Ever since Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart
and Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, authors have been jumping on the "community—where's it gone?" bandwagon. They offer wistful harrumphs or provide some mildly hopeful prognosis. But Vander Broek, a New Testament scholar at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, offers instead a more classic response: a careful examination and then application of St. Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. This ancient community, says Vander Broek, was beset by problems all too common in today's church: a flawed understanding of leadership, disunity, immorality, gender issues and class divisions. Vander Broek explores each of these problems and, as he squeezes the scriptural texts, extracts nourishing insights for today. Though it's not obvious from the title, this is really a focused biblical commentary, which is its great strength—and its potential weakness. Illustrative stories are few and far between, and come as a breath of fresh air when they appear. It is wonderful to return again and again to a rich and formative text for focus and perspective, but some readers will find it difficult to connect to the material without more of the community-making power of narrative. This book offers no quick-fix solution to the dearth of Christian community in American culture; rather, it gives fresh voice to St. Paul's outline of the hard work—and the joy—of being the church. (June)
