Justice, Peace, Economy of Life

Prof. Dr Ulrich Duchrow, theologian, social ethicist, and long-time activist, was present at a defining moment: the World Council of Churches 6th Assembly, in Vancouver in 1983. Together with figures such as Konrad Raiser, he helped launch the conciliar process for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC). Through the 1980s, in part as a WCC consultant, he accompanied that process and watched its language and vision take hold across the worldwide church in all its social forms, including ecumenical grassroots movements.

In this book, translated from the German, Duchrow looks back on that journey, illuminating how the JPIC process unfolded across all church families, leading to a clear confession of an economy of life against imperial capitalism in the period from 2003 to 2013. Part intellectual biography, part reflection on the struggles of ecumenical social theology and witness, it traces the ecumenical movement’s engagement with the questions that confront us anew in a very dangerous political situation: justice, peace, and the survival of creation.

Appearing just after the ecumenical movement marked the 100th anniversary of ecumenical social action since the 1925 Stockholm Conference, this is a vital witness to where we have been—and where we must still go.

Acknowledgement

Foreword to the English Edition

Foreword to the German Edition

1. Progressive Perspectives for Society, Churches, and Theology: The 1960s

The Team of the Interdisciplinary Institute FEST

The Marxism Commission

Discussions between Theology and Natural Sciences

Peace Research and the Peace Movement

Outlook

2. The Lutheran World Federation—Ties with the Confessing Church Tradition: 1970–77

The Department of Studies

The Challenges of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights (Project Area III)

The Challenges Posed by Marxism in Different Cultural Contexts, Especially in China (Project Area IV)

Shape and Identity of the Church, Sent into the World to Respond to the Challenges (Project Area I and Ecclesiology Study)

Confessing Christ—in What Form of the Ecumenical Movement?

3. Ecumenical Grassroots Work for Just Structures: 1978 and Onward

Parish Work in Denzlingen

Regional Office for Mission and Ecumenism in North Baden

At the Faculty of Theology at Heidelberg University and at the Hearing on the International Financial System

The Ecumenical Network for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation in Baden (1983)

4. The Conciliar Process for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation: 1983–90

Preparation for the WCC Assembly in Vancouver

The Great Moment of the WCC Assembly in Vancouver in 1983 and the Conciliar Process

The Development of the Conciliar Process in the 1980s—the Framework Plan

The First International Consultation in Glion and the Ecumenical Processes and Assemblies Preceding the World Convocation in Seoul in 1990

The World Convocation for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation in Seoul, 1990

5. The Rejection of Imperial Capitalism in International Church Organizations: 1990–2013

The Initiative of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) on the Economy as a Confessional Issue (1990–97)

The Reformed Processus Confessionis, as taken up by the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation

The Assemblies of LWF, WARC, and WCC

Pope Francis: The Joy of the Gospel (2013)

From 2013 to the WCC’s 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022: Pilgrimage and the Zacchaeus Campaign

6. Kairos Europa and “Radicalizing Reformation”: 1990 and Onward

The Origins of Kairos Europa in the European Ecumenical Assembly in Basel (1989)

The People’s Parliament in Strasbourg on 1492–1992 and the European Internal Market

Alternatives to the Prevailing Financial System (1994–96)

The 2nd European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz, the European Kairos Document, and Civil Society Alternatives to Neoliberalism

Development Needs a New Financial Order (2000–2002)

Participation in the Processus Confessionis of the Ecumenical Movement (2003–13)

Kairos between Busan (2013) and Karlsruhe (2022)

“Radicalizing Reformation—Provoked by the Bible and Today’s Crises”

7. Interreligious Solidarity for Justice in Palestine-Israel

The Historical and Biblical Background

Interreligious Solidarity for Justice in Palestine-Israel in Response to Kairos Palestine

The 2022 Assembly of the WCC and the German Resistance to Solidarity with Palestine

Palestinian Voices on Israel’s Settler Colonialism, Apartheid, and Misuse of the Bible

Conclusion: What Can We Learn from 50 Years of Work for Justice, Peace, and Life?

From Tax Justice to the Transformation of the Capitalist System

Areas of Transformation: Property, Money, Labour, and Relation to Nature

The New Significance of the Geopolitical Peace Issue

Who Can Implement the Critical Analysis and the New Visions?

• By (author) Ulrich Duchrow
• Translated by Elaine Griffiths