Edmund Schlink - The Ecumenical Dogmatics

The Ecumenical Dogmatics

From this work came, at various stages, a long list of articles and books. The most important is his Ökumenische Dogmatik 1983, second edition 1997. A unique work, it presents Schlink’s scholarly reflections on Christian dogmatics in a clear systematic format, with considerable sensitivity for teachings common to the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches, and shows a way forward in the manifestation of church unity through "mutual recognition." In the ÖD he repeatedly states, “All churches teach....” This type of dogmatics is new. It grew out of his wartime experience of Christ in other Christians and in diverse churches, and out of decades of dialogue within the World Council of Churches and with representatives of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Schlink also published a novella, Die Vision des Papstes 1975 (The Vision of the Pope 2001), about the personal experience of an imagined modern Roman Catholic pope, who underwent a deepening of his faith and a change in his understanding of the church and his ministry.