An ecumenical church historiography? Some notes of a Czech Protestant theologian

Abstract

The author reflects on the study of the German church historian Bernd Jaspert: An ecumenical church historiography, which summarizes the periods of the ecumenical historiography, especially in the second half of the 20th century. He claims that the handbooks and textbooks for the today's students of the protestant theology are largely obsolete; thus, a want emerges of a new, ecumenical Czech church history.

The author warns of a danger of the 'ecumenical escapism' which gets away into the bold visions of an ideal, universal church and forgets that the real ecumenism begins at painful, earth-bound problems of the particular church community