WHP Occasional Reviews: From Isolation to Community

A Renewed Vision for Christian Life Together

Every Lent, many churches and small groups take up Bonhoeffer's Life Together to investigate what it means to be the church of Christ on earth. From Isolation to Community covers substantially the same ground to good effect, but in greater depth.

In the first portion of the book, Wentz explores the impact of "regnant isolation," since "in many cases, churches are organized not as a community in opposition to isolation but as an organization that amplifies it." Communion, worship, exhortation, and study (as practiced in today's church) are examined in turn and found (rightly) to be focused on the individual's benefit and thus accepted or rejected according to their judgement. Communion is handed out in individual packets, worship is lead by a band, sermons delivered by a charismatic speaker, and bible studies focus on introspection. Why even gather together when the result is that we remain isolated?

This is, as Wentz admits, an "old, old story." And that is the key point. Similar to the Eastern Orthodox view that original sin was a turning away from God and only by achieving union with God can we be healed, isolation is seen (by both Bonhoeffer and Wentz) as our sinful tendency (compulsion?) to "construct a world without God, with others only as accidentally there."

The second portion of From Isolation to Community covers approaches to recognizing and overcoming the corrupting nature of isolation through corporate dedication to God. Here, Wentz brings into focus the why as well as the how, discussing the unwitting impact of reordering or even abandoning the time of greeting, the effect of limiting communal scripture reading to those with sonorous delivery, and dispensing with common prayer. As far as solutions go, there is nothing earth-shattering here, no new revelations, only the reminding of forgotten practices and their careful application in common. We need to be reminded of these practices every generation or so: praying the Psalms, Lectio Divina, communion focused on Christ, seeing scripture as the living Word, and confession. These are habits and approaches that belong to the entire church (visible and invisible, local and catholic) but have fallen out of favor. The tide does appear to be turning when a dedicated evangelical press such as Crossway produces a volume like Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Worship patterned after the Liturgy of the Hours.

Unfortunately, the book suffers at times from academic-speak. A sample:

"In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun helpfully explicates how cultural patterns of sin reflect and shape the wills of the ones who sin; this notion of sin as shaping us helps us to name how church cultures of isolation are born out of—and shape—the ways in which we view the gift of Christians gathering together in deficient and limited ways."

Comprehensible, but unwieldy. Contrast the above with more powerful passages such as:

"[T]he fight against isolation and the refusal to capitulate to its logic are nothing less than a fight against the principalities and exalted powers!"

My hope is that From Isolation to Community escapes from academic circles and is read more widely, especially alongside Bonhoeffer's Living Together. At the very least, those using the latter book for group study will find much here to provide background and depth to the discussions.

This review is made from the standpoint of a Christian layperson with years of non-academic exposure to Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox theologies and practices. Although unwieldy in places, there is much value here for the layman.

I’d love to hear your comments on the book, the review, or the subject of both!