Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lukas Vischer (1926-2008) was a Swiss Reformed theologian noted for his ecumenical efforts worldwide.
Ulrich Luz is professor of New Testament studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Christian Link is professor of systematic theology at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany.

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Unity of the Church in the New Testament and Today

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Abbreviations....................................................................................................ixTranslator's Preface.............................................................................................xiIn Memory of Lukas Vischer.......................................................................................xiiiIntroduction Lukas Vischer......................................................................................1PART ONE Difficulties in Looking to the New Testament for Guidance Lukas Vischer................................71. Scripture and Tradition.......................................................................................82. Scripture: Witness of an Active History.......................................................................123. Unity Today...................................................................................................154. Concepts of Unity.............................................................................................18PART TWO On the Way to Unity: The Community of the Church in the New Testament Ulrich Luz.......................29Introduction.....................................................................................................291. Jesus: The Origin of the Community of the Church..............................................................34The Apostolic Age................................................................................................432. The Beginnings of the Church after Easter.....................................................................433. The Beginnings of Ecclesiology................................................................................544. The First Basic Conflict: The Church's Unity with Israel......................................................575. The Church as the Reality of Christ in Paul's Thought.........................................................76The Post-Apostolic Age...........................................................................................916. Developments in the Church after the Death of the Apostles....................................................917. The First Ecclesiological Concepts of Church Unity............................................................1268. The Second Basic Conflict: Church Fellowship in the Controversy with Christian Gnosticism.....................142PART THREE The Unity Movement: Church Fellowship in the Oecumene Christian Link.................................1631. On the Way to Unity...........................................................................................1632. The Church's Unity with Israel................................................................................1793. Flash Points of Unity.........................................................................................1934. Conciliar Fellowship..........................................................................................2355. Church Unity and Missions.....................................................................................245Index of Subjects and Names......................................................................................249Index of Selected New Testament and Other Ancient Texts..........................................................252

Chapter One

Lukas Vischer

All churches appeal to Scripture. They regard it as the necessary foundation of their doctrine and life. They know that they are obligated to listen to its witness.

Should it then not be the case that if the separated churches would examine Scripture together and give heed to its witness in their midst they would remove the barriers to unity? In the course of the ecumenical movement people have often made this assumption. They hoped that going back to the original witness would make it possible to achieve a breakthrough. The common study of Scripture would bring together the representatives of the various traditions. It would, so to speak, have a cleansing effect by making it possible to distinguish between what is primary and what is secondary. Confronting the biblical witness would make visible the true foundation and the appropriate form of the church's unity.

To a degree the assumption proved to be right. Returning to the original witness did indeed often lead to positive results. The ideas of unity that the representatives of various churches brought from their tradition were called into question when they had to be justified in a joint discussion before the witness of Scripture. Thus Protestant Christians discovered anew the significance for unity of the worshiping community, and Roman Catholic Christians had to see for themselves that certain ecclesiastical structures they regarded as an absolute precondition for church unity had not been ordained by Jesus himself but were the result of historical developments. On both sides, working with the biblical witness led to a new emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.

At the same time, however, the assumption was too nave. Looking to Scripture for guidance about unity proved to be much more complicated than was originally assumed.

1. Scripture and Tradition

The inquiry is difficult first of all because the churches are not able to start from a uniform understanding of Scripture and its meaning for the church's life and witness. As much as they regard it in general as a necessary foundation, their ideas differ widely in the details. The meaning and the role of Scripture are circumscribed by differing theological and ecclesiological presuppositions. For example, the different traditions define the relationship between the authority of Scripture and the authority of the church in fundamentally different ways. Scripture also plays different roles in the life of the individual churches. One thinks, for example, of the position Scripture occupies in worship. It makes a difference whether the emphasis lies on the regular reading of selected passages of Scripture or on their interpretation in the sermon.

Thus from the very beginning the presuppositions that are accepted in the various traditions influence the study of Scripture. Scripture does not stand above the differences among the individual traditions as a neutral referee. It is, rather, read and heard unavoidably in the context of each tradition. Of course, it is possible to agree about the proper exegesis of certain texts on the basis of historical-critical study, but when it comes time to interpret the text's original sense discovered by this method in its meaning for the life of the church, the differences in understanding Scripture and its authority come once again to the fore.

The difference becomes especially clear when it comes to defining the relationship between Scripture and tradition. One can read Scripture under the assumption that finally there can be no disagreement between its witness and the church's tradition preserved through the centuries. A special form of this opinion is the claim that the witness of Scripture has been understood in an exemplary manner in the tradition of the ancient church. Scripture can also be understood, however, as a critical court of appeal. It contains the original witness on which the church is dependent if...