Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HGP Vol XX SpeoialJíumber - 128- (07909)

1968 No 2

lation to the whole problem of coexistence'and to the details of this problem, Vie, too, are convinced that the Biblical basis of the service which the community of the churches performs to further coexistence has been sufficiently uncovered» Therefore we welcome the effort, in the introduction to the report of Section III of the World Conference on Churoh and Society (General Affirmations) to formulate this theological basis, We agree with the contents of the introduction, but we believe that, in speaking about the basis of our service, we cannot be content with tae enumeration of a few theological theses of rather general nature but we must try to get down to the depth of the Biblical message.

To do the latter, the most appropriate approach, as far as we can see, is to take the Biblical message of "cosmic redemption" as the point of departure of our theological scrutiny. The first step in this direction was already made, in the fellowship cf the churches, at the New Delhi Assembly of the World Council of Churches0 We believe that this is to be followed up by a consistent rethinking of the Biblical message, Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the whole cosmos, in the pleranatic sense,, Therefore, it is not in themselves that the facts of the created world and the events^of history have their new meaning for the church, but in their totality, as being in the power sphere of Christ's 'worM-red'eeming death and of his resurrection (Romans 12:2), The church, as the aparcho, firstfruit of the coming oikouij'.ne (oikoumene mellousa; Hebrews 2:5; does not contemplate the world, neither does she relate herself to the world with an un-Biblical pessimism (that is the defect of pietism) but with the assurance that the redeeming love of God revealed in Jesus Christ embraces the whole cosmos« That is not an alien optimism but the Biblical faith that "the fashion of this world passeth away" on the day of redemption. To put it briefly, -it is with reference to "the world to come" that the church "in world" carries on the ministry of

being the salt of the earth (l Cor 7;; 31; 1 John 2: 15, etc), and she obeys in this world her Lard who is also Lord over the world in ord^r that this world be the instrument and foretaste cf the world to come? Both the limits arid the unspeakable possibilities of the church’s so-called political responsibility and of the implementation of this responsibility become visible in this obedient vision.

We have already given an acoount of the findings of our theological scrutiny, for instance, in our contribution to the main theme of the Evanston Assembly of the World Council of Churches, We do not wish to review this contribution in detail; we only wish tq stress the necessity bf drawing a certain consequence which concerns the ecumenical fellowship of the churcheso

If it is from the angle of the cosmic significance of Christ's redeeming death and resurrection that the churches view and interpret their responsibility and service for solving the problems of the world, then the content, meaning and urge cf the so-called "ecumenical consciousness" and "ecumenical responsibility" ’widen out and their hitherto conventional meaning becomes enrichedo