One Faith: Biblical and Patristic Contributions Toward Understanding Unity in Faith

Rating:
Summary: Patristic and scriptural unity
Review: THis review by Lucian Turcescu is very informative.

The author has distinguished himself as an active participant in ecumenical dialogue for the Vatican Council of Christian Unity. Henn's argument revolves around the notion of "unity in faith" defined as "the miracle which God works when the human beings who comprise the Church respond with humble intelligence and obedient will to the gentle inspiration of God's revelation and grace in such a way that communion comes to be" (p. 3).

The first two sections of the book survey the notions of faith and its unity as treated in Scripture and patristic literature respectively, and the third section explores the implications of this investigation. Both the Old and the New Testaments are analyzed with a similar pattern of questions: first, inquiries into the terminology of faith; second, profession or professions of faith which may be discerned in each of the two Testaments; third, concrete issues of unity in faith. Henn proposes that the Old Testament faith is the faith of a community, the unity of which is guaranteed by Israel's monotheism and its covenant with God. In the New Testament, under the influence of polemics against Docetists and Gnostics, "the confession of faith has shifted from a simply positive proclamation about the identity of Jesus to a correct understanding of the proclamation" (p. 58). Among the factors accounting for unity in faith in the New Testament are common kerygma, dialogue, charisms and ministries, written texts, and leadership. Avoiding the "Bauer thesis" according to which "orthodoxy" was only that particular doctrinal position which eventually gained hegemony over the others, Henn acknowledges the position of Helmut Koester, a Bauer advocate, according to whom "creed and faith, symbol and dogma are merely the expressions of response to this Jesus of history." The latter thesis accommodates both unity and diversity of faith in the New Testament.

The second part the book discusses faith and its unity according to the patristic literature. From the pre-Nicene writers, Henn considers Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. In the post-Nicene era, Henn considers the following Greek writers: Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret of Cyrus, and among Latin writers, Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine of Hippo. Henn's method when dealing with patristic writers is more simplified than when treating the Scripture. No longer analyzing terminology, he examines only texts which deal with faith and its unity in the Church. To map out the route through the patristic authors, Henn uses as his main guides I. Escribano-Alberca's Glaube und Gotteserkentniss in the Schrift und Patristik (1974) and Dieter Lührmann's "Glaube" (in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum). Henn sometimes refers to the most recent critical editions of patristic writers (e.g., Sources chrétiennes); yet, when quoting the text in English, he uses translations such as those in the Library of Ante-Nicene Fathers and the Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers or Roy Deferrari's translation of Basil of Caesarea's Letters, translations made from pre-critical editions and containing mistakes.

Given the extremely large scope of the book, Henn is unable to provide an in-depth analysis of unity of faith in the Fathers. Moreover, he is sometimes inclined to present a rather idealized vision of this unity. For instance, he states that both Athanasius of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea rallied around the Nicene creed (pp. 125, 130). This is only partially true, if one takes into account the fact that only during the last part of their lives did these two Fathers realize the importance of the Nicene creed and its catchword (homoousios) for orthodoxy. Also, during the last decade of his life, Basil demanded from those who wanted to be in communion with him the explicit confession of three hypostases in God. Henn does not mention this element, although he alludes to Basil's trinitarian theology. Neither is he willing to sacrifice his Roman Catholic perceptions for the sake of historical accuracy when approaching the issue of the primacy of Rome in the patristic period (pp. 224-25).

The third part of the book attempts to apply the results of what has been presented before to the ongoing ecumenical dialogue. Claiming that "our most authoritative documents from the past more presuppose unity in faith than reflect upon it explicitly" (pp. 198f.), Henn suggests that, in the age of "healing of divisions in faith," we should not simply repeat what we find in these sources about faith and its unity, but rather be able to render an account of what is the unity in faith that we seek. The book has a rich bibliography in the endnotes and a good name index. A thematic index would have been much appreciated, too.

Despite several flaws, One Faith brings into focus a phrase whose meaning is hardly agreed upon in modern ecumenical dialogue. The way in which the topic is approached makes the book even more worthy of consideration for biblical and patristic scholars, as well as for those involved in the ecumenical dialogue.