Ekumenizm a wielkie religie monoteistyczne

Abstract

The Second Vatican Council, together with their messages and indications made a breakthrough in a number of important issues, especially in interfaith and interreligious relations. Complementing this was the very fruitful and fraught with consequences pontificate of John Paul II with his encyclical Ut unum sint (1995) and with several statements and declarations related to the Roman Catholic Church relations with other Christians and followers of other religions. It is significant that the Pope speaks first about the “dialogic” attitude corresponding to the nature and its dignity and then he refers this attitude to life and ecumenical activities, and above all, to work within the Christian traditions, and then to religions outside of Christianity. All this testifies of the consequences of the opening of the Church to the whole surrounding reality. The author of the article, taking into consideration his research and analytical achievements, especially in relation to emerging opinions as to include into the notion of ecumenism the relationship of the Church to other religions, tries to answer a few questions: such as what is ecumenism (ecumenical movement) in the modern sense of the word and what it reflects in the interfaith and interreligious relations, where among otherwise believers in God were chosen two monotheistic religions: Judaism and Islam. Therefore, in the first part the article outlines contemporary look at the concept of ecumenism as well as at its important parts and among them: overcoming historical obstacles and prejudices, ecumenical dialogue and its effects, the necessity of interfaith cooperation, the prayer, especially the one within the Community and the continual desire for renewal and reform of the Church. The article presents also the current state of the unifying activity. In the second part the author, by asking the question: the ecumenism or interreligious dialogue? tries to answer it by putting another searching question namely if we can equate the ecumenical movement with a religious dialogue, especially the one led by the Roman Catholic Church with Jews and Judaism, as well as with Muslims and Islam. In the third, summarizing part of the article, the author presents several findings resulting from the analysis, and between them such that ecumenism (ecumenical movement) due to the content of the concept and its scope applies only to Christians. However, the “ecumenical” attitude in reference to the followers of other religions allows you to interact and conduct an interreligious dialogue in a manner consistent with the Christian-Catholic identity. It should be emphasized that ecumenical dialogue can serve here only as a pattern, not necessarily leading to a consensus, because the differences in faith between religions are extremely deep. Therefore, you can only talk about interfaith relations and an interreligious dialogue, and not discuss ecumenism, even in a broad or very broad sense, which was demonstrated on the example of the relationship and dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism and Islam.