Gemeinsam fur Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Bewahrung der Schopfen - der Konziliare Proze[Beta]/Contribution of Churches and Civil Society to Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation — the Conciliar Process. - Review - book review

Prof. Dr Stobbe, Gemeinsam fur Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Bewahrung der Schopfen - der Konziliare Proze[Beta]/Contribution of Churches and Civil Society to Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation -- the Conciliar Process, Lizensiert fur die Stiftung Okumene Verwaltung; Okumenische Gesellschaft fur Gerechtigkeit. Frieden und Bewahrung der Schopfung g.e.V.; Mainz: ArGe CISmedia, 1999. CD-ROM Windows 95/98/NT version.

One of the major processes established in the second half of this century has been the conciliar process. This process not only relates to themes of an exclusively theological nature but also the inter-related themes of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. This CD is an instrument which makes accessible the texts that have been produced both by the churches and civil society.

The CD which presents texts in both German and English divides the texts according to ecumenical meetings at the following levels: global, regional, UN conferences and non-governmental organizations. For example, listed sunder the rubric of global are the meetings held in Lima (1982), Vancouver (1983), El Escorial (1987), Seoul (1990), Canberra (1991), Geneva (1992), Rome (1995) and Harare (1998). In addition the text of the Faith and Order ecclesiology project is likewise included (1993/94/96). We will note that for the most part these texts come from Faith and Order commission meetings or from projects of the World Council of Churches.

The texts provided for the regional meetings represent theological consultations sponsored by the WCC or CEC. Hence we find texts from meetings held in Granvollen (1988), Basel (1989), Crete (1995), Bonn/Hannover (1997) and Graz (1997).

Under a separate heading called "ecumenical meetings-basis", we find three texts coming from the following meetings: a preparatory meeting of religious communities (Bossey 1991) working on a statement entitled "One Earth Community"; a second meeting held at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago (1993) producing the document "Declaration towards a Global Ethic", and lastly the "European Kairos Document" from the encounter held at Heidelberg (1998).

After the church-related documents we have the two categories which consider the civil society's role in this discussion. This includes various NGO meetings held in relationship to other global projects. Included in these meetings and texts are those held in Paris (1971), Rio (1992), Vienna (1993), Cairo (1994), and Copenhagen (1995). The last grouping includes UN conferences on related themes held at Paris (1984), Rio (1992), Vienna (1993), Cairo (1994), Beijing (1995) and Copenhagen (1995).

The positive aspect of the CD is that we find the full texts of these final documents, which can be printed out -- although not copied into other texts.

To round out the material on this CD we find two other rubrics: a bibliography and materials (such as the Lima liturgy, a graphic of the formation of the WCC, and so on). The bibliography is rather selective and contains mainly German language entries (even in the listing called foreign language resources!).

On the whole this CD is useful for having gathered texts from many sources and presenting them in their full text version. The instructions are only in German but the disk is very easy to use and is a useful resource for private libraries as well as university multimedia centres.

James F. Puglisi is director of the Centro Pro Unione, Rome, Italy.

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