Ecumenical principles of church reform in the theology of Yves Congar

Abstract

A characteristic feature of the contribution made by the Dominican theologian Yves Congar to the Catholic thought of the 20^th century is the distinct ecumenical openness of the researcher, his theological inclusiveness, his concern for the life of the Church in the modern world, and his prophetic reformist pathos, which were quite naturally combined together with Congar’s deep knowledge and appreciation of the most profound and most valuable layers of the ancient Christian tradition of the undivided Church’s era. The article is based on a detailed review of three basic treatises by Yves Congar in which the author elaborates his ecumenically oriented program of implementing effective and at the same time safe reforms in the Church: (1) Chrétiens désunis : Principes d’un “œcuménisme” catholique, (2) Vraie et fausse réforme dans l’Église, and (3) a two-volume study La Tradition et les traditions (Vol. 1: La Tradition et les traditions : essai historique; Vol. 2: La Tradition et les traditions : essai théologique). The relevance and topicality of this research for the sphere of Ukrainian religious life is determined by numerous crisis phenomena in the life of contemporary traditional Christian denominations, their vague forms of self-understanding and self-presentation, unconvincing rhetoric in communication with a deeply secular world, as well as not always successful and effective horizontal network interaction with the newly emerging full-fledged civil society of Ukraine. Therefore, this study can become an important and appropriate attempt to popularize and emphasize one of the most ambitious, comprehensive, and ultimately quite successful attempts of the 20^th century Church renovation projects, which can be laid as a basis for the process of forming a renewed theological mentality of contemporary Ukrainian Christian communities.