When ecumenism foments hate

In 2017, La Civiltà Cattolica published an article arguing that American Catholics and evangelicals were engaged in an “ecumenism of hate.” The coauthors, an Italian Jesuit and an Argentine Presbyterian, were both close associates of the late Pope Francis. Their article, highlighting American initiatives such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, argued that such movements perversely utilize the language of ecumenism to propagate ideas that run counter to the gospel. How could ecumenism—once viewed as the way out of centuries-­old schisms and divisions to some kind of understanding—have spawned new kinds of hatred?

Udi Greenberg’s The End of the Schism provides an answer to this contemporary problem by way of a prequel. A historian at Dartmouth, Greenberg provides a historical tour of the ecumenical movement in Europe, focusing on four distinct periods. These periods, constituting the prehistory and phases of the ecumenical movement, delineate the movement’s great success yet also demonstrate the ways in which the seeds of today’s problems were planted at its first flourishing.

Given that missiology and global Christianity are key sources of ecumenical collaboration and tension within the churches today—particularly in places like Latin America, where evangelical missions have upended centuries of Roman Catholic dominance—it is not surprising that Greenberg highlights colonialism within the European roots of ecumenism. In the 19th century, competition among both colonial powers and churches—in Asia and Africa especially—led to poor denominational relations and a desire to improve them. The imperialist “great game” gave way to a patronizing “civilizing mission” that could be shared, sometimes uneasily, across denominations. Only at the end of the period Greenberg highlights did the process of decolonization become an ecumenical cause.