Book Review #5

Boff, Leonardo, Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church, 1997, Orbis Books.

Leonardo Boff’s Ecclesiogenesis, or “the birth of a new church”, is a book that addresses a need for change in the Catholic Church that will lead to a united community. Boff begins his analysis by defining the characteristics that make up the basic church community. Like several of the other authors we have read, Boff condemns the belief that the church (namely, institutionalized church) is synonymous with the kingdom of God.

“If Jesus’ preaching concentrated on the idea of the kingdom of God, and if the kingdom of God had a universal, cosmic connotation then how do we get a church as a reduced, ambiguous realization of the kingdom of God?” (p.49).

Boff analyzes the basic church communities, which are emerging in Brazil and Latin America, with the intent of getting to the heart of what church ought to look like. The governing thesis of this work is that the contemporary church has embraced anti-communal traditions that are not biblically founded and said church would benefit spiritually from a reformation through observing the new forming churches in South and Latin America. The book’s very nature of learning from the Latin American church has made me re-evaluate the reasons for why I am going down to Mexico on my case study. I believed that we would be blessing them with resources, help, and advice and I did not realize that observing their culture and church community could be a great learning experience for the Western (my) church.

Boff describes the current state of the church and than he makes a critical suggestion for how the church can grow progressively. The laity of the Catholic Church has no voice regarding the direction, functionality, and teachings of the church. A central church (pope) has the ultimate authority and then the bishops and pastors have a voice and discretion; no interest is shown to the faithful laity. Boff states that:

“In terms of decision, the participation of the faithful is totally mutilated…A community in which the routes of participation are cut off in all directions cannot pretend to the name of community” (p.30).

Boff proposes that the church take on a triangular interactive structure (see figure 4.A p.32) in which the institutionalized church will represent the community-like structure of the basic churches.

On top of his liberating structural ideas, Boff continues by addressing some of the political issues in the church. The most interesting of these, and relevant to my life, was his analysis of women in the priesthood. I come from a conservative church that, in doctrine, supports that women are not to teach men in a ministry setting. I do not personally agree with this; however, I empathize with both sides since it is an issue dealing with social constructions. Boff’s major arguments for the full equality of women stem from (a) Christ’s actions and support of such equality and (b) claims that Paul’s statements were dictated by context. I agree with his analysis; however, I dissent on the conclusion drawn in the following passage:

If God loves women as much as men, why does the church reserve its ministries and higher responsibilities to men?” (p.78).

Earlier in the book, Boff’s language supports the fact that position in the body does not equate importance or the amount of love that God has for a particular believer. I agree with the position, but the above rhetorical question is a logical fallacy based on the theological context.