Author: Taras Zvir

Research & Instruction: World Council of Churches Online: Relations with the Roman Catholic Church

Posted on by Taras Zvir

The history of ecumenical dialogue between Christian churches and denominations is rich and complex, with significant steps toward unity involving the Roman Catholic Church. The Church has played a crucial role in the modern ecumenical movement, particularly through initiatives like the Second Vatican Council and ongoing dialogues with various Protestant and Orthodox churches.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), as stated on their website, is a fellowship of churches working together to promote Christian unity, centered around one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, demonstrated through shared worship and life in Christ. The WCC is the ecumenical movement, consisting of 352 member churches.  How does the World Council of Churches (WCC) Online: Relations with the Roman Catholic Church database contribute to the study and research of this historical relationship?

Screenshot of the database logo

The World Council of Churches Online is part of the BrillOnline Primary Sources. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the documents of the Catholic Church dealing with her efforts to advance ecumenical dialogue with other churches and denominations to fulfill one of churches’ many missions and goals—namely, to unite all Christians, as commanded in Scripture: “…so that all may be one…” (John 17:21-23). Building on this rich history of dialogue and collaboration, the collection brings together key documents that shed light on the Catholic Church’s engagement in the ecumenical movement and its ongoing efforts to foster Christian unity. It provides access to a significant portion of the ecumenical archives covering the years 1948-1992, a period of crucial developments in interchurch relations. The collection includes invaluable primary sources such as correspondence with prominent Catholic leaders, including Pope Paul VI (1963-1978), Pope John Paul II (1978-2005), and Cardinal Bea (1959-1968), as well as communications with the Community of Taizé.  Researchers investigating the ecumenical movement will find these documents essential for understanding the evolving relationship between the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

Key aspects of cooperation documented in this collection include jointly sponsored studies on theological themes such as “common witness and proselytism” and “catholicity and apostolicity.” The archive also covers collaborative initiatives such as Roman Catholic participation in the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order, consultative relations with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, and shared efforts in organizing the Annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Other noteworthy areas include bilateral doctrinal agreements, interconfessional Bible translations, and discussions on the Roman Catholic Church’s potential membership in the World Council of Churches.

The collection consists of a wide array of materials, including correspondence, reports, press cuttings, and unpublished notes, that can be categorized into five main parts:

  1. General Documentation
  2. Diplomatic Relations & Correspondence
  3. Bilateral Relations with Churches & Denominations
  4. Vatican II Council
  5. Joint Working Group

Searching World Council of Churches Online.

The materials are organized in boxes and contain digitized papers that are exact images that include handwritten notes, signatures, stamps, etc.  The database features a search option to search the entire collection with a simple keyword search and Advanced Search. The collection can be also browsed by Contents or Box Listing with the ability to search within each smaller group of documents.

Screenshot of the Contents and Box Listing

While the database offers full-text searching for all the materials within the collection, there are some exceptions for some documents due to occasional low-quality images or presence of special characters such as hand written notes that are hard to recognize by the optical character recognition.  Images can be previewed to show exactly what document it is about before opening it.  Each document can be copied, downloaded, or printed. When downloading, one must indicate the range of pages to download, mainly because each page represents a scanned image as opposed to a simple text, and the final document can be quite large in size.

Download options

These images are downloaded as zip files to save space and will require a simple software tool to unzip them in order to view them.

Citing the Documents

Archival documents are often complex in their structure and arrangement, and require some knowledge to properly cite them. The World Council of Churches Online provides an automatic citation tool that allow to cite any portion of the collection or individual document with an option to export citation to RefWorks or EndNote.

Citation sample

Please check citations for accuracy before using them. For more details about citation and citation tools, visit this link.  Click here to search World Council of Churches: Relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

Research & Instruction: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) Online

Posted on by Taras Zvir

The Bible is the most-read document in the world and there are many resources dedicated to its study. How is the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception different from the rest?

The online version of this title, originally published in print in 2009, includes approximately 1,500 new articles each year and updates, as necessary, older articles.  It is published in English and comprises all the material found in the print edition.  Certainly, EBR is an important resource for those who study the Bible, theology, and religion, but those who study a range of other disciplines, including literature, comparative studies, philosophy, history, social sciences, and art history, will be delighted by the breadth of information in this resource that relates to other areas of study. The EBR does not advocate for any specific religion and aims to assist even those who are of no faith.  It offers information on how the people, places, ideas, concepts, and various themes in the Bible affected Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religions including secular traditions and movements.  It shows how the Bible was received in literature, visual arts, music, film and dance, and other disciplines.  One can find information on many prominent individuals ranging from religious artists like Caravaggio to poets like Geoffrey Chaucer and statesmen like Thomas Jefferson.

The editorial board of the EBR features seven main editors (Constance M. Furey, Peter Gemeinhardt, Joel LeMon, Thomas Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish, and Eric J. Ziolkowski) who work with other smaller editors and thousands of authors in over 55 countries that contribute content to the EBR. This includes several faculty members from the Catholic University of America. The average length of articles in the EBR can vary significantly, ranging from a few hundred words to several thousand words or more in case of significant figures, topics, or themes. They typically include a Table of Contents where each section is written by a separate author based on his or her expertise and area of study (Literature, Art, Music, Film, etc.).  In addition to that, each section within the articles features its own bibliography with links to search in Google Scholar included under each source.  Articles also contain color illustrations, images, and plates, where applicable.  It is important to note that they appear only in black and white in the print edition.

Searching EBR Online

There are a few ways of searching the EBR Online.  Full Text allows for a simple keyword search across the entire content of the database with an option to use Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT).  However, if one needs to search for specific terms within the titles of the articles, it is recommended to search by Lemma (lemma refers to the main word or form of a word as it appears in the dictionary).

Enter a desired keyword, term, or phrase and hit Search.  A powerful suggested search feature provides a list of other terms and concepts as you type.  For example, the word “John” will also display “John the Baptist”, “John Chrysostom”, “John Calvin”, and “Johnny Cash”. To see the entire list of articles please click on LEMMAS A-Z.  One can also search by author, publication, type, bibliography, and year or browse the entire set.  Of special note is the Biblical Passage search option.  It allows one to search for entries with references to specific passages (Book and Chapter).  For example, “Mark 16” will produce a list of articles that mention the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark.  The list of results can be further refined by Publication and other search criteria. For more information about the search options please read the HELP SEARCH section.

How can students use EBR? 

Students can use EBR for their term papers by selecting a particular thinker to explore how their thoughts were influenced by the Bible and progressed in their teaching, career, or life. The EBR can also assist students in choosing and exploring some topics and themes from the Scriptures, such as “love,” “hope,” or “evil,” and examining how these themes are presented in the Old Testament and New Testament, in Jewish and Christian thought, and in other religions. Additionally, students can explore how these themes were received in literature, visual arts, music, and film.

Articles can be cited and shared on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a click of a button. They can also be downloaded as PDFs.  Please note that downloaded articles are presented in the same format as they appear in the print edition and include page numbers.  This feature is particularly useful when writing research papers, as page numbers must be included for any in-text citations.

Click here to search Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception Online.

Research Guide on Medieval Philosophers

Posted on by Taras Zvir

Taras Zvir in Religious Studies and Humanities Services has created a research guide on Medieval Philosophers. This guide is intended to become a starting point for students, scholars, and researches to philosophers of medieval times (AD 400 – 1400).  It lists prime sources and selected secondary sources, and any other applicable materials on a given philosopher such as companions, biographies, or bibliographies.