 |
 Sittler spent his entire
personal and professional life as a deeply committed Lutheran. He wrote
and preached about the important themes of Lutheran theology. At the
same time, he did more than perhaps any other modern Lutheran theologian
to address the broad issues of ecumenism and Christian unity. He is
widely known for the keynote speech, “Called to Unity,” that he
delivered at the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held
in 1961 in New Delhi, India.
Here
he argues that God calls the churches to unity, and that “this
relentless calling [that] persists over and through all discouragements
... is what engendered the ecumenical movement among the churches, and
steadily sustains them in it.” This speech was printed in countless
publications around the world such as the South East Asia Journal of
Theology.
During his career Sittler served on many
ecumenical committees (with both the World and the National Councils of
Churches, for example), preached and spoke to many ecumenical audiences,
and regularly attended ecumenical events. He wrote for ecumenical
publications such as The Ecumenical Review and the Christian
Century. He was often invited to address gatherings of other
denominations and to write for their publications. He gave important
speeches at non-denominational schools, such as the Lyman Beecher
Lectures at Yale Divinity School in 1959. Sittler had a particular
interest in Eastern Orthodox thinking, which contributed significantly
to his own theological stances. This was a theme in his New Delhi speech
and other works.
Scholars and preachers of other religious
communions attributed to Sittler significant influence on their own
development. For instance, in Preaching: the Art and the Craft,
the Catholic scholar Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. devotes several pages to
Sittler’s influence.
Sittler had the same impact on many of his students (and fellow
teachers) at the non-denominational Divinity School of the University of
Chicago.
A sample of materials on Ecumenism /
Unity
available from the Archives
-
Called to Unity (To the World Council of Churches,
New Delhi) Also in text form,
Audiotape (11/2/61)
-
Ecumenism:
Brief reflections on the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogues, with Father
Jerome Theisen and Joseph Sittler, Audiotape (date unknown)
-
Message to Our Malaise (Fourth in the “Message to Our
Malaise” series, Princeton Theological Seminary),
Audiotape (7/20/61) available online
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