Book Review: Gerhard Lohfink, Jesus and Community, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1984

Gerhard Lohfink was a Catholic priest and professor who became disillusioned by the church through the gap between his perception of the modern church and the New Testament community. In his book, Jesus and Community, Lohfink introduces his book by way of Adolf von Harnack’s writings about religious individualism and the Kingdom of God presented to individuals. This thinking has infiltrated the church, which has led to “super-market” churches, geared towards meeting the needs of individuals.

Lohfink challenges this thinking and poses the questions, what did Jesus will community to be? What should church look like? What were the original intentions of community? The thesis of this book examines Jesus’ will for community by looking at God’s chosen people, Israel, as a symbol of salvation. Jesus came to fulfill the reign of God through the eschatological gathering of Israel, and by constructing a new social order, a contrast-community, set apart from the world.

John the Baptist’s introduction to Jesus and his teachings and message, reveals Jesus’ relationship to community, specifically to Israel. The institution of the twelve not only represents the twelve tribes of Israel, but also exemplifies the mission: being sent out to all of Israel. Jesus used healing miracles to connect his preaching and demonstrated the nearness of the Kingdom of God. The concern of the reign of God correlates with the people of God. Jesus gathered Israel and brought restoration to Israel. God wills for all people to be saved, but begins with a small community. Although Israel rejects this calling, Jesus does not abandon his mission but chooses to focus on his circle of disciples. Jesus’ goal was that the rule of God be fully established; this can be most visibly seen through the people of God.

The circle of Jesus’ disciples are not limited to the twelve, but rather encompasses a group of people who take on a more radical form of living. The disciples’ community was dedicated to the will of God and to one another, as family, with One Father. It was in this circle of disciples that Jesus began to reconstruct a new social order. The Sermon on the Mount taught his disciples, as a whole, the inner attitudes of this new society. This community could not be complete without social practice. This contrast-society needed to be set apart, against culture, equivalent to the “city on a hill,” and the “salt of the world.” If Israel loses their saltiness, they would no longer be set apart as a holy people of God representing salvation.

In order for this contrast-society to thrive in New Testament days, social barriers needed to be broken for the reign of God to be evident. It was only possible through the Holy Spirit, a gift to the eschatological community. It was then that community could consist equally with Jew and Gentiles, slaves and masters, and men and women. “The early church’s most beautiful word for the new reality which spread in the community given by God is agape (love)” (p.109).

The ancient church has carried on the traditions and meaning of the New Testament community. They continued the traditions and practices of what Jesus willed the church to be. They were set apart through social functions and social refusals during their time. In their contrast society, it not a higher morality that sets apart the people of God, it is through the Spirit, so God’s grace can be exalted.

Overall, I really enjoyed learning about the importance of Israel’s role in all of our salvation and in terms of true community. I gained a deeper perspective of how intentional Jesus was in his mission to God’s people. I was challenged in reading about the shaping of this new society. To read how it began helped me to understand the church and community today. I was challenged to think about what true community is and what it should look like as a social construct. His points connected in Jesus’ reign while on earth, and how it continued after he had left. He presents an ideal of what the church should look like, but does not let on what the church is doing wrong presently. I was confronted by this quote: “The real danger comes from the fact that we no longer even aware that we fall short of what community and people of God are according to the New Testament.” (p. 104) . In order to know what community is like, we must first seek to understand what Jesus willed for community, his chosen people, and then begin living the social dimension of community.