Theology Today - Vol 15, No. 2 - July 1958 - BOOK REVIEW - The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches

281 - The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches

The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches
By Edward Duff, S.J.
339 pp. New York, Association Press, 1956. $7.50.

This is an important and remarkable book. The book is important because it is the most comprehensive and objective study available on the nature, the history, the authority, the social philosophy, and the social policy of the World Council of Churches. The book is noteworthy in that is comes from the able and irenic pen of a Jesuit priest.

Father Duff is editor of Social Order, a monthly journal of the Institute of Social Order which is a social research group sponsored the Jesuit society in the United States. In the course of his preparation for this book, Father Duff spent a great deal of time in the Geneva headquarters of the World Council of Churches. He consulted many, if not most, of the American leaders of the Protestant ecumenical movement. His study is based upon truly monumental and painstaking research.

The book is friendly in spirit and deeply understanding of the purpose and the dynamic of the World Council of Churches and of the several movements which preceded it. The pages are full of references to and citations from records and reports of a considerable number of ecumenical meetings prior to and following the establishment of the World Council at the Amsterdam assembly in 1948, including such conferences and assemblies as the following: "Life and Work" meetings at Stockholm in 1925 and at Oxford in 1937; student conferences at Vadstena in 1895, Amsterdam in 1939, Oslo in 1947; "Faith and Order"

282 - The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches

meetings at Lausanne in 1927 and at Edinburgh in 1937; the important Edinburgh conference in 1910; the IMC meeting in Madras in 1938; as well as various study department conferences and meetings of the Central Committee of the World Council between the Amsterdam and Evanston assemblies.

The chapter headings suggest the scope of this study: 1. The History of the World Council of Churches; II. The Nature and Authority of the WCC (an excellent discussion of the "membership philosophy" of the fellowship); Ill. The Social Philosophy of the World Council of Churches (a useful discussion of the sources of social criticism, the roots of law and justice, the pattern of Christian society, eschatology and ethics, and the contributions of various leaders of Christian social thought); IV. The, Social Policy of the World Council of Churches (discussing the disorder of society, the economic and political organization of society, the responsible society, communism and capitalism, corporate Christian influence on society, and the international order); V. Conclusions (ecunienism as, a "third way," inherent difficulties and future concerns, a summary of achievements).

In the foreword, Father Duff states that the book is not a theological study. Inevitably, however, the discussion of what went on in various ecumenical meetings, and the interpretation of ecumenical papers on social subjects, are bound to include a good deal of theology. In these presentations, which make up a sizable portion of the book, Father Duff proves himself a sound theologian and an exceedingly fair and sensitive analyzer of theological ideas and opinions. Thus he discusses Dr. Oldham's distinction between "the ethic of inspiration" and "the ethics of ends"; the differences between Bishop Anders Nygren and Karl Barth: as representing the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, on the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ; the influential views of Archbishop Temple; the legacy of the nineteenth century theologians such as Schleiermacher, Ritschl, Kant; the ideas of such contemporaries as Brunner' Niebuhr, Bennett, and Visser 't Hooft; to name just a few of many possible examples.

The book is especially rich in its discussion of the World Council's thought in relation to the present great areas of social concern the sources of social disorder, economic and political problems' aspects of the responsible society, the differences and tension between communism and capitalism, the relation of Church to society, problems of the international order.

The book concludes with an eight-point summary of the achievements of the World Council of Churches. This section perhaps could have been more usefully expanded and elaborated.

283 - The Social Thought of the World Council of Churches

The discussion throughout is thoroughly and accurately documented, as we already have indicated. The list of primary and secondary sources back of the study is impressive. It should also be said that Father Duff reveals a remarkable capability for being fair to the genius of Protestantism.

We not only heartily commend and recommend this amazing volume; we would also hold it up as an outstanding example of an honest and, we believe, successful attempt to achieve objectivity and understanding across the lines that divide us into Catholic and Protestant groups.

In this day when much of what is being written and said about Protestant-Catholic relations is polemic and highly critical, and often far short of being objective, it is refreshing, and we hope promising of the future, to have a volume of this sort in our hands. That the first major careful study of the nature and work of the World Council of Churches should come to us through the instrumentality of a priest of the Roman Catholic Church could be a lesson for many of us.

Clifford J. Earle
The Witherspoon Building
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania