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As a proponent of synthetic transtraditional ecclesiology, Roger Haight tries to bridge several theological traditions concerning the church. He has designed his "comparative ecclesiology" as a frame to facilitate a convergence between theological traditions. Two opposite sides of this frame are the ecclesiologies "from above" and "from below." Most ecclesiologies "from above" are autarkic and introvert. They are focused primarily on their own theological traditions. Their main concern is to reallocate these traditions in the changing intellectual landscape of modernity. They do so by utilizing their proper resources and not so much other traditions. The twentieth century, however, made all the churches increasingly aware of each other and opened them up to one another. Most churches declared, each with its own degree of sincerity, that they need to move closer toward one another, toward a restoration of the unity that had existed in the first Christian millennium and was commanded by Christ (John 17:21). This new attitude of the churches toward other traditions, and thus their self-positioning in the Christian world, significantly influenced their ecclesiologies. These ecclesiologies began to converge.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137543936_7

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