Trice, Michael Reid

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Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 42 After 50 Years: The Living Spirit of VaticanII Article 259-1-2012Ecumenical, Interreligous and Global: the Future isLutheran Buddhist?Michael Reid TriceFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationTrice, Michael Reid (2012) "Ecumenical, Interreligous and Global: the Future is Lutheran Buddhist?," Conversations on Jesuit HigherEducation: Vol. 42, Article 25.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol42/iss1/2544 ConversationsIn October Christians will begin a “year of faith,”to mark the 50th anniversary of the SecondVatican Council (1962-1965), whereby theCatholic church started a process of soul-search-ing in “the first gathering together… of the wholemystical flock of our Lord,” as Pope John XXIIIdescribed it. Amid monumental challenges, theCouncil redefined what it meant to be Catholic inthe modern world. Numerous documents were created,including the 1965 pastoral constitution on The Churchin the Modern World, the drafting of which framed theecumenically foundational 1964 Decree on Ecumenism.Clarity on the nature of the Church in the 20th centuryprepared the ground in an ecumenical quest forChristian unity. Protestant communities, which had had a muchlonger effort for ecumenical unity, responded to Vatican IIwith enthusiasm. As a result, an increased global engage-ment in bilateral and multilateral dialogues has markedthe last fifty years. In terms ofworld Christianity, these dialogues— from Anglican-Methodist toBaptist-Roman Catholic – not onlyboth hit their mark for fortifyingecumenical global conversation,but also largely missed the target interms of the reception and integra-tion of these very dialogues intolocal communities back home,including colleges and universities. In areas where thereception of these dialogues lagged, some wonderedwhat formal ecumenical dialogues hoped to achieve inpractical terms, and for whom. In the mid-1960s in the United States, growing num-bers of professional ecumenists within Catholic andmainline Protestant communities were forging ahead informal dialogues. Yet the spirit of grass-roots ecumenicalattention in colleges and universities was more engagedin cooperating alongside significant revolutions takingplace within society. These included civil rights effortsand protests against the U.S. presence in Vietnam. A further difficulty arose that remains unresolvedfifty years later. Walter Cardinal Kasper coined thephrase “two-speed ecumenism” to describe this difficul-ty. If the first speed represents local and national dia-logues, then this was perceived as less relevant to the so-called second speed of dialogues that the Vatican initiat-ed with global conciliar entities. This problem of dualspeeds compounded an earlier issue of credibility forwell-coordinated dialogues in local, national and inter-national contexts.Two speedsCardinal Kasper was right to use the two-speed ecu-menical image. However, today we perceive this difficul-ty in different terms. The real issue today is the credibil-ity of an ecumenical approach in the 21st century. PopeJohn Paul II recognized this issue of credibility in his1995 encyclical, Ut Unum Sint, where he hoped to stokeecumenical hopefulness about theultimate aims of Vatican II. In thetext, the Supreme Pontiff asked theChristian world to discover anew,with him, how he might exercise hisoffice as a sign of unity in a way thatis “open to a new situation.” In short,Ut Unum Sint was a bold invitation toconversations between the Pope andChristian communities, about thefuture of Christian unity in its new historical context.Only a few appreciated the courage of this encyclical.Instead, a growing public interest focused on broaderinterreligious engagement. The laity grew less concernedwith seeking Christian unity through formal dialoguesand became more interested in immediate interreligiousresponses to the serious social ills in the world. There can be noecumenism worthyof the name withouta change of heart.Ecumenical, Interreligious and Global The future is Lutheran Buddhist?By Michael Reid TriceMichael Reid Trice is assistant dean of ecumenical andinterreligious dialogue at the School of Theology andMinistry at Seattle University.1Trice: Ecumenical, Interreligous and Global: the Future is Lutheran BuddPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2012Conversations 45Furthermore, in 2012, fifty years after Vatican II,the context has changed dramatically. First, mainlinedenominations in the United States are shrinking and/orthey are embroiled in debates about sexual mores.Second, ecumenical councils at the local, state, nationaland international levels are under duress due broadly tothe widening gap between financial obligations and ashrinking constituency. As a consequence, conciliarorganizations, such as the U.S.-based National Council ofChurches, have to re-imagine their future within morelimited constraints. And third, as professional ecumeni-cal offices and church councils shift their focus toinclude interreligious engagement, the initial quest forChristian unity gets sidelined in the larger conversationabout religious diversity. One might think that the ecu-menical speed for the 20th century needs refitting for the21st, but this isn’t so. What must take place is a reassess-ment of the quest for Christian unity within a changingglobal landscape. For Jesuit colleges and universities, this is a verybright moment. The decrees of General CongregationThirty-Four of the Society of Jesus encourage ecumeni-cal and interreligious commitment in a global context.This directive aligns well with a university contextbecause students represent a demographic today thatthinks less about ecumenical doctrinal considerations,and more in terms of encountering faith embodied in thelives of others. Even as a broad category, students todayconsider their core identities in hybrid or hyphenatedterms, between religions that appear more porous. When I taught at Loyola University in Chicago, I recallone of my students who spoke with me after class ofbeing a Lutheran even as she simultaneously spent yearsas a practicing Buddhist. She understood her core identi-ty as Lutheran-Buddhist within the liminal and relationalhyphen between traditions. This student represents manystudents in Jesuit colleges and universities today whowere raised under the cultural mantra of diversity. Theyinterpret multi-culturalism and religious pluralism as therule rather than as an exception. These same students res-onate deeply with the Ignatian spirituality of self-aware-ness (examen), effective love (love through action) andvarying expressions of spiritual direction. For over seven years I served as one of the ecumeni-cal executives for the Evangelical Lutheran Church inAmerica. Today I serve alongside exceptional faculty asthe assistant dean for ecumenical and interreligious dia-logue at Seattle University’s School of Theology andMinistry (STM). A recent initiative highlights the pro-found quest for depth in people’s lives. Our school hostsan annual Search for Meaning book fair. This year over2,500 students and members of the community pouredonto the campus to hear poet Mary Oliver, Father JamesMartin and forty other authors speak on themes of self-awareness and spiritual focus. Next fall, in a new lectureseries ‘Faith and Values in the Public Square,’ we haveasked a well-known economist (who is Christian) to dis-cuss the value of hope in the midst of stifling forms ofpersonal debt, including student-loan debt, that affect allcommunities of faith today. People are obviously look-ing for new depths of meaning. In our intentionally ecu-menical context, these robust efforts contribute to ecu-menical and interreligious engagement with globalimplications. A key theme within the foundational Decree onEcumenism is often overlooked; and we need frequentreminders to embrace it: “There can be no ecumenismworthy of the name without a change of heart.” A“renewal of the inner life” is what is necessary for suchchange. Jesuit colleges and universities are the fertileground for such changes of heart. With renewed ecu-menical approaches, we can help students to understandthe nature of religion itself and to develop an interior lifethat keeps apace with relevant questions in a religiouslypluralistic world. Ecumenical, interreligious and global: Jesuit collegesand universities are the best centers to convene seriousecumenical and interreligious conversations The Jesuitcharism of “holy restlessness,” for intentional ecumenicaland interreligious dialogue has more potential than fewothers can claim today. ■Students expand their educational experience by studying abroad.Loyola University New Orleans. 2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 42, Iss. 1 [2012], Art. 25http://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol42/iss1/25

Ecumenical, Interreligious and Global: the Future is Lutheran Buddhist?

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Ecumenical, Interreligous and Global: the Future is Lutheran Buddhist?

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