Fall 2019 · Vol. 48 No. 2 · pp. 201–203
Book Review
Walking Together: Theological Reflections on the Ecumenical Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace
ed. Susan Durber and Fernando Enns. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2018. 173 pages.
The delegates of the tenth assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Busan, South Korea (2013) issued a call to the churches to join a “pilgrimage of justice and peace.” The pilgrimage is not a specific event or program but rather a motif or metaphor intended to capture the imagination and inspire new ways of working together. As churches walk together, in their various contexts, seeking always to follow Jesus on the way towards the realization of God’s just and peaceful purposes for all creation, it is hoped that they will find new ways of realizing the unity to which Jesus calls his church.
The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace follows in the tradition of other WCC initiatives, such as the Decade to Overcome Violence (the 2000s), the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1990s), and the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation initiative (1980s). A stated goal of this volume is to develop a rich theological and biblical basis for the pilgrimage initiative, in part in response to the criticism that the Decade to Overcome Violence did not exhibit adequate theological and spiritual depth. It is also hoped that this initiative will bring together those in the ecumenical movement who believe unity ought to be sought through dialogue and agreement on divisive issues of doctrine and polity, and those who believe unity is best advanced by working together in service to the world, the perspective most readily identified with an initiative that foregrounds justice and peace.
This book, edited by Susan Durber (moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order) and Fernando Enns (Professor of Theology and Ethics at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands, Director of the Institute of Peace Church Theology at the University of Hamburg and World Council of Churches central committee member), includes thirteen relatively short chapters written by theologians and church leaders from around the world. They effectively show the contextual character {202} of pilgrimage, a concept which resounds throughout the Bible, as well as many confessional traditions and cultures. A pilgrimage is dynamic; insights are discovered through the experience of journeying together. Walking together requires working and living together, and many chapters call for a very broadly inclusive form of church life, especially with those in various margins. It is a reminder that while the life of the church is messy and complicated, the important thing is to travel with Jesus in the right direction.
The strongest contributions develop a focused aspect of pilgrimage or draw explicitly from a particular context. Thus, Mark McDonald, National Indigenous Bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, shows how pilgrimage resonates with Indigenous practices of the Sacred Walk and thus to something essential about being human. For McDonald, the pilgrimage framework calls for a missiological shift away from the church seeking to draw people into its buildings (outside-in orientation) to one along with lines of Luke 10:1-12 where Christians are called to receive hospitality from others (inside to out orientation).
Susan Durber, a United Reformed minister in the UK, writes effectively about the capacity of the pilgrimage to effect more embodied forms of faith. It challenges an undue Protestant focus on faith as an inner and private journey which reflects and reinforces the individualism of Western secular culture. An ecumenism of the body attends very concretely to the needs and cries of the world. However, I wanted to learn more specifically how a literal pilgrimage to a place like Santiago de Compostela, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, is “a practice through which the faithful are confronted by the demands of justice and peace, of unity and healing” (63).
Wati Longchar, Baptist theology professor in Taiwan, names the hope that the pilgrimage will draw churches to walk with those on the margins: persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, Indigenous persons, migrant workers, and women. He reflects on several biblical stories including that of the Syrian commander Naaman and the nameless girl who directs him to the prophet (2 Kgs 5:1-19). Following the prophet’s instructions, Naaman bathes in the river, an act of solidarity with the poorest people who also washed themselves there. Pilgrimage is a call to move to the margins.
The broad scope of the pilgrimage theme is a strength and weakness of the initiative, as well as of this book. The image is adaptable and capable of providing an orienting framework for a range of experiences and exhortations. But it can be difficult to get a sense of just what this initiative might mean concretely. While a few chapters included a paragraph or two about the experiences of actual church communities {203} through the lens of pilgrimage, more and deeper descriptions or case studies would have been helpful.
Weaker chapters at times read like a scattershot series of back-cover blurbs. They commend a good initiative in glowing terms, but without the depth, critical edge, or creativity needed to make it compelling. The collection would have been strengthened by the inclusion of conservative Protestant, evangelical, charismatic, Pentecostal, or nondenominational voices.
Some contributors articulated very different visions of the pilgrimage to which the churches are called (for example, Durber’s critique of the “inner journey” metaphor and Marian Simion’s explication from an Orthodox perspective of the path of the soul to immortality), but the net effect of simply putting them between two covers is to affirm a broad, even banal, diversity without adequate wrestling with tensions or exploring incompatibilities. Is everything a welcome part of the journey? The goal of bringing together “Faith and Order” ecumenism with that which starts from common service would have been advanced by helping readers consider how the pilgrimage relates directly to the ecumenically contentious issues of ecclesiology, ministry, and sacraments. It was surprising that there was little explicit discussion or even acknowledgment about the ways in which issues of justice may be as divisive, or more so, than doctrine, especially around LGBTQ issues and questions of economics.
Beyond those already invested in WCC ecumenism, this collection will be of interest to those who seek brief and accessible insights for preaching and teaching in the church.
