“Believe Us Or Burn in Hell!” — Why Unity is not about Policing Others

The Apostle John tells us that before Jesus was arrested he prayed the following words, part of a longer prayer: “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. (…) so that they may be brought to complete unity.” What has come of Jesus’ prayer?

The unity Jesus prays for is connected to both the unity that he and the Father have and to the task that is set before the believers (“Then the world will know that you sent me”). In theological parlance this means that unity is connected with the Trinitarian nature of God (that is, God as a trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit) as well as the mission of God, the so-called missio Dei in the world.

It is safe to say that unity among Christian is therefore of prime importance. The identity of the Church and the competition of its task heavily depend on it.

Passionate Disunity

It is therefore incomprehensible how the Christian Church has made a complete joke of unity. It is not that the Church didn’t try. But in spite of all sincere efforts, Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity separated from each other with the Great Schism in 1054 CE and in 1517 Martin Luther initiated a reform movement that would birth Protestantism and with it a myriad of denominations…