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The book begins by describing how Duchrow’s career began in the 1960s, during which great hopes for a better future emerged.
The foreword, penned by former WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, describes Duchrow as widely known in the global ecumenical community for having struggled tirelessly for justice and the transformation of the capitalist economic system. “What is less known is his dedicated work as a pastor and ecumenical networker, his reputation among students as an academic teacher and innovative researcher, and finally his ability to reflect strategically on ecumenical action,” writes Raiser.
In close collaboration with African Lutheran churches and drawing on the legacy of Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church, Duchrow developed the concept of “confessing discipleship.”
Raiser adds that this perspective served initially as the theological basis for the declaration of the Lutheran World Federation status confessionis regarding the apartheid regime in South Africa. "Subsequently, it became the theological reference point for the growing criticism of the global economic system”, he writes.
Duchrow was present at a defining moment for ecumenical social ethics: the WCC 6th Assembly, in Vancouver, Canada, in 1983. He helped launch the WCC conciliar process for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation. The book describes how, during the 1980s, in part as a WCC consultant, he accompanied that process and watched its language and vision take hold across the worldwide church in all its social forms, including ecumenical grassroots movements.
The book illumines how the process unfolded across all church families, leading to a clear confession of an economy of life against imperial capitalism in the period from 2003 to 2013.
“I consider it an event of church-historical significance that, after 30 years of critical work at international level, all church families have rejected imperial capitalism and are working on proposals for an economy in the service of life,or, to put it another way, for an economy for people,” Duchrow writes.
Part intellectual biography, part reflection on the struggles of ecumenical social theology and witness, the book traces the ecumenical movement’s engagement with the questions that confront us anew in a very dangerous political situation: justice, peace, and the survival of creation.
As Duchrow notes in his concluding paragraph: “At the end of these considerations, my advice for all social forms of the church from the local to the international level, is to participate more actively in efforts to connect the environmental, justice, and peace movements.”
Translated by Elaine Griffiths, the publication was made possible through support from the World Council of Churches, the Council for World Mission, Lutheran World Federation, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
