68 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION A dialogue between loci In ecumenical circles, the questions concerning the loci of theology are being raised, too. In this field, practice (especially when joint (liturgical) action is involved) is usually still expected to follow theory. Apparently, the insights underpinning contextual theology have not (yet) sufficiently penetrated this particular theological field. Theologians and other ecumenically committed faithful, for example, struggle with the relationship between the official theological dialogues and the everyday reality they encounter, especially those engaging in forms of shared life and lived ecumenism, that is, a life that confronts the official teaching of their respective churches with serious questions. In a lengthy quote, worth citing in full, theologians of the European ecumenical academic society Societas Oecumenica address this issue: 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. If this be the case, then practice is no longer to be considered the (mere) application of various aspects of ecumenical consensus. Practice itself, rather, must become a locus theologicus. Experiences mutually exchanged (not ‘made’) in ecumenical relations, must be questioned with respect to their theological implications. In as much as they reveal explicit theological insights, these are to be incorporated into the ‘trialogue’ of lived faith (‘basic ecumenism’), taught faith (magisterium) and reflected faith (academic theology as a service to both grass roots theology and the magisterium, be it Episcopal or synodal). 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. Fromour theological perspective, ecumenismof life then becomes communicative theology.176 Johanna Rahner, one of these theologians, adds: 176 Bernd Jochen Hilberath et al., eds., 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, Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2008), 12.
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