The Ecumenical Credibility of Christianity

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to emphasize the responsibility of all Christians for the Church, which by virtue of baptism is our common home. The awareness of this truth has a significant meaning in the confrontation of Christian Churches with the modern world, understood as the space for preaching the Word. It is about opposition from the world, which is distinctly marked by the still progressing process of de-Christianization. It leads, in turn, to an increase in secularization, to shaping a life without God, and often also to a conscious resignation of faith in God. Therefore, this confrontation requires the cooperation of the Churches in the field of evangelization, based on new zeal, new motivation, new ways of expressing the Gospel. The fulfillment of this postulate requires an ecclesial examination of conscience in the essential realm of questions: What can be done to make Christianity grow up to the ideal of a community that lives the Gospel? How to be a community that brings the meaning of life, which inspires to bear the fate and responsibility bravely and to express the human solidarity? How to be a community transmitting themes of hope? An attempt to answer the above questions is associated with the indication of the fundamental pillars that constitute the effectiveness of the mission of reconcilation the world with God. Their carrying capacity in relation to a specific historical and social reality depends on the ecumenical credibility of Christianity, which is characterized by a departure from the so-called "static credibility", limited only to the level of theoretical acceptance of ecumenism in favor of the listed practices, conditioning the effectiveness of ecumenical work.