Theology Today - Vol 25, No. 1 - April 1968 - BOOK REVIEW - A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948

139 - A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948

A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948
Edited by Ruth Rouse and Stephen Charles Neill
838 pp. Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1967. $10.00.

In 1954 there was published A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948, edited by Miss Ruth Rouse and Bishop Stephen Neill. It was a large-scale comprehensive symposium in which distinguished contributors covered virtually every phase and aspect of the movement for Christian co-operation and reunion, particularly as that movement developed in the period between the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the meeting of the World Council of Churches at

140 - A History of the Ecumenical Movement 1517-1948

Amsterdam in 1948; and it took rank at once as an authoritative exposition of its subject.

In view of the fact that this 1954 volume has been out of print for several years, and the further fact that there is a widespread and continuing demand for information concerning its subject, a second edition has now been issued. It is mainly a reprint of the text of the 1954 book, the only changes being the correction of errors of fact and the addition of new titles to the comprehensive bibliography.

It might have been expected that this new edition of the book would seek to describe the major developments-some of them highly exciting -which have taken place in the Ecumenical Movement since 1948---e.g., the Consultation on Church Union which has started in the U. S. A. since 1960, the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961, and the dramatic change in the Roman Catholic attitude from haughty aloofness to earnest involvement, due primarily to the initiative of the late Pope John XXIII. But none of these post-Amsterdam developments is dealt with in this edition. The Foreword states that the World Council has set up a new Committee on the History of the Ecumenical Movement. This Committee is preparing a second volume which will cover the main ecumenical developments since 1948, including the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1968. This new volume, which hopefully will be published late in 1969, will undoubtedly be eagerly awaited by all who are interested in this significant aspect of the recent history of the Christian Church.

Norman V. Hope
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey