The True Church and Morality: Reflections on Ecclesiology and Ethics.

Jersild, Paul

Duncan Forrester, The True Church and Morality: Reflections on Ecclesiology and Ethics. Risk Book Series 74. Geneva: WCC Publications, 1997. Pp. 96. $9.75, paper.

This book by Forrester, dean of the faculty at New College, University of Edinburgh, comes out of the World Council of Churches' Ecclesiology and Ethics study project. It is prompted largely by the high visibility gained in recent years by hard ethical choices with which churches have been struggling, which Forrester believes - in spite of the potentially divisive effects of such a struggle - have actually created a new sense of solidarity and unity in the church. He writes for the laity, encouraging his readers to become involved in the ongoing debate.

In a very brief but readable manner the author begins by discussing the Bible and ethics and the history of the ethical involvement of the church in society. The emphasis lies on the church as the nurturing community and formative matrix for Christian ethics, as well as the challenge for the church to demonstrate in its own life the justice, reconciliation, and unity that it proclaims and seeks in the world. A recurring theme is that the church is literally defined and grows through moral struggle as much or more so than through doctrinal clarification and evangelism. This subject is related explicitly to the ecumenical movement, with the recounting of the history of the W.C.C.'s involvement with societal issues. Forrester allows for the W.C.C.'s failure to develop a consistent and carefully developed social teaching, but at the same time he commends its speaking out for the "silenced" masses, expressing the outrage and expectations of the victims of oppression.

A strong feature of the book is its emphasis on the importance of worship, not only for the koinonia of the church but for its social ethics as well. Forrester draws out the implications of the sacraments for social action, asserting that "[t]he practice and the theology of baptism and eucharist cannot be separated from their ethical content, any more than Christian ethics can retain its authenticity if detached from the Christian community and its practice of worship." While referring appreciatively to Stanley Hauerwas's stress on the church's being the church as its "first social ethical task," he also takes issue with Hauerwas's skepticism concerning the church's role in making the world "more peaceable and just."

Forrester echoes many themes in current Christian ethics, relating them particularly to the ecumenical church. This book is both an apology for the social involvement of the W.C.C. and a handy primer on the church's ethical life and task.

Paul Jersild, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, SC