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Contextuality and catholicity: the task of Orthodox theology in ecumenical theological education.

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Abstract

The essay unfolds theological foundations for theological education in ecumenical perspective from Orthodox perspectives seeing it as a worldwide enterprise fundamental to the mission of the church, not in its institutional character, but in its eschatological awareness of being a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. The relation between early ecumenical optimism and enthusiasm towards the goal of the visible unity of the church and the wide application of contextually, i.e. the recognition of the contextual character of theology as a method from the 1970s onwards is discussed. According to the Orthodox perspectives, the ecumenical movement has lost its momentum and coherence and its determination for the quest of visible unity with the predominant acceptance of contextuality as the guiding principle in ecumenical discussions and theological education. The author argues that Orthodox theology has to deepen the understanding of its own contextuality and soften the existing antithesis between contextuality and catholicity of theology and theological education. Orthodox perspectives should underline the relevance of a fundamental unity of divine revelation, as represented in the broad understanding of Christian tradition, which is for the entire created world, not only for believers and which is challenging both a potential distortion, wherein unity is identified with the maintenance of denominational loyally, as well as all contextual expressions of Christian theology with regard to their relation to the overall goal of church unity. The paper concludes with a plea for all Orthodox theological education to be of some real service to the church in deciding to deal both with current issues (to be contextual) and not to lose sight of the past (to be oriented to catholicity and church unity), to both open up to ecumenical theological education while at the same time maintaining a strong commitment to the common church tradition.

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Ever since the beginning of medieval scholasticism, and even after the Enlightenment, theology was defined as a discipline which used the methods of Aristotelian logic. Rational knowledge was, and in some cases is still, considered as the only legitimate form of knowledge. Theological education, thus, gradually shifted away from its eucharistic/liturgical framework, i.e. away from its ecclesial, community, local context. (1) The rational understanding of God and humanity had in fact led to a knowledge-centered and, especially in the West, to a mission-oriented theological education. Even today most theological institutions around the globe and across denominational boundaries, the Orthodox ones included, have been structured in such a way as to educate church 'leaders', not the entire people of God; to equip priests, pastors or missionaries with the necessary means to preserve and propagate certain Christian truths or ethical norms, and in some cases even to defend old-fashioned institutions, not to build up local eucharistic communities. They lost, in other words, the community-centred and liturgically/eschatologically-oriented dimension of theological education.

Gradually, therefore, all those engaged in the planning of theological education unconsciously lost sight of the most significant parameter that really makes theology viable: the very often forgotten truth that theology is the real conscience of the living church; that theology is first and foremost the voice of the--sometimes voiceless--Christian community and one of its most fundamental tasks; even further: that theology is neither a discipline for young people at the end of adolescence, nor a prerogative of the professionals, be it clergy or academics, but the task of the entire Christian community, the whole of laos tou Theou, who according to the well celebrated 1848 encyclical of the Orthodox patriarchs is the only guardian of the Christian faith. (2)

Consequently, little--if any--attention has been given to the fact that theological education is a worldwide enterprise fundamental to the mission of the church, not in its institutional character, (3) but in its eschatological awareness of being a glimpse and a foretaste of the Kingdom of God, the proleptic manifestation of this ultimate reality that should always determine our approach to historical realities.

This vision of the Kingdom, which is so prominent in the Orthodox liturgical tradition, was unquestionably rediscovered and reinforced in modern times through the theological reflections within the ecumenical movement. And this awareness created for a moment an unprecedented enthusiasm within deeply divided Christianity that the centuries-long divisions of the church might find some sort of an agreed solution; that the unity given by the Triune God might be restored. Unfortunately the momentum, created with the establishment of WCC and reaching its climax in the '60s with the historic event of Vatican II, did not have an equally optimistic follow-up. Ironically, the ecumenical optimism and enthusiasm towards the goal of the visible unity of the church was interrupted at the very moment when an important achievement in the field of theological hermeneutics was reached with the affirmation at a world level, and a wide...

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