective, the ecclesial tradition is a historical signifying or mediating form of tradition, the unceasing actualization of God's revelation in the Holy Spirit.
Table of contents:
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background: Different Ecumenical Approaches to Witness
1.2 The Research Question
1.3 The Research Sources
1.4 The Research Methods and the Progress of Research
1.5 The Word Families of Witness in German and English
1.6 Witness in the New Testament
1.7 Theological Approaches to the Study on Witness
1.8 Who, What and to Whom? Witness from a Communication Theory Perspective
2. WITNESS IN CONTEMPORARY DIALOGUES OF THE WCC
2.1 Witness to the Whole Creation: A Missiological Perspective
2.2 Witness Within Communion: An Ecclesiological Perspective
2.3 Conclusions
3. WITNESS IN THE DOCTRINAL TRADITIONS OF THE GERMAN DIALOGUE PARTIES
3.1 The Roman Catholic Tradition
3.2 The Evangelical Tradition
3.3 Conclusions
4. WITNESS IN THE DIALOGUES OF THE ECUMENICAL STUDY GROUP OF PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS (ÖAK)
4.1 Opening up Gradually to the Public (1946-1983)
4.2 Moving Past the Condemnations of the Reformation Era (1981-1994)
4.3 Affirming the Binding Testimony of the Church (1986-1998)
4.4 Focusing on the Testimony of the Ecclesial Office (2002-2008)
4.5 Applying the Theology of Witness (2007-2022)
4.6 Conclusions
5. WITNESS IN THE DIALOGUES OF THE GERMAN BISHOPS' CONFERENCE AND THE UNITED EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF GERMANY
5.1 Connecting Witness with Revelation Theology (1976-1984)
5.2 Defining the Ecclesial Witnessing Authorities (1987-2000)
5.3 Taking Some Steps Back in the Theology of Witness (2009-2017)
5.4 Conclusions
6. CONCLUSIONS: THE MEANINGS OF WITNESS IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN ECUMENISM
6.1 Tradition as Testimony to Revelation
6.2 The Theological Origins and Composition of Witness
6.3 Comparison with the Global Ecumenical Tradition of the WCC
6.4 Prospects for Continued Research
