Christian Solidarity

Switzerland's Oscar Cullmann, professor of early church history and New Testament at Basel University and one of Europe's top Protestant theologians, was visiting Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary last week, busy with lectures, seminars and informal discussions. The talk that stirred up the most discussion--and brought an unprecedented turnout of Roman Catholic priests to Union--was not on the problems of eschatology and exegesis, for which he is well known, but on the practical problems of Protestant-Catholic relations. Theologian Cullmann reiterated a proposal that has been catching on increasingly in Europe: Protestant and Catholic churches ought to make special gifts of money to each other's poor.

Theological Brotherhood. The split between Catholic and Protestant Christians is an offense to Christ, says Lutheran Cullmann, but it is unrealistic to think that it can be healed now: Protestants are not going to accept the primacy of the Pope, and Catholics are not going to accept unity on any other terms. But the climate of relations between them can be changed. In fact, says Cullmann, that climate has improved considerably in recent years. On the Continent, Cullmann is involved in discussions with Catholic colleagues "almost daily," and there are "many important questions of faith in which we are able to come to theological agreement ... In most cases a spirit of true brotherhood prevails."

Looking for something to deepen the sense of Christian solidarity on the layman's level, Cullmann was inspired by the collection St. Paul made among his missionary churches for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. This, says Cullmann, was not merely an act of charity but was intended by Paul as a "symbol of unity" between circumcised and uncircumcised, Jewish and Gentile Christians. Since unity is not possible today, the offering "would no longer be a symbol of unity, but of solidarity, of brotherhood among all who invoke the name of Christ."

Brothers in Christ. For the past two years Cullmann has been expounding his idea throughout Europe. There have been skeptics on both sides, but more enthusiasts. After one Cullmann lecture in Rome, "a monk who did not make himself known placed a bank note wrapped in paper into my pocket. On my way home I discovered that the following words were scrawled on the paper: 'From a Catholic monk for a poor Protestant in Rome as a symbol of Christian solidarity.' I delivered the sum to the dean of a small Waldensian seminary in Rome ... He spoke to his students about this gift, and they, quite spontaneously, took up an offering among themselves from their modest means and sent the total to the abbot of a large cloister in Rome with the request that it go to someone in need."

If this practice were widespread among the churches, Professor Cullmann feels that "it would change the atmosphere of the relations between Catholics and Protestants completely, and the importance of this question of atmosphere cannot be overestimated ... If we could become accustomed to considering our separated brothers as brothers in Christ, many things would change."

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