| What is unity and how does it serve as a goal for ecumenical dialogue? How can churches, ecumenical organizations, ministers, and theologians effectively approach this goal in the 21st century? Toward a Sustainable Vision of Unity offers a methodological reflection on these questions using insights of contemporary critical theory. With particular attention to the work of Jurgen Habermas, this dissertation develops a framework for exchanging religious narratives in a postmodern context marked by pluralism and ambiguity. Using this framework to address questions that have emerged out of the life of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Toward a Sustainable Vision of Unity argues that unity must be imagined eschatologically in order to achieve inclusive and non-coercive dialogue between diverse Christian communities. Looking ahead to ecumenism in the 21st century, it makes a case for the role of the WCC as a public space for the exchange of religious narratives. |
