30 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION simply be ‘false’ theologically; even though practice should always critically prove itself.68 Bernd Jochen Hilberath agrees with this by referring explicitly to the theological notion of the sensus fidelium: “Precisely in the present situation of the ecumenical movement, there is need to give closer attention to the ‘instinct of faith of the whole People of God’.”69 The Societas Oecumenica explored the concept of an ecumenism of life as genuine contribution to the ecumenical process – and thus as a challenge for academic theology and consensus ecumenism – during its 2006 conference: If ‘ecumenism of life’ does not mean to call upon the Christian communities to ‘finally’ do what they are ‘already’ allowed to do, and if it also does not lead to a tacit toleration of ‘informal ecumenism’, then ‘ecumenism of life’ clearly poses a decisive theological challenge for the ongoing ecumenical movement. (…) Academic theology thus faces the considerable challenge of reversing the (still) common methodology, which can be characterized succinctly as the transition from a hermeneutics of application to a hermeneutics of experience.70 The Societas thus proposes radically reversing the approach to reception in order to complement the classical one-way approach, from consensus at the levels of academic theology and ecclesiastical authority to the life of the church 68 Johanna Rahner, “Ökumene Des Lebens – Zeichen des Stillstands oder Fortschritt für das ökumenische Gespräch?,” in Ökumene des Lebens als Herausforderung der wissenschaftlichen Theologie: Tagungsbericht Der 14. wissenschaftlichen Konsultation der Societas Oecumenica = Ecumenism of Life as a Challenge for Academic Theology: Proceedings of the 14th Academic Consultation, ed. Bernd Jochen Hilberath et al., Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2008), 67. Original text in German: “Das ökumenische Miteinander vor Ort, das geteilte Leben von Christinnen und Christen hat zentralen Anteil an der theologischen Wahrheitsfindung. Was im praktischen Miteinander als ‚wahr‘ erkannt, anerkannt und praktiziert wird, kann theologisch nicht einfach ‚falsch‘ sein; auch wenn sich die Praxis immer wieder kritisch bewähren muss” (translation: FW). 69 Bernd Jochen Hilberath, “Communicative Theology: A New Way of Engagement,” in Where We Dwell in Common: The Quest for Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Gerard Mannion, Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 189. 70 Bernd Jochen Hilberath and Ivana Noble, “Introduction,” in Ökumene des Lebens als Herausforderung der wissenschaftlichen Theologie: Tagungsbericht Der 14. wissenschaftlichen Konsultation der Societas Oecumenica = Ecumenism of Life as a Challenge for Academic Theology: Proceedings of the 14th Academic Consultation, ed. Bernd Jochen Hilberath et al., Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2008), 12; for an elaborate definition of 'communicative theology,' see Hilberath, “Where We Dwell.”
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