Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 35:138 (Apr 1878)
Article: The Organic Reunion Of Churches
Author: J. P. Lacroix

BSac 35:138 (April 1878) p. 391

The Organic Reunion Of Churches

Prof. J. P. Lacroix

Will such a reunion ever take place? Have we good grounds to anticipate that churches which have once become confessionally distinct will ever, to any considerable extent, be merged again into organic unity? What has been the lesson of history thus far? Is it not of very discouraging purport? Has it not been the fate of the church from the very first century of its existence to the present day to suffer one after another of its members to break off into independence and isolation? And has she ever, to any considerable extent, had the fortune to re-absorb any of the very prominent of these revolted members?

A very interesting discussion of this subject is found in a prize Essay on the Reunion of Churches, by Rev. G. Joss, of Saanen in Switzerland.1 The book begins with a general statement of the whole series of influences that are at play in the general subject of separation and reunion; thereupon follows a careful historical review of the circumstances of the several

BSac 35:138 (April 1878) p. 392

secessions, and of the various efforts that have been made at reunion; and finally, there is presented a judicious survey of the unionistic tendencies that are so widely prevalent in the present day, together with suggestions as to how much and what kind of church reunion may reasonably be expected in the church of the future. Mr. Joss writes in an admirably Christian spirit. In theology he is of the earnest, but mild, orthodoxy of the Rothean type.

In his historical retrospect Mr. Joss has made large use of the two thorough histories of all former reunion efforts, viz. that of A. Pichler (1865) and that of C. W. Hering (1838). Let us cursorily follow him.

First, what are the chief forms of reunion that are practicable? There are several. Where a church assumes that it alone holds to the whole and pure truth, as is the case with the Roman Catholic, then there can be no thought of any other union than an absorptive union (unio absorptiva), the other church being required to give up absolutely its entire individuality. The chief example of this form of reunion is the submission of the Gothic Arians at the synod of Toledo, in 589. This can hardly be called, however, a union at all. It is rather simply the annihilation of one of the parties. A real union can take place only thus: Either both of the parties must give up such of their peculiarities as distinguish them from each other, until finally they shall become identical (which is a unio temporativd), or each is permitted to retain its peculiarities, and yet both agree to hearty intercommunion (which is cal...