Customer Reviews

The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let us Keep the Feast (Current Issues in Theology)

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George Hunsinger, a Reformed theologian with strong sympathies for the ecumenical heartland of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, does not dabble in ecumenical theology as a side interest, but is driven to it out of necessity. He distinguishes between "enclave theology," (my communion has all the answers), "modern academic liberal theology" (which deracinates theological truth claims) and "ecumenical theology," which he attempts to resurrect. He is too aware of the flaws in his own Reformed tradition to be an enclave theologian, and yet is too aware of flaws in the others, especially the secular academic communion, to jump ship. His cri de coeur revolves around this crucial insight about divided Christianity: "The most urgent and overriding goal... is not self-preservation [institutionally or personally] but reunion."

Guided by this principle, Hunsinger makes a strong Protestant case for the real presence via eucharistic transelementation (for which he provides ample cross-confessional documentation), asks pointed questions that the Reformed, Catholic and Orthodox communions are afraid to ask, sacramentalizes Niebuhr's Christ and Culture schema, and concludes in the realm of art and architecture, without which his proposals can't be fully realized. Hunsinger understands that Mercersburg high church Protestantism is not a personal preference for those into that sort of thing, but an ecumenical obligation.

Drawing on T.F. Torrance, Hunsinger shows that stale critiques of "re-sacrificing" Christ simply will no longer do. "'The action of the supper,' wrote Torrance, 'is not another action than that which Christ has already accomplished on our behalf, and which is proclaimed in the Gospel.' It is rather the very same action in a new and sacramental form. Ecumenical theology after Barth has every reason to exploit this insight." Carefully, clearly, and personally written while drawing on a vast range of historical and contemporary sources, Eucharist and Ecumenism may be, to invoke that tired cliché that is in this case appropriate, "essential reading."

Hunsinger is a clearly a good thinker and did excellent reseach for this book. The book is also well-organized topically. In these ways, it is a "five star" work. Hunsinger writes in such a dry, deadening way that I found it difficult to stay interested. For style, I give it a "one star." Those who love Eucharist and Ecumenism will still want to bear the pain and slog through it.