Towards a hermeneutics of difference at the crossroads of ecumenics

Ecumenical Review, The, Oct, 1995 by Dale T. Irvin

Here then is a definition of the great new fact of our time: to be ecumenical is to be permanently open to others in dialogue. To be in permanent dialogue is to be responding to multiple voices from outside the circle of one's own identity, voices calling one to cross over the boundaries of one's own experiences. Ecumenical theology seeks to address the imperative of the other. It compels communities and persons of faith to be accountable to others beyond their own identities. "Ecumenical" persons are conscious of the multiple communities of Christian faith and identity that exist in the world today. They demonstrate a willingness to abandon the false security of their own self-identity, in order to cross over the boundaries of difference in a movement of metanoia. In short, ecumenical theology represents a shift from being "inner-directed" to being directed towards the other, whether in judgment or grace.

As they do so, ecumenical persons find themselves meeting others along the way, others who have crossed boundaries of their own and have travelled along roads that are different. In such encounters ecumenical theology takes on the characteristics of a conversation at the crossroads of the journey.(1) Here people of different identities gather at a common meeting place. They have an opportunity to listen to one another, and to challenge one another to faith. It is not mindless chatter which takes place at the crossroads. It is a spiritual praxis of dialogue, preparing people and churches to live the life of koinonia that God intends for all humanity and creation.

Because it is transformative such conversation is, in the words of the fifth world conference on Faith and Order that gathered in August 1993 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, "the call to metanoia and kenosis". Under the heading, "Steps Along the Way," paragraph 27 of the final report from Section I of the conference continues:

As we strip ourselves of false securities, finding in God our true and only identity, daring to be open and vulnerable to each other, we will begin to live as pilgrims on a journey, discovering the God of surprises who leads us into roads which we have not travelled, and we will find in each other true companions on the way.

In the pages that follow I would like to make a contribution to the project of ecumenical dialogue which is taking place at the crossroads of the churches' pilgrimages. I do so conscious of the major crossroads that have already been reached in the ecumenical journey, and of those that still lie before us. Anticipating the future, I would like to call for a fuller appreciation of the diversity which the churches encounter at the crossroads, in order to help them journey on with one another.

To these ends we are prompted by paragraph 28 of the report from Section I from Santiago de Compostela, which states:

As we travel the way of pilgrimage, we will need to be able to understand each other's theological language and cultural ethos. We would be assisted in our journeying by inter-contextual dialogues appropriately sponsored by regional ecumenical organizations, and in our interconfessional dialogues by a renewed Faith and Order study on hermeneutics, and new ways of doing theology which provide more adequate tools to express community on the way to the goal of visible unity.

In line with this call to the churches, I would like to explore a more adequate "ecumenical hermeneutics of difference" that would enable churches to understand the diversity encountered in their dialogue at the crossroads. Through the lens of this hermeneutic of difference we can examine specific concerns which embrace both' unity and diversity. Along these lines I will briefly examine the conciliar theme which has occupied much of the recent conversation. Openness to the "permanent newness of meaning" is ultimately grounded in that permanent openness to one another and to God, which is a task of the ecumenical movement precisely because it is a mark of divine koinonia.

Towards a hermeneutic of difference

First, then, the step towards a hermeneutic of difference. No church can today escape the multiplicity of traditions that characterizes the Christian way.(2) Christian communities in the modern and post-modern worlds find themselves living with increasing diversity in expressions of faith, in ever-closer proximity to one another. It is not uncommon today to discover "evangelical" and "catholic" convictions coexisting side by side within the same Christian congregation. Often a single community embraces within its own membership those who find their faith nurtured by charismatic, revivalistic and eucharistic forms of expression. New, complex fusions of multiple cultural and ecclesial forces in more or less stable syntheses are no longer the exception but the rule, at both the local level and at the trans-congregational levels of ecclesial life. Churches in the ecumenical movement today would do well to attend to the multiple forces and expressions that trace across their religious fields and make themselves manifest in their various places of worship. They might find that what they take to be centres of ecclesial life are already crossroads. And they might discover that ecumenical theology can assist them not so much with constructing a new centre as with mapping the crossroads.