ERA 7 <<
Reference: Gonzalez, volume 2, chapters 36
† 25.1.1 Underlying factors
· Originated with missions: Because of cooperation in missionary activities, there were movements seeking further collaboration among various churches by the end of 19th-c.
· The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) [1895]—It was to coordinate different Student Christian Movements in different countries.
·
World
Missionary Conference in
· Charismatic movement: Beginning in the late 1950s, the charismatic movement spread within mainline denominations and the Catholic Church. The similarity in its emphasis facilitated the rise of ecumenism.
† 25.1.2 Quest for unity
· International Missionary Council (IMC):
o
Formation:
The
o
Meetings:
The IMC met in
·
Faith
and Order Conference:
o
Formation:
The 1910 meeting also explicitly excluded matters of faith and order, which included
the beliefs of churches, their understanding and practice of ordination,
sacraments, etc. The objective was to work towards the reunion of divided
denominations. The Anglicans proposed a separate meeting on faith and order.
The First World Conference on Faith and Order gathered in
o
Meetings: At
the conference, it was decided not to seek unanimity. The document would stress
those points on which agreement had been reached, and then clearly stating
those other points on which differences still remained. It was felt that their
agreements were much more significant than the disagreements. A Continuation
Committee was appointed under William Temple, archbishop of
·
Life
and Work Conference:
o
Formation:
It grew out of collaboration in missionary activities. It was concerned with
the relation of Christian faith to social, political, and economic questions.
Its objective was to seek common responses to contemporary problems on the
basis of the gospel. The first conference was in
o
Meetings:
The conference appointed a Continuation Committee. The second conference met in
† 25.1.3 World Council of Churches (WCC)
·
Formation
in Amsterdam [1948]—During the war, networks of Christian gave
support to the
·
Other
assemblies: There have been 8 more assemblies:
· Support for socialist agenda: WCC has turned to the left socially, economically, and politically, making salvation earthly and physical rather than spiritual. Since the 1960s, the delegates began to insist on speaking about issues of peace and justice. The theme “Salvation Today” [1973] was interpreted as the “humanizing of society” to free man from all forms of oppression and to create a new society on earth.
o
o
o
· Problems of the WCC:
o
Weak on doctrine: The movement often sacrificed sound theology for structural union
based on the lowest common denominator. Orthodox doctrines are sacrificed for
inclusiveness.
o
Dominated by the left: Evangelization gives way to radical political and social revolution
which leads to left leaning policies and becomes an instrument of socialism and
communism.
† 25.1.4 Global Missions
· “Three selves”: The purpose of missions has always to found indigenous and mature churches in various parts of the world. Among Protestants, the goal has often been expressed in terms of the “three selves”: self-government, self-support, and self-propagation.
· Indigenization or contextualization: They sought to look at the whole of Christian theology from an entirely different perspective than the traditional one, taking account of different perspective in its cultural setting as well as the social and economic struggles of the oppressed. The objective is to build a native church that fits well into the indigenous culture (with genuinely native worship, community life, education, and values), not an imported westernized Christianity with western-style practices.
o Japanese: Waterbuffalo Theology by Kosuke Koyama
o Chinese: Third-Eye Theology: Theology in Formation in Asian Settings by Choan-Seng Song
o
o
† 25.2.1 Interdenominational cooperation
· Plan of Union [1801–1852]: This was the cooperation between Congregationalists and Presbyterians to meet the shortage of pastors on the frontier.
· American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions [1810]
† 25.2.2 Non-denominational cooperation
· The American Bible Society [1816]—distribution of Bibles
·
American Sunday School
· American Tract Society [1824]—distribution of Christian literature for evangelism
· Anti-Slavery Society [1833]—support the abolition of slavery
· Student Volunteer Movement [1866]—support evangelistic effort
· Gideons [1899]—distribution of Bibles
· Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) [1927]—provision of Christian training for university students
· Youth for Christ (YFC) [1945]—support evangelistic effort
† 25.2.3 Organic reunion: National Intraconfessional
· Basis of union: These are organizations that joined denominations with similar backgrounds of theology, polity, and rites.
·
·
·
United
·
United
·
·
† 25.2.4 Organic reunion: National Interconfessional
·
Federal Council of Churches (FCC)
[1908]—liberals, 30 denominations in the
o
The Social Creed [1908] (adopted by the Methodist
Episcopal Church) urged the churches to support social needs such as the
abolition of child labour, the establishment of a minimum living wage, and
provision for arbitration in industrial disputes. Because of this social
emphasis and weak theological foundation, liberals have been able to seize and
hold the reins of leadership firmly.
· National Council of Churches (NCC) [1950]—liberals, reorganized from the FCC, 25 Protestant and 4 Orthodox denominations, not including Southern Baptists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Pentecostals
·
American Council of
· National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) [1943]—conservatives
·
Protestant Federation of
·
Federation of Churches in
· British Council of Churches [1942]
† 25.2.5 Ecclesiastical confederations: National interconfessional
· Structure: In the federation, the cooperating units maintain their sovereignty but cooperate to achieve ends of common interest.
·
United
·
·
·
·
United
·
United Church of
† 25.2.6 Ecclesiastical confederations: International intraconfessional
· Anglican Church Lambeth Conference [1867]—conference of all Anglican churches in the world, represented by 38 primates from 38 regions
·
World
· World Methodist Council [1881]
· International Congregational Council [1891]
·
Baptist World
· Lutheran World Federation [1947]
† 25.2.7 Ecclesiastical confederations: International interconfessional
· World Council of Churches (WCC)—It is the largest international and interconfessional ecumenical organization in the world. However, it is moving in the liberal direction.
·
Reaction
to liberalism: In response to the left-leaning WCC, conservatives
founded the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC) [1948] in
· World Congress on Evangelism [1966]—It was sponsored by Christianity Today, meeting of 1,200 evangelicals from around the world to discuss and pray concerning world evangelism. The relevance, urgency, nature, problems, and techniques of Bible-centred evangelism was discussed.
·
International
Congress on World Evangelization [1974]—Lausanne Movement—This is the response of the
conservative Christians to the WCC. It aims to “unite all evangelicals in the
common task of the total evangelization of the world.” The first inaugural
congress was held at
o
Infallible Scripture: “We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both
Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only
written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only
infallible rule of faith and practice.”
o
Support social action: “Although reconciliation with man is not reconciliation with God, nor
is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation,
nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both
parts of our Christian duty.”
o
Against injustice: “The message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon
every form of alienation, oppression, and discrimination, and we should not be
afraid to denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist.”
o
Culture & Christianity: “Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture. Because man is
God’s creature, some of his culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because he
has fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel
does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates
all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness, and
insists on moral absolutes in every culture.”
·
Chinese
Congress on World Evangelization (CCOWE) [1976]—This organization
operates under the Lausanne Movement and tries to coordinate evangelizing
effort among Chinese Christians. The first congress was held in
† 25.3.1 New directions
· Problems of liberalism: Liberal theology challenged the foundation of Christianity in many ways, including: [1] the universal nature of Christianity, [2] the absolute God known through His propositional, verbal, inerrant revelation inspired by the Holy Spirit, [3] the global validity of the inspired objective historical revelation about Christ. They favoured subjective, imminent, and humanistic approaches to the gospel.
· Recent disputes: Contemporary theological disputes centred around the nature of the church, Biblical inspiration and inerrancy, the role of the Holy Spirit in the church, and eschatology.
† 25.3.2 Liberation Theology
·
Origin:
In
· Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez (1928– ), and Uruguayan Juan Luis Segundo (1925–1996)—They are the leaders of liberation theology. The perspective was to look at the entirely of Christian doctrine and life from the perspective of the poor who are being empowered by God “from below”. The Christian orthodox belief was interpreted in a radically new fashion because of the missing elements.
·
Conference
of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) [1955]—It was founded within
the RCC to examine continent-wide questions as to the mission of the church. In
the Medellin Conference [1968], the bishops rejected both capitalism and
communism. They committed to the cause of justice, and called on Christians to
take the side of peasants and Indians in their struggle for dignity and better
living conditions. In the Puebla Conference [1978], the bishops reaffirmed
their earlier stance. But liberation theology was interpreted as a threat to
the established order, or as “Marxist theology” which is an oversimplification.
There were violent confrontations in
· Main teachings: [1] Liberation theology makes no claim to be “universal theology” and claims that it is just for the current Latin American situation. [2] It rejects the idea of a universal theology, claiming that the idea if a perversion by abstract Greek thought. Timeless truths are static and, in the long run, sterile. [3] Liberation theology is critical of all western theologies. Traditionally, ethical though and practical action were to be deduced from the theological foundation. Liberation theology has a different approach. It starts with the concrete Latin American situation of oppression and the need for active involvement, and then moves into theology. [4] Major themes in theology are reinterpreted in light of the real situation. Salvation is reinterpreted in terms of political liberation. The central thesis of the Bible is social justice, the salvation of the poor. The Exodus account is used as a Biblical basis for resistance against the prevailing government. [5] The “anonymous Christianity” of Rahner means that all who are open to their neighbour in love actually know God. [6] The church cannot be politically neutral and must be committed to the poor. It is to manifest liberation visibly to the world.
· Errors: These are attempts to solve the problems of man in history through efforts of autonomous man and an immanent God in a human Christ. They emphasized the liberator Christ but not the revealed Word of God. The eternal gospel is divorced from revelation and is contextualized by relating it to temporal culture. Man’s sinfulness and spiritual salvation are ignored. Hope is not for eternal life through Jesus Christ, but the worldly hope of helping to shape the future. It is a deviated gospel. In all these, they do not do justice to God, Christ, or the Bible.
† 25.3.3 Different perspectives of churches
· Perspective of the North: the great issue is the East-West confrontation between capitalism and democracy (West) and communism and totalitarianism (East)
·
Perspective
of the South: the main issues are the search of an economic order
that will not continue to impoverishing the
†
25.3.4 Recent divisions due to disagreements
·
Baptists:
Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the
·
Anglicans:
In the
· Presbyterians: The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) has progressively adopting liberal policies, including: [1] the revision of the names given to the Trinity [2006], making them gender-neutral (such as “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier” or “Mother, Child and Womb”), and [2] the acceptance of practicing homosexuals as ministers. In 2007 alone, about 5% of the congregations left PCUSA and joined other Presbyterian denominations.
·
Future
divisions: The problem of ordination of homosexual people as
pastors has plagued other mainline denominations as well, including the
† 25.4.1 Characteristics of Evangelicalism
· Definition: Evangelicals are those who hold to the historic doctrines of Christian faith, including the Bible as God’s Word, the deity of Christ, and salvation by faith and not works. They owe much to Puritanism and Pietism. Because the name evangelical implies “good news”, evangelicals believe strongly in evangelism.
o
European definition: In
· Beliefs: [1] The Scripture is the inspired, infallible rule of faith and practice. [2] Human depravity came from the original sin as a result of Adam’s Fall. [3] Christ is God, came from virgin birth, completed vicarious atonement, and resurrected in a body. [4] A new birth and a life of righteousness become a reality through faith in Christ. [5] Proclamation of the gospel is the main duty of Christians. (An increasing number are also involved in social action.) [6] Biblical criticism, evolution, and social gospel must be rejected.
·
Eschatology:
Evangelicals are divided concerning the nature of end-time events. Most are
premillennialists; some are dispensationalists. In 19th-c, nondenominational
conferences concerning prophecy on the second coming of Christ met in
Swamscott, Massachusetts [1876], followed by meetings in New York [1878], and
in Niagara [1893–1898]. The 5 points of fundamentalism were usually linked with
the 1895
· Denominations: In North America, evangelical churches include the Baptist churches, the Pentecostal churches, some denominations that came out of the mainline churches (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Presbyterian Church of America), and some smaller denominations (Christian & Missionary Alliance, Free Methodist Church).
† 25.4.2 Increase in the number of Evangelicals
·
Growth:
The 20th-c has seen regional revivals, including Kenya and Uganda [1930],
Ethiopia [1964] with 100,000 converted, Timor, Indonesia [1965] with 200,000
converted, Korea with 20% Christian. In the West, revivals occurred in
· Decreasing attendance: For the last few decades, there has been a clear trend in church attendance—persistent decline in liberal mainline churches. 5 liberal national churches had their attendance decreased by 5% to 15%. The more liberal the denomination, by most people’s definition, the more they were losing. One national church actually lost half of their members since 1960.
· Increasing attendance: In contrast, there has been a general trend in increasing attendance in evangelical churches. Between 1990 and 2000, 5 conservative national churches had their attendance increased by 5% to 57%. Research shows that orthodox Christian belief is the single best predictor of church participation.
·
·
Third
World: In the
† 25.4.3 New directions in Evangelicalism
· Televangelism—Evangelism through mass media:
o
Growth: In
the late 1970s and the early 1980s, evangelical work in radio and television
grew enormously. A widespread phenomenon called “the electronic church” was the
result. Today, they reached an audience of 50 million each work and received
millions of contributions every week.
o
Origin: It
was pioneered by Charles Fuller’s “Old-Fashioned Revival Hour” and Walter
Maier’s “Lutheran Hour”. Billy Graham’s “Hour of Decision” was first on radio,
then on television. Later additions included Pat Robertson’s “700 Club”, Jerry
Falwell’s “Old Time Gospel Hour”, and Jim Bakker’s “PTL Club”.
o
Controversy:
While it is still popular today, it was tainted by the downfall due to moral
lapses of televangelists Marvin Gorman [1986], Jim Bakker [1987], and Jimmy
Swaggart [1988].
· Social involvement:
o
Moral Majority
[1979–1989]: This movement was organized by Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) to defend
moral values and to support conservative economic and social policies. The
Christian Coalition [1988], founded by Pat Robertson, aimed to influence the
governments to protect the institution of the family.
o
Liberals:
The liberal evangelicals issued the Chicago
Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern [1973]. It stressed on the
demonstration of love, the defense of social and economic rights of the poor
and the oppressed, the condemnation of racism and materialism. It also
expressed repentance for past evangelical indifference to social and economic
issues. However, the problem with liberals is their relativism with regard to
moral issues like abortion and homosexuality.
o
Conservatives:
The conservative evangelicals issued the Lausanne
Covenant [1974] which affirms that “evangelism and sociopolitical
involvement are both part of our Christian duty.” They are not incompatible and
are both important. These include both social assistance and social action.
Further, a 1982 report from the Grand Rapids Conference (
†
25.4.4 Evangelical para-church organizations
· Para-church organizations: These are organizations outside churches; they cooperate with most of the denominations, offering a variety of services or ministries.
· Youth Work:
o
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship [1923]: reaching youth with the gospel,
sponsoring the student missionary conventions at
o
Campus Crusade
[1951]: promoting a more aggressive type of evangelism and discipling process
for converts.
o
Youth for Christ [1943], Youth Life [1941], Torchbearers [1947].
· Adult Work:
o
Christian Businessmen’s Committee International [1931]: helping businessmen in
evangelizing their colleagues and in developing their own spiritual life.
o
International Christian Leadership [1954]: reaching political leaders in
government with the gospel and to support them spiritually.
o
L’Abri, Switzerland [1955], founded by Francis Schaeffer: reaching upper-class intellectual
drop-outs and disenchanted students with the gospel, presenting challenges at
high intellectual and philosophical level.
o
Evangelism Explosion [1960]: founded by James Kennedy in the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church
in
· Social support:
o
World Vision International [1951] established by Bob Pierce: supporting orphanages in many
countries; providing food, medicine, and shelter for refugees from war and
natural disasters.
o
Teen Challenge
[1958] founded by David Wilkerson: reaching young drug addicts and gang
members.
· Distribution of Bibles:
o
Gideons
[1898]: placing copies of the Bible in hotels, motels, schools.
o
Wycliffe Translators [1942]: translating the Bible in new languages; sponsoring missionary
linguists who have reduced tribal languages to writing, then translating parts
of the Bible.
o
New translations: New American Standard Bible [1971], New King James Version [1982], New
International Version [1984], English Standard Version [2001].
· Publishing:
o
Evangelical publishers: Eerdmans Publishing Company, Zondervan Publishing House, Baker Book
House, Channel Press, Word Books, Tyndale Press, Moody Press.
o
Periodicals:
Christianity Today [1956, founded by
Billy Graham], Moody Monthly, First Things, Touchstone, Pro Ecclesia,
Books and Culture, Modern Reformation, New Oxford Review, World
Magazine [1986].
†
25.4.5 Diversity of evangelicals
· Evangelical separatists: They do not cooperate with non-evangelical groups and are not involved in social action. The leaders include Bob Jones, Carl McIntire, John Rice. McIntire organized the American Council of Christian Churches [1941] and the International Council of Christian Churches [1948].
· Evangelical establishment—conservative evangelicals: The proclamation of the gospel is the highest priority but without excluding social action, mainly directed to moral questions. The leaders include Carl Henry, Harold Lindsell, Francis Schaeffer, Chuck Colson, Albert Mohler. The group includes the scholarly Evangelical Theological Society, the periodical Christianity Today [1956], and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Originally, it includes the National Association of Evangelicals but the association has been recently dominated by liberal evangelicals.
· Moderate evangelicals or neo-evangelicals: They raise questions concerning verbal inspiration and inerrancy and believe that Biblical criticism can be profitable. Some engage in dialogue with liberal and neo-orthodox ecumenical groups. Some accept theistic evolution. The leaders include Harold Ockenga of the Fuller Seminary, Bernard Ramm, and Jack Rogers.
· Liberal evangelicals: They favour social action on poverty and hunger, oppression, world peace, and environment, but less on moral questions. They advocate increased participation in the political process to promote social justice. They support liberal thoughts such as feminist theology and elements of liberation theology. Their leaders include Ronald Sider (pacifist, Mennonite), Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis (Sojourners magazine). Their representative periodical is Christian Century [1900].
† 25.4.6 Evangelical Theologians
·
Gerrit Berkouwer (1903–1996)—Dutch Reformed: He wrote 14 dogmatic studies
in systematic theology. To him, theology must always relate to the Bible and to
the needs of the pulpit. However, he holds a less conservative position on the
infallibility (or inerrancy) of the Bible. He emphasizes the humanity of the
Bible and believes that some elements in the Bible should be considered when
studying the Bible: the languages, the literary forms, and the circumstances of
the times in which they were written.
· Helmut Thielicke (1908–1986)—German Lutheran: His major works are Theological Ethics [1955] and a 3-volume systematic theology entitled The Evangelical Faith [1968–1978]. His major objective is to relate the gospel to the contemporary world. If faith is real, it must result in obedience, thus the importance of ethics. Ethics must also consider our political, social, and economic lives.
· Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984)—American Presbyterian: He was famous for his apologetics growing out of his passionate concern for truth. For him, truth is a system coherently expressed in the reliable words of Scripture. Christianity is a system that is open to verification. His books have a prophetic function of pointing out the sorrow and pain at the heart of modern culture. He also warned evangelicals about the dangers of theological liberalism and neo-orthodoxy. His famous trilogy: Escape from Reason [1968], The God Who Is There [1968], and He Is There and He Is Not Silent [1972] challenged the moral and epistemological relativity in modern Western culture.
· Carl Henry (1913–2003)—American Baptist: He wrote in many fields but was famous in apologetics. He explained the two tasks of apologetics as refutation of non-Biblical alternatives (including naturalism and subjectivism), and defense of Christian revelation (including propositional revelation, the authoritative and inerrant Bible, and the doctrine of God). He was most disconcerted with the continuing disunity of evangelicalism. His greatest influence and legacy is perhaps his founding editorship of the evangelical journal Christianity Today [1955–1968].
· John Stott (1921– )—English Anglican: He has been widely regarded as the modern spokesman of evangelicalism. He is a versatile theologian, holding expertise in many different fields, particularly in Biblical exposition, apologetics and ethics. He wrote a long list of widely read books, including the famous Basic Christianity [1958]. His main commitment has always been the centrality of the Bible. He warned about the dangers of depending on reason or tradition in seeking truth. His deepest concern is in Biblical preaching and evangelism. In theology, he emphasizes the cross. In ethics, he emphasizes social concern by Christians. With Billy Graham, he has been leading and helping the founding of the Lausanne Movement.
· James Packer (1926– )—English Anglican: He is a wellknown writer on systematic theology. He has been a strong defender of historic Christianity, emphasizing the use of Scripture as the supreme norm of faith and practice. He objects to viewpoints of non-Christians, Roman Catholics, and modernists through well-balanced arguments. His books Knowing God [1973] and Keep in Step with the Spirit [1984] stress the importance of applying our knowledge of theology in daily lives. Despite uncompromising stance, he always writes in an even-tempered and gracious manner. Recently, he has publicly opposed the liberal tendencies in the Anglican Church.
· Donald Bloesch (1928– )—American Lutheran/Presbyterian: He has wide-ranging interests and wrote books of different fields in theology. His major work is the 7-volume Christian Foundations [1992–2004] on systematic theology. While his theology is based on evangelical theology, he also tried to find a middle way between liberalism and fundamentalism. He introduced a spirit of ecumenical cooperation by his appreciation of the traditions in the RCC. He believes in greater cooperation between Protestants and the RCC, perhaps even an eventual reunion.
· Thomas Oden (1931– )—American Methodist: He was educated in the tradition of liberal Christianity. In 1976, while reading theological works from 5th-c, his theological position shifted drastically to conservativism. He called his theology paleo-orthodoxy or classic orthodoxy because he discovered that most of the modern questions had already been addressed by ancient exegetes. His 3-volume Systematic Theology [1987–1992] traces the development of theology from the ancient church. His books on Biblical exegesis and pastoral counselling are also based on ancient Christian writings.
|
[1] treasure our heritage |
Both
evangelism and social concern are important elements of the gospel. |
|
[2] appreciate God’s providence |
God
raised up evangelicals to recognize the fallacy of the WCC. Classic ecumenism
of spiritual unity and cooperation is practiced. |
|
[3] avoid past errors |
Decline
and breakdown of mainline churches is mainly caused by compromising or
abandoning the Word of God. |
|
[4] apply our knowledge |
We
should use modern technology to extend the |
|
[5] follow past saints |
Para-church
organizations work for the advance of the universal church, not just for
self-interest. |
● Should we support and participate in the modern ecumenical movement, such as the World Council of Churches? Is the emphasis of the WCC on political questions Biblical?
o
The unity of Christians was taught by Jesus and
emphasized by the NT. So ecumenical movement as the quest for Christian unity
is Biblical. However, the type of unity that should be emphasized is spiritual
unity of a similar objective: to fulfil the Great Commission and to extend the
o The WCC is an attempt to develop an institutional unity which is not clearly warranted in the Bible. The problems that have gradually arisen show that the direction is perhaps wrong.
◦ In order to arrive at relative doctrinal unity, the minimum commonality was applied. If any doctrine was opposed by a small minority, it was abandoned. This allowed the possibility of mixing orthodox churches with heretical churches.
◦ The accusation by the West of WCC being influenced by Marxists may be overblown but not completely unfounded. There were evidences of Marxist support of WCC. The pursuit of social justice and international peace was in name noble enterprises. But once the agenda was dominated by radicals, WCC became a voice for liberalism and liberation theology.
◦ The main problem of liberation theology is equating salvation from sin with liberation from oppression. The gospel then became a secondary objective that was often not stressed.
o The political emphasis of WCC therefore corrupted the original intention of spreading the gospel to the whole world. It was Biblical in theory but unbiblical in practice (for their misguided emphasis).
●
Should we support movements to unite different
denominations, such as the
o Like the ecumenical movement, the objective to unite different denominations was well-intended. The problem is that such unions involved compromises both in doctrine and practice.
o The development of the United Church of Canada has been a demonstration of how a church created from such a union becomes corrupt. Some recent moderators of the national church have denied basic doctrines of Christianity including Jesus’ resurrection. It also started denying the Bible and ordaining practicing homosexuals.
o
On the other hand, some unions of denominations
with similar doctrine and practice may work out, such as the union of the
● What are the meanings of North-South and East-West confrontations?
o Perspective of the North: The great issue is the East-West confrontation between capitalism and democracy (West) and communism and totalitarianism (East).
o
Perspective of the South: The main issues are
the search of an economic order that will not continue to impoverishing the