Jurjen Zeilstra, European Unity in Ecumenical Thinking, 1937-1948.

Arnold, John

Zoetermeer, Boeckencentrum, 2002, 471pp.

"The vivid awareness that the identity of the Christian church can never coincide with a nation or a limited group of nations will save the European churches from their self-centredness and enable them to function as leaven for the benefit of the particular continent in which they are placed and in the history in which they are so deeply planted. European federalism and ecumenicity are both children of the same century, their histories are intertwined" (p.409). This quotation gives a fair indication of the scope and central concerns of this useful and thought-provoking book, which with its detailed scholarship and extensive bibliography will be an essential work of reference for all who are interested in the development of the European idea and of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century.

It is not, however, bedside reading. Indeed, it has all the disadvantages as well as advantages of books which retain the characteristics of a doctoral thesis. One advantage is the well-structured approach. Zeilstra begins with the loss of European unity, the development of exaggerated forms of nationalism and the triumph of the two great anti-Christian and totalitarian ideologies of fascism and bolshevism in the inter-bellum years 1925-39. The Stockholm, Oxford and Beau Sejour conferences of 1925, 1937 and 1939 all drew on lessons learned from the first world war, and produced a body of ideas and a network of contacts which were to prove invaluable through the dark years 1939-45. Chapter 2 looks at the war years in "Geneva Perspective" and reminds us of the astonishing ability of the World Council of Churches, still only "in process of formation", to maintain contacts and further human and theological thinking in a time of crisis. The key role was played by Willem Visser 't Hooft, and indeed the book's cover illustration contains some deeply evocative and typical notes in his handwriting of a conversation with the German resistance leader Adam von Trott zu Solz: "Federation--no absolute sovereignties-no national armies--freedom of choice systems yet within limits--customs union--minorities protected--Britain both in federation and empire".

Chapter 3 on "A British Perspective" picks up the problems and opportunities for Britain, poised uneasily between continental Europe, its own empire (about to become through rapid de-colonization the British commonwealth) and the United States. Could it form a useful bridge, or must it always, in times of crisis, choose between one and another? These questions are still acute today. Moreover Anglicans, like Bishop Bell and V.A. Demant, tended to take at least some elements of natural theology for granted, whereas continental Protestants, especially but not only Karl Barth, treated it with suspicion of even hostility. This reserve may help to explain why there were no Protestants among the architects of Western European unity in the 1950s, and why the churches of the Leuenberg fellowship are still making such heavy weather of the subject.

If it was the Reformed ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr whose theological approach was closest to that of the Britons, then it was the Presbyterian John Foster Dulles who contributed most in practical terms to the American perspective (ch.4)--not because he was a profound theologian, but because of his access to real political power. Zeilstra is critical of the role played by the policies of Dulles (and indeed by the rhetoric of Winston Churchill) in the hardening of cold-war attitudes and thus in making pan-European solutions impossible for fifty years, but he fails to take account of the expansionist intentions of the Soviet Union, the presence of the Red Army in more than half of Europe and the subjugation of the satellite states.

The most interesting chapter, modestly entitled "Other Contributions", brings in the German perspective (with Bonhoeffer standing the test of time) and the views of half a dozen smaller countries, which began by having the most to gain from federation but which under occupation experienced a resurgence of nationalism.

Every time an answer was reached at the theological level, the question changed at the politico-military level as a result, for example, of the unexpected shift of the Soviet Union from axis to ally, the adoption by the Allies of the policy of unconditional surrender, the division of Europe through the cold war, the speed of Franco-German rapprochement and the volatility of American involvement--added to the constant lack of clarity about both "federalization" and the definition of "Europe".

One of the disadvantages of the book is that the period 1939-48, while suitable for a thesis, is simply too short for a real story to emerge. The chapter on "Post-War Ecumenical Approach" goes, in a rather sketchy way, beyond Amsterdam 1948 to Evanston 1954 and the founding of the Conference of European Churches in 1959. Then there is a gap of forty years (arguably the most important period both for Europe and for ecumenism) until a final chapter looks at the relevance of the earlier material for the 1990s and beyond. This, the most readable chapter in the book, is a valuable essay in its own right.

Fortunately, Zeilstra provides admirable summaries of the earlier, denser chapters. He would put us further in his debt if he were to publish a version of these six summaries plus the whole of chapter 7 and insert a new chapter on the years 1948-98, bringing in the contribution of the post-conciliar Roman Catholic Church.

The author emerges as a convinced panEuropean federalist and I think he would approve of the commitment, expressed by the European churches in the Charta Oecumenica 2001, to a united Europe not so much of common markets as of common values.

Dr John Arnold, OBE, is dean emeritus of Durham and a former president of the Conference of European Churches.