The title of this book is paradoxically challenging. However, it is meant to be ironic. George Guiver writes: “What I want to show is that women and men who live and work in religious communities have something life-giving to share with contemporary Christians”.
The ten chapters cover an overview of monasteries and parishes, monastic life, common Christian practices, the connection between community and communion in respect to fellowship (koinonia) and more.
Beneath a benign discourse are some incisive challenges to parish-based Christians and the institutional Church. Of the disparities that exist within parishes, Guiver is emphatic, stating: “Either a Christian group is koinonia or it is sub-Christian”. He sees “a world in turmoil and a Church without wind in its sails”, not least because “the Church of England is losing things that the imagination can get its teeth into”.
These are confrontational words from someone who has been a priest and monk for some 50 years. But I suspect that is what he intends, desiring to wake Christians up to the true status of their calling and thus to behave accordingly.
No comments yet