In One Body Through the Cross: The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity

The Princeton Proposal is a landmark statement on the present situation and future possibilities of modern ecumenism. Drafted by sixteen theologians and ecumenists from various church traditions, who met over a period of three years in Princeton, New Jersey, this document seeks to steer contemporary efforts at church unity away from social and political agendas, which are themselves divisive, and back to the chief goal of the modern ecumenical movement — the visible unity of Christians worldwide, of all those who are reconciled “in one body through the cross.”

Since the study group that produced this statement was instituted and its participants were chosen by an independent ecumenical foundation, the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, their “unofficial” work presents especially profound and creative reflection on the ecumenical task. With this report the study group members do not claim to speak for their churches, but hope to speak to all the churches out of shared concern for the founding ecumenical imperative “that they all may be one . . . so that the world may believe.”
 

Signatories of the Princeton Proposal:

William Abraham * Mark Achtemeier * Brian Daley * John H. Erickson * Vigen Guroian * George Lindbeck * Lois Malcolm * Bruce McCormack * R. R. Reno * Michael Root * William G. Rusch * Geoffrey Wainwright * Susan K. Wood * Telford Work * J. Robert Wright * David Yeago

Carl E. Braaten (1929–2023) was an American Lutheran theologian. He earned his doctoral degree from Harvard Divinity School, where he studied under Paul Tillich. He served as professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago for nearly thirty years. In addition to teaching, Braaten cofounded and edited the journal Dialog, cofounded the journal Pro Ecclesia, and cofounded the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. His many publications include Principles of Lutheran Theology; Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism; Sin, Death, and the Devil; and The Strange New Word of the Gospel. 

Robert W. Jenson (1930–2017) was a senior scholar for research at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He was also cofounder and associate director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and cofounder and coeditor of the journal Pro Ecclesia. He was renowned for his work on ecumenical, systematic, and Trinitarian theology.