Dr. Robert S. Bilheimer (September 28, 1917 – December 17, 2006) was an American

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. In his 1947 book ''What Must the Church Do?'', he used the phrase "New Reformation" to refer to the

ecumenical movement Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

that resulted from the

1910 World Missionary Conference The 1910 World Missionary Conference, or the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, was held on 14 to 23 June 1910. Some have seen it as both the culmination of nineteenth-century Protestant Christian missions and the formal beginning of the modern Prot ...

, and this usage became commonplace thereafter. He was one of the co-founders of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

(WCC). He later gave credit for the most of the founding of the organization to laity and young people. From 1955 to 1958, he co-chaired a WCC international commission to prepare a document addressing the threat of

nuclear warfare Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear ...

during the Cold War. As a WCC delegate, he prepared the Cottesloe Consultation, which took place in December 1960 and saw the WCC meet with representatives from the eight main

Christian denominations in South Africa Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

in order to address the issue of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. He served as Associate General Secretary and Director of the Division of Studies of the WCC, executive director of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, and Director of the International Affairs Program of the

National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Un ...

. He wrote the 1984 book ''A Spirituality for the Long Haul: Biblical Risk and Moral Stand'', in which he provides a biblical basis for resisting oppression. He also wrote the 1989 book ''Breakthrough: The Emergence of the Ecumenical Tradition'', which was one of several books about ecumenism that were published by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company in the late 20th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilheimer, Robert S. 1917 births 2006 deaths People from Denver American Presbyterian missionaries 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians American Calvinist and Reformed theologians 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century Presbyterians 21st-century Presbyterians People of the World Council of Churches