Ecumenical ambiguities: The case of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians

Piotr Kopiec

Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Wydział Teologii
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0581-0737

Abstrakt

One of the crucial observations of contemporary Christianity states a shift of its centre to the “global South”. Such a transition is reflected in the demand of the “epistemological break”, the one that stresses the need for applying endemic notions and categories while theologising. The shift is becoming important for the ecumenical movement as a more major role is being played by the Churches and organisations outside the Western world. An assessment of this change would seem to be ambiguous. On the one hand, it increases an
ecumenical dynamism, on the other it brings the danger of an inclusive understanding of ecumenism. The article presents some of the main theological reflections developed within the Ecumenical Association of the Third World Theologians, an organisation that clearly exemplifies the discussed ambiguity. This presentation focuses on the criticism of the socalled “post-religious paradigm” promoted by the association.

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EATWOT, theology, ecumenism, Global South, religious, post-religious