(6 of 6)
Sittler's speech made no reference to Communism; instead, he concentrated on developing the positive idea that there must be a Christology of all creation—a "cosmic Christology" in which Christ is not set against the facts and processes of nature. "We have had a Christology of the moral soul.'' he said, "a Christology of history. But we do not have a daring, penetrating, life-affirming Christology of nature."
Sittler's speech was a notable launching pad for ecumenical arguments. Dutch Reformed Dr. Hendrikus Berkhoff of the State University of Leiden maintained that to "widen the pattern of our thinking" beyond practical work might endanger church unity. Lutheran Theologian George F. Vicedom of Frankfort was opposed, because whereas "God and Jesus stand over the world, he also stands against the world." The Rev. Thadikkal Verghese, a Syrian Orthodox priest of Kerala. India, was enthusiastic about Sittler's line. "We need to recover the cosmic dimension," he said. "Angelic beings should be reinstated in our theology, even though it might be incompatible with the modern scientific mind. We must recover both the angelic and the demonic."
But Dr. Sittler was talking to the point —the unity of Christians to be had by accepting all creation as Christ's.
"The Church has found a melancholy number of ways to express her variety," he said. "She has found fewer ways to express her unity. But if we are indeed called to unity, and if we can obey that call in terms of a contemporary Christology expanded to the dimensions of the New Testament vision, we shall, perhaps, obey into fuller unity. For in such obedience we have the promise of the Divine blessing. This radioactive earth, so fecund and so fragile, is his creation, our sister, and the material place where we meet the brother in Christ's light. Ever since Hiroshima the very term light has ghastly meanings. But ever since creation it has had meanings glorious; and ever since Bethlehem, meanings concrete and beckoning."
Dr. Sittler's text, from the Epistle to the Colossians (1:15-20), might be the Apostle Paul's memorandum to all Christian meetings:
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
* It was announced last week that a delegation of four, led by Eugene Carson Blake, top U.S. Presbyterian, would visit Russia right after the Assembly to prepare for another official visit of the National Council of Churches.