Public theology and unity

One of the most exciting aspects of the unveiling of the Manhattan Declaration was to see Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant leaders in unity present their convictions about freedom and human life in the public square. In particular, the way in which the Orthodox communion expressed theology can teach both Catholics and Protestants how to communicate unity in other areas.

The Orthodox understanding of theology is that doctrine is "not an academic discipline or set of philosophical propositions, but an expression of the Christian life of prayer, both corporate and personal," wrote Mary B. Cunningham and Elizabeth Theokritoff, editors of The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology. As a Protestant submerged in a culture where spirituality is often confused with theological precision, the idea that theology is an expression of personal and communal prayer is foreign. If theology were to be oriented around greater personal and communal prayer it could serve as a healthy basis of greater unity among the Christian traditions.

While the Orthodox openly recognize that theology comes out of the experience of the church, conservative Protestants rhetorically speak of theology coming from the Bible, while using pastors and theologians in their tradition to justify theological correctness. What's the difference? Not much. It is the idea that my theology is "right" because the Bible and John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, and others say so. Since most Christian communions function similarly in practice, I am beginning to wonder why there is not more unity.

The Orthodox "instinct," as Cunningham and Theokritoff explain, is to focus on synthesis rather than on individual strands of thought. Synthesis seems odd to me to because my own theological journey has been one of identifying myself with particular strains. Early on in my life it was John Wesley and later it became John Calvin. My own instincts are more divisive.

Additionally, the Byzantine doctrine of symphony sees the church and state as aspects of one organism because the incarnation of God has salvific implications to all that is human, including various spheres of culture. With the Roman Catholic understanding of subsidiarity and the Protestant understanding of sphere sovereignty, there seems to be great synergistic possibilities on the issue of culture and social justice. The possibilities for an increasing level of unity among Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Christians as we face our culture together is encouraging in light what Jesus prays in John 17.