Book review – Who Is the Church? An Ecclesiology for the Twenty-First Century
Reformations are about identity. The foundation is the same across every reformation, but the former construction on that foundation is razed and a new construction arises. This discerning work is ecclesiology. Peterson describes the variety of approaches currently propounded by and Reformed academics.
She critically embraces a sacramental perspective noting certain “church as communion” positions. She values the missio dei ecclesiology of the Gospel and Our Culture Network. She proposes a narrative methodology as promising for our identity work as the post-modern church. “Who is the Church?” is then the proper post-modern question in contrast with the modernist question of “What is the nature of the church?” “Who is the Church?” is the better beginning point for perceiving the new creation community the Spirit is breathing to life. She may be marking a shift from the church self-identified/described as a “second exile” community toward a new Spirit-led recreation of the church narratively connected to the Book of Acts.
She alludes to the work of Diana Butler Bass who describes how this looks in particular spirit-breathed congregations. With a razed construction, shouldn’t the new creative spirit-breathed manifestations of church currently emerging from new and old congregations be the primary source for any ecclesiologist? Here is the new Spirit narrative. Much of this book is a conversation with other academic ecclesiologists. I would hope for more narrative engagement with the apostles/disciples on the ground who are at ground zero of the church re-identifying.
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