The Spirit of Ecumenism: How Wide, How Deep, How Mindful of Truth?
A mailed questionnaire survey of randomly selected New Jersey priests, ministers, and rabbis shows a self-reported increase in inter-faith understanding and personal interest in the beliefs of other traditions, although the clergy do not attribute similar ecumenical advances to their laity. While th...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publications
1979
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| In: |
Review of religious research
Year: 1979, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 180-194 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | A mailed questionnaire survey of randomly selected New Jersey priests, ministers, and rabbis shows a self-reported increase in inter-faith understanding and personal interest in the beliefs of other traditions, although the clergy do not attribute similar ecumenical advances to their laity. While the affirmation of ecumenical themes was widespread and indecisively related to relativism, support for ecumenism did not appreciably affect reported behavior. Few clergy reported reading widely outside their own tradition and few were members of an inter-denominational or inter-faith group. Moreover, Jews and Christians did not even agree on which pertinent religious issues were "significantly divisive." For example, while rabbis did not think that Jews exaggerate the amount of anti-Semitism in the United States, priests did, and ministers were divided on the question. Similarly, Catholics were appreciably more likely than others to deny that a faithful Roman Catholic is supposed to obey just about everything the Pope says. Regarding structural ecumenism (i.e., organizational unity), Catholics were far more optimistic than Protestants. But despite Protestant pessimism about the prospects of church unity, most ministers rejected the use of the term "utopian" to describe ecumenism, and most said that they would be pleased if Protestant or Protestant-Catholic unity eventually occurred. So, a spirit of ecumenism was found to be widely affirmed and generally non-relativistic, but it still is not appreciably linked to actual clergy behavior. |
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| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3509975 |