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Amid commemorations in 2017 of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation unleashed by Martin Luther, the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), offers historical, global and ecumenical perspectives on the Reformation events, and the inspiration they offer to shape the world today.
“The events of 1517 profoundly marked not only what became the Lutheran tradition but also the wider Christian community,” editor Stephen G. Brown writes in the editorial that opens the issue. Understanding the historical diversity of the Reformation movement, he continues, “can help us better understand some of the challenges facing the global ecumenical movement today.”
Questions addressed in the issue include re-evaluating the 16th century events from the perspective of women as active participants; the relationship between Luther’s Reformation and other movements including that of Jan Hus a century earlier and of the historic peace churches; the significance of Reformation insights for the global economy today; and dealing with Luther’s anti-Jewish writings.
Authors include Margot Kässmann, the Reformation ambassador for the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD); WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit and former general secretary Konrad Raiser; Christine Helmer, the editor of The Global Luther; Kwok Pui-lan, author of Postcolonial Imagination & Feminist Theology; and Kirsi Stjerna, author of Women and the Reformation.
Leopoldo Cervantes-Ortiz, Yoon-Jae Chang, and Kenneth Mtata offer insights on the Reformation from Latin America, Asia and Africa. Nikolaos Asproulis discusses the relationships between Lutheranism and Orthodoxy over the past five centuries, while Paulus Chiou-Lang Pan, Ann K. Riggs, and Musa A. Mambula examine the significance of the multiple Reformations for Historic Peace Churches.
This issue of The Ecumenical Review also includes contributions by Archbishop Job of Telmessos and Dagmar Heller on the ecumenical significance of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.
View the Table of Contents for this issue of The Ecumenical Review.
Read a free sample article from this issue: “Putting the Protest Back into Protestant,” by Christine Helmer.
More information about The Ecumenical Review (including subscription information).