J. H. Oldham and George Bell

J. H. Oldham and George Bell PDF Author: Keith W. Clements
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506470017
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book introduces the life and thought of two British contemporaries who were decisive in shaping the modern ecumenical movement: the Scottish layman J. H. (Joe) Oldham (1874-1969) and the Anglican bishop G. K. A. (George) Bell (1883-1958). Their careers were rather different but closely related. Oldham was a missionary statesman, the organizing secretary of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, and a pioneering thinker and writer on race and social ethics who set the agenda for the crucial ecumenical conference on Church, Community, and State at Oxford in 1937. A quiet, skillful diplomat, he was the decisive mind behind the formation of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Bell was the public, prophetic voice of the ecumenical fellowship from the 1930s onward, steadfastly leading the churches' support for the Christian opposition to Hitler in Germany, tirelessly working for refugees and all victims of oppression, and after the war pioneering the work of reconciliation. After the inauguration of the World Council of Churches in 1948, he served as the first chairman of its central committee. It was widely believed that he would have become Archbishop of Canterbury but for his courageous and outspoken opposition to the British and American policy of bombing civilian populations during the war. The book outlines the life and main engagements of each figure in turn, and then provides a selection of their key writings to illustrate their thinking and their impact on ecumenism. A final chapter reflects on their pioneering significance and their relevance today.

J. H. Oldham and George Bell

J. H. Oldham and George Bell PDF Author: Keith W. Clements
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506470017
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book introduces the life and thought of two British contemporaries who were decisive in shaping the modern ecumenical movement: the Scottish layman J. H. (Joe) Oldham (1874-1969) and the Anglican bishop G. K. A. (George) Bell (1883-1958). Their careers were rather different but closely related. Oldham was a missionary statesman, the organizing secretary of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, and a pioneering thinker and writer on race and social ethics who set the agenda for the crucial ecumenical conference on Church, Community, and State at Oxford in 1937. A quiet, skillful diplomat, he was the decisive mind behind the formation of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Bell was the public, prophetic voice of the ecumenical fellowship from the 1930s onward, steadfastly leading the churches' support for the Christian opposition to Hitler in Germany, tirelessly working for refugees and all victims of oppression, and after the war pioneering the work of reconciliation. After the inauguration of the World Council of Churches in 1948, he served as the first chairman of its central committee. It was widely believed that he would have become Archbishop of Canterbury but for his courageous and outspoken opposition to the British and American policy of bombing civilian populations during the war. The book outlines the life and main engagements of each figure in turn, and then provides a selection of their key writings to illustrate their thinking and their impact on ecumenism. A final chapter reflects on their pioneering significance and their relevance today.

The George Bell-Gerhard Leibholz Correspondence

The George Bell-Gerhard Leibholz Correspondence PDF Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474257682
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
George Bell was one of the most significant British church leaders of the mid-20th century and in many ways he came to define the involvement of British church people with the issues which arose from the Third Reich. Gerhard Leibholz, a brother-in-law of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was one of the most senior German lawyers of the period, a refugee from Nazism who would become a founding father of the new constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. The two figures first encountered each other in the context of dictatorship and exile and in a brilliant, sustained collaboration over many years they fashioned a vigorous moral response to the crises of Nazism, Soviet communism, total war and cold war. This volume contributes fundamentally to our understanding of the ethical, religious, legal and political debates which Hitler's regime provoked. It also brings to life a vivid picture of the realities of exile and the networks of support which were active internationally in the great refugee crisis of these momentous years. With its wealth of primary source material, previously unavailable in English, this book is an important contribution to the historiography of the Third Reich and will be of great value to scholars and students of Nazism and international history.

A Grain of Faith

A Grain of Faith PDF Author: Allan Hepburn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192563653
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
During and after the Second World War, there was a concerted thinking about religion in Britain. Not only were leading international thinkers of the day theologians--Ronald Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Jacques Maritain--but leading writers contributed to discussions about religion. Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, and Barbara Pym incorporated miracles, evil, and church-going into their novels, while Louis MacNeice, T. S. Eliot, and C. S. Lewis gave radio broadcasts about the role of Christianity in contemporary society. Certainly the war revived interest in aspects of Christian life. Salvation and redemption were on many people's minds. The Ministry of Information used images of bombed churches to stoke patriotic fervour, and King George VI led a series of Days of National Prayer that coincided with crucial events in the Allied campaign. After the war and throughout the 1950s, approximately 1.4 million Britons converted to Roman Catholicism as a way of expressing their spiritual ambitions and solidarity with humanity on a world-wide scale. Religion provided one way for writers to answer the question, 'what is man?' It also afforded ways to think about social obligation and ethical engagement. Moreover, the mid-century turn to religion offered ways to articulate statehood, not from the perspective of nationhood and politics, but from the perspective of moral action and social improvement. Instead of being a retreat into seclusion and solitude, the mid-century turn to religion is a call to responsibility.

Meeting the Global Crisis

Meeting the Global Crisis PDF Author: David Clark
Publisher: Sacristy Press
ISBN: 1789593034
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
There is no chance of humankind surviving and flourishing unless we come together as a global community of communities. This book puts forward the unique contribution of Christian faith to the potentially terminal challenges currently facing our world.

A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Volume 2

A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Volume 2 PDF Author: Harold C. Fey
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606089102
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 593

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Book Description
Volume 2 (1948-1968) first appeared in 1970. It covers the history of the World Council of Churches from its first assembly at Amsterdam to its fourth assembly at Uppsala, Sweden; analyzes the development of regional ecumenical organizations; and recounts the impact of the Second Vatican Council on the ecumenical witness of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Moot Papers

The Moot Papers PDF Author: Keith Clements
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567663310
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 759

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Book Description
The Moot was the study and discussion group set by J.H. Oldham (1874-1969) following the 1937 Oxford conference on "Church, Community and State". Its purpose was to continue, in an informal but serious way, exploration of the relation between church and society and the realization of Christian ethics in the public sphere. The Moot met twice or three times a year from 1938 to 1947 (21 times in all) and was convened by Oldham with the conscious intention of responding to the grave crisis that was felt to be facing western society in Britain no less than on the continent of Europe. Overall some 35 people attended the Moot at one time or another, but its core comprised a small number of regular members who were representative of the highest levels in theology, social science and public affairs. In addition to Oldham himself they included T.S. Elliot, H. A. Hodges, Eleonora Iredale, Adolf Löwe, Karl Mannheim, Walter Moberly, John Middleton Murry and Alec Vidler. Other participants included Kathleen Bliss, Fred Clarke, Christopher Dawson, H. H. Farmer, Hector Hetherington, Walter Oakshott and Gilbert Shaw, while notables such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Melville Chaning-Pearce, Donald McKinnon, Philip Mairet, Leslie Newbiggin, William Paton, Frank Pakenham (later Lord Longford), Michael Polanyi and Oliver Tomkins made occasional "guest appearances". Against the background of impending and then actual war, the discussions in the Moot repeatedly focused on the "planned" nature of modern society and therewith the roles (if any) within it of moral choice and the Christian community.

The George Bell-Alphons Koechlin Correspondence

The George Bell-Alphons Koechlin Correspondence PDF Author: Andrew Chandler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350047015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
George Bell was one of the most significant British church leaders of the mid-20th century and in many ways he came to define the involvement of British church people with the issues which arose from the Third Reich. The George Bell-Alphons Koechlin Correspondence, 1933-54 presents the extensive correspondence between Bell and a leading Swiss pastor and President of the Basel Church Council, Alphons Koechlin. The letters of Bell and Koechlin make an important contribution to our understanding of ways in which the unfolding history of the Hitler regime was interpreted in an international context from its earliest months in 1933 to its final destruction in 1945. In presenting the letters, this book captures a sustained meeting of European minds, thinking together in the midst of a crisis that was altering the conventional perimeters of politics and religion, and by degrees changing the life of the whole European continent - and drawing British politics into its vortex. This volume provides for the first time all the letters exchanged between Bell and Koechlin in their original English, with full scholarly apparatus and connected material. It contributes valuably to the historiography of the Third Reich and develops our understanding of Nazism not simply as an episode in German history, but as a fundamental crisis in international politics, religion and society.

God's Will in a Time of Crisis

God's Will in a Time of Crisis PDF Author: Andrew R. Morton
Publisher: CTPI (Edinburgh)
ISBN: 1870126270
Category : Church and the world
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description


Robinson Crusoe tries again

Robinson Crusoe tries again PDF Author: Werner Ustorf
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647604445
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The Christian experience in modern Europe is fragmented. It shows great diversity in various geographical contexts and, historically, a considerable alternation of extremes, high or low tides of engagement. One aspect of the Christianity in Europe's past is its mission history. The spread of Christianity from the West – as one of its most important results – into the continents of the Global South has been deeply ambivalent in character. On the one hand, the mission from the West helped to build the historical foundations for Christian education, "adolescence" and maturation to responsible "adulthood" in a global, diverse, segregated and pluralistic world. As a mature global player, Christianity was in a prime position to contribute to peaceful conflict resolution, in the religious, social and political fields. On the other hand, the darkness and utter insufficiency of the encounter between the European, Christian "self" and the many "others" worldwide brought along problematic projections of different beliefs attacked in a hostile way as "alien" and, inevitably, as "conquered". The consequences, particularly for the "primal other" – the indigenous people – were often disastrous. Werner Ustorf has been a leading missiologist worldwide for thirty years. This book not only analyses the interaction between mission and individual, the construction of the "self" and the "other" in a mission context, but also proves the analytical strength of theology in conceptualizing future Christian experiences in Europe. Ustorf illustrates that apart from traditional dimension of faith, a non-religious interpretation and critical trust in transcendence, is crucial for the formation of the new interculturation of Christianity in Europe. Thus, this book demonstrates how mission history can be transformed to a research concept for a global and pluralistic Christianity.

The Oxford Handbook of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Oxford Handbook of Dietrich Bonhoeffer PDF Author: Michael Mawson
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198753179
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
This Handbook offers an overview of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's (1906-1945) biography and intellectual context; his contributions to all areas of doctrinal theology, ethics and public life; the significance of his thought for some contemporary issues and debates; and an evaluation of some existing resources for studying Bonhoeffer.