I am doing my doctoral work here at Duke Divinity School on “The Practice of Leading Christian Communities and Institutions” with my secondary concentration in “New Testament.” This spring each of my courses (Scripture and Ethics with Allen Verhey and Richard Hays, Church and Ministry in the New Testament with Richard Hays, and Theology of Mission with Laceye Warner) required me to read John Howard Yoder. Yoder’s 80 page, (that’s right, very short), Body Politics is the book I find myself recommending almost daily.
Here is my Amazon.com review of John Howard Yoder’s Body Politics, which I just wrote tonight.
Outstanding brief book of provocative ecclesiology,
| By | Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews |
John Howard Yoder (1927-1997), who was a professor of theology at Notre
Dame and a Mennonite, outlines in 80 pages five practices that should
be central to every church’s life together. He argues that
congregations need to recover these practices that are described in the
New Testament and have since become distorted. This book grew out of a
1986 lecture at Duke Divinity School entitled “Sacrament as Social
Process: Christ the Transformer of Culture,” later published in his
book The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical. In Body Politics, Yoder describes the five practices this way:
(1) Binding and Loosing
(2) Disciples Break Bread Together / Eucharist
(3) Baptism and the New Humanity / Baptism
(4) The Fullness of Christ / Multiplicity of gifts
(5) The Rule of Paul / Open meeting
In each case, Yoder argues that the original New Testament practice
has been today almost entirely lost in most churches. (1) Binding and
loosing – moral discernment through dialogue and forgiveness as
described in Matthew 18 – is rarely practiced. (2) The sense of the
Eucharist as a meal (1 Corinthians 11) where people share their food
with one another is rarely practiced. (3) Baptism (Galatians 3:27-28)
rarely communicates the profound transcending of social and cultural
barriers – between Jew and Gentile, slave and free there is one
baptism. (4) In almost every church there a few so-called “gifted”
people who dominate the church while most congregation members are
spectators. (5) And it is the rare congregation that truly opens the
floor for all congregation members to participate (1 Corinthians 14).
What is compelling about Yoder’s writing is his skill as a reader
of biblical texts, his weaving of historical context (his dissertation
work was on the Radical Reformation), and his ability to talk to
theologians of many denominations (he did his doctoral work with the
reformed theologian Karl Barth, taught at a Roman Catholic school, and
strongly influenced the United Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas).
Yoder is also amazingly concise for a theologian. In my first year
as a Th.D. (Doctor of Theology) student at Duke Divinity School, this
is the one book I read this year that I find myself recommending to
friends and family.
So, who will like this book? Yoder writes sympathetically
denominational groups that have less formal hierarchy: Mennonites,
Quakers, Methodists, Plymouth Brethren, evangelicals, Baptists,
Pentecostals, Puritans, and house churches. If you are a part of any of
these denominations, you will probably cheer all the way through this
book and say “Aha!”
On the other hand, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and
Presbyterians will surely find Yoder’s ideas radical, wild, far out,
untenable, foreign and unrealistic. For example, a Roman Catholic might
initially think about the five practices: (1) the priest facilitates
confession, (2) the priest facilitates the mass / Eucharist, (3)
infants are baptized, (4) the priests have a special religious ritual
calling, and (5) the congregation is silent as the priests recite mass.
Yoder argues from the New Testament that all of these developments are
unfortunate! Thus, if you are coming from that perspective, it will
probably be tough to swallow Yoder’s ideas and he may not convince you
to be a radical protestant in 80 pages! However, if you have a niggle
of doubt about any of these things, Yoder is sure to fan it! It is also
worth noting that many Roman Catholics want to recover the biblical
meaning of these practices. For example, I read this year at Duke a
number of books that get at this by Roman Catholic authors: Raymond
Brown’s The Churches The Apostles Left Behind, Michael Warren’s At This Time, in This Place: The Spirit Embodied in the Local Assembly, and Vincent Miller’s Consuming Religion: Christian Faith And Practice in a Consumer Culture.
Yoder, is most known for his book The Politics of Jesus
and for his defense of pacifism but this little book is a gem. I would
highly recommend this book for anyone thinking about church leadership
or planting a church. I would also highly recommend it as a textbook
for Systematic Theology III courses which cover ecclesiology. If you
liked this book, read Yoder’s For the Nations: Essays Evangelical and Public next.
Update: Other related posts that I wrote after this one:
Based on Yoder’s five practices: Everything I needed to know about the church I learned at Taylor University.
The Ecclesiology of John Howard Yoder paper
A number of other books that I read in the past prepared me for thinking as Yoder does about ecclesiology:
In all of his work, retired Regent College faculty member Paul Stevens argues for the empowering of the laity, for every-member-ministry, for a lessening of the clergy-lay divide.
Sande in all of his work argues for the practical benefits of biblical conflict resolution, particularly Matthew 18.
Pagitt describes the way that he encourages interaction at his emerging church – soliciting feedback during the preparation, inviting oral questions and comments after the sermon, and encourages dialogue about the sermon online afterward.
This is one of McLaren’s earliest books (now revised) where he stresses some basic ways most churches can improve. It is the least provocative of any of his books. It is basically how he would talk if he was gently encouraging pastors to consider change. With his book A New Kind of Christian, he decided to be more provocative and controversial.
Retired Regent College New Testament professor Fee describes the lack of formal leadership structures in the New Testament.
Hays (one of my doctoral work advisors) and Fee (a previous mentor)
both describe the participative and fluid nature of the early Christian
communities. Barrett, Banks and Käsemann, who Hays had me read this semester, all do the same.
Banks’s book is 48 pages and much faster to read than Yoder’s 80
pages! You can read for one afternoon and claim to have read two books!
- Ernst Käsemann: “Ministry and Community in the New Testament” in Essays on New Testament Themes
-
C. K. Barrett: Church, Ministry, & Sacraments in the New Testament
I also reviewed Barrett’s book on Amazon.com since there were no reviews!
Excellent reflection on ecclesiology by a great New Testament scholar,
| By | Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews |
C.K. “Kingsley” Barrett preached at 90 years old in November 2007. He
taught New Testament at the University of Durham from 1945 until 1982,
writing commentaries on John, Romans, the Pastoral Epistles, Acts, and
1 and 2 Corinthians. This book “Church, Ministry & Sacraments in
the New Testament” incorporates Barrett’s love for the church and his
New Testament scholarship.
Below are my summary notes from reading Church, Ministry & Sacraments:
Barrett begins the book by acknowledging that though he is a
Methodist he has been highly influenced by Anglo-Catholics and has
worked with many Anglicans at the University of Durham. In chapter one,
Barrett explains that his thesis is a paradox: “that the church is both
central and peripheral in the New Testament.” On the one hand, calling
disciples was central to the mission of Jesus Christ. On the other
hand, Barrett argues, the formation of an organization was surprising
necessity when the consummation of the age did not follow the
resurrection.
In chapter two, entitled “Ministry,” Barrett reflects on the
leadership of the church as described in the New Testament – beginning
with the Pauline literature. Every member was to be a minister.
Functions are emphasized over offices. There was no leader who gathered
money, administered the sacraments, oversaw worship or led church
discipline. He points out that Paul was the authority in his churches
while he lived and Spirit-gifting was emphasized. Churches also met in
the households of rich people who probably exercised some leadership.
Barrett emphasizes the importance of talented people and people who
specialize in their ministries but also warns of the dangers of people
flaunting their gifts, being enriched by them, and creating an aura of
superiority.
Barrett then looks at the issue of presbyters and episkopos in 1
Peter. He wonders if presbyters may have been primarily older people
rather than an office. The advice of 1 Peter is to lead with humility.
In the Johannine literature, Barrett sees evidence of apostles,
prophets, a leading elder, traveling preachers and witnesses. The
criteria for evaluating these leaders is their teaching that Jesus
Christ came in the flesh and in their love. In the book of Acts,
Barrett again emphasizes the informal nature of leadership:
evangelists, prophets, teachers, elders, apostles – not ordained but
chosen by people and the Spirit. They are unpaid and part-time.
Barrett points out the diversity in the practice of the
sacraments in the New Testament in the third chapter. He argues that
the writer of the book of Acts is likely trying to point out that
baptism is not magic because the Spirit and water are usually but not
always together. Barrett argues that Paul too mitigates the importance
of baptism in his comments in 1 Cor 1. Barrett theorizes that Paul may
have infused the two basic practices (baptism of initiation and regular
resurrection meals) with greater cruciform emphases because they were
causing division in his communities. Thus, he argues, the sacraments
like the church should be seen as both peripheral and central.
In chapter four, Barrett reflects on the development of the
church into a more formal, priest-dominated institution. Barrett
concludes that the church is at its best, is central, when it sees
itself as peripheral.
2 replies on “Best book on ecclesiology I read this year: Body Politics by John Howard Yoder”
Andy, thanks for stopping by and saying hello. I left this comment for you on my blog but wanted to copy it here as well…
Andy,
Glad you dropped in. I’ll have to spend some time on your blog when I get a chance. Your book list is impressive. A good friend of mine and grad from Duke Div. told me to get Moral Vision by Hayes and Yoder’s stuff as well. I hope to read them this summer.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you around more.
peace
Yoder’s “Body Politics” is great. I read it as part of a summer Yoder seminar with Stanley Hauerwas in the summer of ’07. I think it really shows how diverse a writer Yoder could be. This is (like Hauerwas & Willimon’s “Resident Aliens”) a book that could be used in a lay setting in the local church.