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- Title
80 Years of the World Council of Churches: Theological, Political and Societal Ambiguities.
- Authors
Besier, Gerhard
- Abstract
The journey of the World Council of Churches (WCC) [der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen or ÖRK] from 1948 to 2018 is a clear reflection of the great hopes that many people placed in the creative power of Christianity in the post Second World War years. However, despite its promising new beginning, it soon became apparent that the WCC was not able to maintain its course of being a committed, bridge-building neutral body in the face of Cold War hostilities. Increasingly, the Council fell under the influence of those socialist concepts claimed by »real existing Socialism« in the Eastern Bloc as its own. It was not only the increasing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as churches from the so-called »Third World« countries as they were known at the time, that contributed to this reality, but also the social change and upheaval caused by various freedom and emancipation movements. At the same time, large scale secularisation, the breaking up of the Christian environment and the loss of binding religious beliefs steadily reduced a large part of the Christian churches' earlier influence over various societies. Against the background of this erosion of belief, it comes then as no surprise that the WCC sank into a state of almost total insignificance at the beginning of this pragmatic century after it had so unequivocally assumed a prophetically-political left-wing positioning in the years between 1966 and 1989. From a theological point of view, the question remains of whether a commissioning of theological figures for political purposes was, and is, inevitable.
- Subjects
WORLD Council of Churches; POLITICAL theology; SOCIALISM &; Christianity; HISTORY
- Publication
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte: Internationale Zeitschrift für Theologie und Geschichtswissenschaft, 2017, Vol 30, Issue 2, p294
- ISSN
0932-9951
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.13109/kize.2017.30.2.294