THE QUEST FOR CHURCH UNITY

Matthew Spinks has given years of his life and much of his energy to the ecumenical movement, and he distills the fruits of these labors into four meaty chapters in this short book, originally the Carew lectures at the Hartford Seminary Foundation. The first chapter is worth the price of the book to anyone who wants a concise history of the ecumenical movement; to it Spinka appends his evaluation of the ""Una Sancta"". Then come two surprising chapters wherein an ecumenist says the unexpected: that the movement has really uncovered problems in theology and polity which seem insurmountable. Laymen, teachers and preachers will all enjoy the careful and fair contrast of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant approaches to these problems, and especially the quotations from substantiating sources. The author pinpoints the irreducible difficulties. Spinka's thesis is that by failing to face up to these problems, the ecumenical movement is not getting very far, for the big breakthrough for which everyone is waiting is not going to happen. The book makes interesting proposals about how unity can begin on a limited scale, with admittedly provisional results, by at least going as far as the pragmatic situation permits.