Week of Christian Unity: Day 1: Peter Kreeft

Hello!

So it's the week of prayer for Christian unity, starting today and ending this Sunday. A bit of reflection will tell you what this is about:

Last year when I was living in the Faith and Leadership House, our campus participated in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We said some prayer (there was an official one at Mass and later on, and a taize service on Thursday that FLH people were strongly encouraged to attend.) But here's the thing, is that nobody really did anything else to further the cause. There wasn't really any theological dialogue on campus or even much of an attempt to define the phrase "Christian Unity" (one could argue that perhaps the official prayers given gave some shape to a definition, but there was very little discussion, if any, even of that definition.) Now I do not mean to suggest that prayer is at all inefficacious. That is not the case. I do mean to suggest that in times and places where peoples' actions, in the direct sense at least, make a difference, that we shouldn't expect God to do all the work without working through us.

It was with last year in mind that I noticed just yesterday that the week was happening again this week, this year. I think it was The Deacon's Bench that reminded me. I started thinking it would be kind of cool to do a series of posts or links to posts or essays others had written, on the subject of Christian unity. And I was talking to someone from my old home church, and just decided on a whim to ask him if he'd be willing to contribute something for a series; he did! I bugged my old roommate, and he was up for it. I've bugged a few other people. If everyone who hasn't said yes says yes, and everyone who says yes does stuff in time, the week should be pretty chock full of interesting perspectives on the issue.

First up on the docket is a speech from Roman Catholic apologist/philosopher Peter Kreeft, called Ecumenism without Compromise. Note that though it is audio, you can find a transcript of it. Later on in the week I'm going to try and write something a little more specific on the subject of how I've experienced unity and dialogue, but Kreeft has expressed here the perspective I have found myself most in-tune with, especially as a Protestant who's going Catholic.