Ecumenism: New Trends

English

500th Anniversary of the Reformation: Ecumenism as Church and Public Phenomenon in Today’s Germany

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 was held in Ger‑ many for the first time as an ecumenical event. Within its framework, a number of important official church documents about rethinking the history of the Reformation were adopted, common worship services held, and a large number of projects implemented at the region‑ al, national and international levels.

A Typology of Interreligious Dialogue: Analysis of Existing Approaches

The concept of interreligious dialogue can be interpreted in many ways, denoting a wide range objectives, principles and formats of interaction between followers of different religions. The article discusses the classification of interreligious dialogue by various scholars. The article offers a comprehensive description of the main research approaches and allows the reader to get acquainted with the terminology used by the Western experts in this field.

Activists beyond Confessional Borders: The «Conservative Ecumenism» of the World Congress of Families

This article is devoted to the history of the World Congress of Families (WCF) and its interaction with Russian partners. The article begins with a story about Allan Carlson’s trip to Moscow in 1995, where as a result of a meeting with sociologists, the idea of creating a WCF was born. The author then analyses the cooperation between the WCF and the Russian Orthodox Church as an example of so‑called “conservative ecumenism,” which partly replaces classical, more liberal ecumenism, such as that presented by the World Council of Churches.

Whether and How Ecumenism, Anti-Ecumenism, and Conservative Ecumenism are Politically or Theologically Motivated: A View from the United States

The article discusses the phenomena of ecumenism, anti‑ecumenism and conservative ecumenism. The author sets a dual goal. The first is to identify the theological foundations of ecumenism and anti‑ecu‑ menism, and also to analyze conservative ecumenism in this research perspective. The second is to identify the political component of these phenomena. The author analyzes and criticizes the concept of “ecumenical consciousness” proposed by Andrey Shishkov.

Discussing the Concept of «Conservative Ecumenism»

The article continues the discussion of the concept of “conservative ecumenism”, proposed by the author in 2017 to describe conservative Christian alliances in defense of traditional values. Main debates have revolved around the use of the term “ecumenism” in the case of such alliances. The article proposes minimal criteria of being “ecumenical” — those that the author calls “ecumenical consciousness”. The question of whether striving for Christian unity is a necessary criterion of ecumenism is considered.

No. 4 (36) 2018