Lutheran–Roman Catholic discussion adds a classical element to the
concept of recognition.
Some texts of the Second Vatican Council likewise highlight a
classical view of religious recognition. The use ofrecognoscoin the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, quoted in section 3.6, is an
obvious example. When Christian rites and practices are‘recognized’,
that is, revised, the agent of this act transforms itself in order to cope
with the situation properly. In such an act ofrecognosco, the recog-
nizer (the agent performing the rite) changes in order that the
recognizee (the recipient of the rite) can be properly encountered.
This act resembles the‘upward’religious recognition in thefirst and
second paradigms. Likewise, theDecree on Ecumenismemploysag-
noscoin keeping with the Latin theological tradition. At the same
time, it proclaims a broader ecclesial recognition of others than earlier
Catholic texts.
The present study claims that ecumenism can employ a classical
conception of religious recognition when the recognizer is open to
conversion and change. Such a change does not mean pluralism,
indifference, or irony. On the contrary, the classical view teaches
that the‘promise of self-preservation’can only be fulfilled through
conversion and social bonding. In this manner, a strong identity is
compatible with toleration and recognition. For such reasons, our
proposals concerning thefirst and second paradigms resemble Forst’s
results regarding the modern concept of toleration. This similarity
may, however, be related to the structure of the acts of toleration and
recognition rather than to their content. Theologians should be aware
that‘conversion’in this discussion is not meant to be a pious or polite
attitude. The classical view of religious recognition offers the insight
that the recognizer changes in this act.
In some new ecumenical research, this insight is employed some-
what instinctively, that is, without the historical background provided
by the present study. In her book on consensus ecumenism, Minna
Hietamäki involves the socio-communal aspects of truth and ration-
ality in the quest for agreement. Various subjective perspectives are
constitutive of such aspects.^27 Realizing this is not merely a postmod-
ern insight, but something that the‘classical’paradigms of religious
recognition already assume.
(^27) Hietamäki 2010, 206–9.
220 Recognition and Religion