Abstract
This chapter engages directly with the overall theme of the volume, Leaning into the Spirit: Ecumenical Perspectives on Discernment and Decision-making in the Church. It does this by drilling down into what has rightly been identified as a crucial area requiring further attention and articulation within Receptive Ecumenical thought and practice: the need for clarity as to what it means to discern well the appropriateness and viability of a possible instance of receptive learning by one tradition from another. The chapter starts out by recognizing the affinity between Receptive Ecumenism and Spiritual Ecumenism, with Receptive Ecumenism properly being understood as a movement of attempted receptivity of and responsiveness to the movement of the Spirit in the lives of the churches. The specificity of Receptive Ecumenism is presented as consisting in its pursuing this basic orientation in explicitly theological and ecclesial-institutional modes; focused on the need for rigorous theological visioning and scrutiny in service of effective and significant ecclesial reform. Accordingly, the main concern of the chapter is to articulate and provide justification for the principles in accordance with which such theological visioning and scrutinizing should be pursued.
An earlier version of this material was presented to the 4th International Receptive Ecumenism Conference, ‘Leaning into the Spirit: Discernment, Decision-Making, and Reception’, which was hosted by the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACCC), Charles Sturt University, Canberra,7–10 November 2017. I am grateful to the organizing committee, most particularly Stephen Pickard, Virginia Miller, and Ray Williamson at the ACCC; Ormond Rush of the Australian Catholic University (Brisbane); and Geraldine Hawkes, then at the South Australian Council of Churches, who over the years has played a very significant role in the Australian reception of Receptive Ecumenism. This 4th International perhaps represented a dual coming of age for Receptive Ecumenism: it was the first Receptive Ecumenism international in which Durham University had no significant organizational involvement, and the first also not to take place on Catholic institutional soil. For introduction to the various Receptive Ecumenism initiatives and an associated bibliography and compilation of resources, see https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/ccs/constructivetheology/receptiveecumensim/. I am grateful to Gregory A. Ryan for commenting on aspects of this chapter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For the language of God’s action, the Spirit, as ‘Power of our power’, see the final line of the third stanza of the popular Irish hymn, ‘Be Thou my Vision’: ‘Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r’ (Eleanor Hull, 1912 translation). This gives us evocative and eloquent imagery for what is expressed more formally in the Agustinian-Thomistic theology of the concurrence of divine and created action.
- 2.
This is consistent with what I said in the ‘Preface’ to the first volume on Receptive Ecumenism, where I noted the need for the rigorous ‘testing’ of the creative aspect of the ‘dreaming of dreams’, see Murray, ‘Preface’, in Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, Paul D. Murray (ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), ix–xv.
- 3.
For the language of ‘tests’ in this regard, see the 1845 1st edn. of Newman’s Essay on the Development of Doctrine (1974, 116–46). It is notable that in the substantially revised and now standard second edition, Newman softened this from the apparently more assertive language of ‘tests’ by speaking instead of ‘notes’, see Newman (1878, 171–206). For Newman’s own (abidingly Anglican?) recognition of the essential role of ecclesial conversation and contestation in this process, see, among many other places, Newman (1877, xv–xciv); also Newman (1961).
- 4.
While ‘dynamic integrity’ has some resonance with Francis Sullivan’s evocative phrase, ‘creative fidelity’, it goes beyond the concern to find what Newman called ‘elbow-room’ (or air to breath) through nuanced interpretation of the existing web of Catholic doctrine and allows for the possibility of a greater degree of substantive reconfiguration in the light of fresh data, concerns, approaches, and concepts: see (Sullivan 1996). For Newman on ‘elbow-room’, see ‘Letter to Emily Bowles’ (19th May 1863), and Letter to W. J. O’Neill Daunt’, (17th June 1863), p. 476 in Newman (1970).
- 5.
Versions of this understanding of the theological task recur throughout my writings. Perhaps a little more simply, this is an understanding of theology as ‘the attentive analysis of Christian life and the questions and problems which arise there, aimed at offering constructive repair and thereby enhancing the quality of Christian life’. It represents a praxis-inflected version of St Anselm’s far more elegant fides quærens intellectum.
- 6.
In terms of the specifically Durham University initiated projects in Receptive Ecumenism, this engagement with the real concerns and experience of the church is, perhaps, most evident in the multi-year North East of England Regional Comparative Research Project in Receptive Ecumenism and the Local Church which was conducted in partnership with the seven major Christian groupings in the region, see https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/ccs/projects/receptiveecumenism/projects/localchurch/
- 7.
This is a point of Catholic distinctiveness which is well recognized by the first Agreed Statement to emerge from the third phase of work of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (see ARCIC III 2018, §§63–6, pp. 30–31).
- 8.
For some initial examples of what this all might look like in practice, see Murray (2014).
- 9.
In actual fact, my 2018c essay, which was being worked on in parallel with the current chapter, represents a first developed attempt at this. Of particular significance in this regard are the second, third, fourth, and fifth sections of the essay, under the respective sectional headings: ‘Discerning catholicity: The principles of Catholic life’, ‘At what price? Assessing the cost of living catholicity between ecclesial idealism and experienced tensions’, ‘Growing into the fullness of catholicity: On becoming more fully the Catholic Church’, and ‘The spirit of Catholicism: On becoming Catholic people’.
References
ARCIC III. 2018. Walking Together on the Way: Learning to Be the Church – Local, Regional, and Universal. London: SPCK.
Congar, Yves. 2011. Part Two. Conditions for Authentic Reform without Schism. In True and False Reform in the Church, trans. Paul Philibert. Collegeville: Liturgical Press.
Edwards, Denis. 2009. Receptive Ecumenism and the Charism of a Partner Church: The Example of Justification. In Australasian Catholic Record, vol. 86, 457–467.
Henn OFM Cap, William. 1987a. The Hierarchy of Truths According to Yves Congar, O.P. Roma: Editrice Pontificia Universita Gregoriana.
———. 1987b. The Hierarchy of Truths Twenty Years Later. Theological Studies 48: 439–471.
International Theological Commission. 2014. Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church. Available at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_20140610_sensus-fidei_en.html
Murray, Paul D. 1998. Theology After the Demise of Foundationalism. The Way 38: 160–169.
———. 2004. Reason, Truth and Theology in Pragmatist Perspective. Leuven: Peeters.
———. 2006. On Valuing Truth in Practice: Rome’s Postmodern Challenge. The International Journal of Systematic Theology 8: 163–183.
———. 2007a. On Valuing Truth in Practice: Rome’s Postmodern Challenge. In Redeeming Truth: Considering Faith and Reason, ed. Laurence Paul Hemming and Susan Frank Parsons, 184–206. Aldershot: Ashgate.
———. 2007b. Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning: Establishing the Agenda. The International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 7: 279–301.
———. 2008a. Preface. In Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, ed. Paul D. Murray, ix–xv. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2008b. Receptive Ecumenism and Catholic Learning: Establishing the Agenda. In Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, ed. Paul D. Murray, 5–25. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. 2012. Discerning the Dynamics of Doctrinal Development in Postfoundationalist Perspective. In Faithful Reading: Essays in Honour of Fergus Kerr, ed. Simon Oliver, Karen Kilby, and Thomas O’Loughlin, 193–220. London/New York: T & T Clark.
———. 2014. Searching the Living Truth of the Church in Practice: On the Transformative Task of Systematic Ecclesiology. Modern Theology 30: 251–281.
———. 2018a. Receptive Ecumenism as a Leaning-in to the Spirit of Loving Transformation. In Receptive Ecumenism: Listening, Learning, and Loving in the Way of Christ, ed. Vicky Balabanski and Geraldine Hawkes, xv–xxiii. Adelaide: ATF.
———. 2018b. Receiving of Christ in the Spirit: The Pneumatic-Christic Depths of Receptive Ecumenism. In Receptive Ecumenism: Listening, Learning, and Loving in the Way of Christ, ed. Vicky Balabanski and Geraldine Hawkes, 157–170. Adelaide: ATF.
———. 2018c. Living Catholicity Differently: On Growing into the Plenitudinous Plurality of Catholic Communion in God. In Envisioning Futures for the Catholic Church, Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series VIII, Christian Philosophical Studies 23, ed. Staf Hellemans and Peter Jonkers, 109–158. Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.
Murray, Paul D., and Andrea L. Murray. 2012. The Roots, Range, and Reach of Receptive Ecumenism. In Unity in Process: Reflections on Ecumenism, ed. Clive Barrett, 79–94. London: DLT.
Newman, John Henry. 1877. Preface to the Third Edition. In The Via Media of the Anglican Church, 3rd ed. London: Longmans, Green, & Co.
———. 1878. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. 2nd ed. London: Pickering.
———. 1961. On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine. Ed. John Coulson. London/Kansas City: Sheed and Ward.
———. 1970. The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, XX. Ed. Charles Stephen Dessain. London: Thomas Nelson
———. 1974. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Ed. J.M. Cameron. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Noonan, John T. 2006. A Church that Can and cannot Change: The Development of Catholic Moral Teaching. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.
Örsy, Ladislas SJ. 2008. Authentic Learning and Receiving – A Search for Criteria. In Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, ed. Paul D. Murray. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 5-25.39-51.
Pizzey, Antonia. 2019. Receptive Ecumenism and the Renewal of the Ecumenical Movement: The Path of Ecclesial Conversion. Leiden: Brill.
Pope Francis. 2015. Address Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops. October 17, at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html
Quine, Willard Van Orman. 1951. Two Dogmas of Empiricism. The Philosophical Review 60: 20–43.
———. 1961. Two Dogmas of Empiricism. In From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays, 2nd ed., 20–46. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1970. The Web of Belief. New York: Random House.
Rush, Ormond. 1993. Reception Hermeneutics and the “Development” of Doctrine: An Alternative Model. Pacifica 6: 125–140.
———. 1997. The Reception of Doctrine: An Appropriation of Hans Robert Jauss’ Reception Aesthetics and Literary Hermeneutics. Roma: Pontificia Università Gregoriana.
———. 2004. Still Interpreting Vatican II: Some Hermeneutical Principles. Mahwah: Paulist Press.
———. 2009. The Eyes of Faith: The Sense of the Faithful and the Church’s Reception of Revelation. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.
———. 2017a. Inverting the Pyramid: The Sensus Fidelium in a Synodal Church. Theological Studies 78: 299–325.
———. 2017b. Receptive Ecumenism and Discerning the Sensus Fidelium: Expanding the Categories for a Catholic Reception of Revelation. Theological Studies 78: 559–572.
Ryan, Gregory A. 2018a. Receptive Integrity and the Dynamics of Doctrine: A Study in the Hermeneutics of Catholic Ecclesial Learning. Unpublished PhD thesis, Durham University.
———. 2018b. Receiving with Dynamic Integrity: Ecumenical Commitments and Reception Hermeneutics. In Receptive Ecumenism: Listening, Learning, and Loving in the Way of Christ, ed. Vicki Balabanksi and Geraldine Hawkes, 135–148. Adelaide: ATF Press.
———. 2020. Receptive Integrity: The Dynamics of Doctrine in a Learning Church. Leiden: Brill.
Sullivan, Francis. 1996. Creative Fidelity: Weighing and Interpreting Documents of the Magisterium. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Tanner, Kathryn. 1997. Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress.
Thiel, John E. 2000. Dramatic Development as a Sense of Tradition. In Senses of Tradition: Continuity and Development in Catholic Faith. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Tilley, Terrence W. 2000. Inventing Catholic Tradition. Maryknoll/New York: Orbis.
Wijlens, Myriam. 2017. Reforming the Church by Hitting the Reset Button: Reconfiguring Collegiality within Synodality because of sensus fidei fidelium. The Canonist 8: 235–261.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Murray, P.D. (2019). Discerning the Call of the Spirit to Theological-Ecclesial Renewal: Notes on Being Reasonable and Responsible in Receptive Ecumenical Learning. In: Miller, V., Moxon, T., Pickard, T. (eds) Leaning into the Spirit. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19997-5_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19997-5_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19996-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19997-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)