Does God Need the Church?: Toward a Theology of the People of God (Michael Glazier Books)

I am reading this book after reading "Jesus and Community", also by Lohfink. I am an older student and fairly well educated (B.S., B.A.). I found the books somewhat slow going but packed full of insightful and thought provoking information. Although Lohfink's background is very different from mine, his use of scripture made it possible to stay on track with his points. I have had hours and hours of discussion and comtemplation from this study. I am in the process of redefining my concept of "church" in response to some of these ideas. I would recommend this to any lay person for serious study (if you aren't scared to pull out your dictionary and don't get alarmed if someone references ideas or texts that you don't necessarily agree with).

Fr. Lohfink patiently charts the journey of the People of God through the Old and New Testaments that reveals God's desire to create a community charged with carrying the message of God's love to the entire world. Written in non-theological language, it stretches our vision of church and challenges us to continue striving for the justice and mercy that will lead to greater unity among all people.

After only one chapter, I am illumined to be discovering how the writers of Genesis, especially the Priestly author, might have fashioned the counter-cultural belief in monotheism. My hope is that, as I read further, further enlightenments will unfold.

Lohfink present a nice argument about how the church is needed. However, he hammer the same ideas over and over to the point that the reader get bored of hearing the same thing.

Strongly charted with catholic ecclesiastical theology. Sometimes a little difficult for the uninitiated theological reader. This book tests your faith in traditional biblical historical truths.

I've been reading this book off-and-on for so long that it's difficult for me to coalesce my thoughts about it into a coherent review. There are two reasons for this. First of all, my reading of Lohfink's work faced the minor interruption of completing my doctoral thesis. That may have contributed a bit to my scattered recollections of Lohfink's most salient points. :-) Secondly, I decided to take notes as a I read; I ended up with 83 pages. A little overboard, I'll admit, but Lohfink's work well repaid the slow read.On the whole, this is a VERY good book, filled with tremendous insight into both the fundamental theology of the Old and New Testament. The title of the book poses the fundamental question: Does God "need" the Church? The book is a resounding "Yes!" We know that God "needs" a special, chosen People simply because, from the beginning of Creation, God has always had a special, chosen People. It is the revealed nature of how God works in the world.Though Lohfink is dealing with the broad sweep of Scripture, he very carefully anchors his insights in close readings of Old and New Testament texts. In reality, these specific readings, almost more than his generalized conclusions, are the great value of the book. Lohfink is a tremendous reader of Scripture, able to bring his expertise in the sociology of early Greco-Roman and Christian communities to bear in ways that genuinely insightful for contemporary understanding.The book is closely argued but isn't dense or hard-to-follow. Lohfink is purposely writing a more "popular level" version that builds on his prior academic work (especially "Jesus and Community"). Here, Lohfink is quite "quotable," which is probably more of a credit to the translator than perhaps to Lohfink himself. (It's very rare that theological German phrases become quotable English sayings.)I was also pleased how Lohfink kept the book from becoming an apologia for the Roman Catholic Church. To be honest, that was perhaps my only hesitation with this text. Only at the very end, when he attempts to make a case for papal authority does Lohfink's argument sound like special pleading. Other than that, this is a measured work of biblical theology, equally valuable to Protestant and Catholic traditions alike, and certainly a statement that must be reckoned with by all future analyses of biblical missiology/ecclesiology.

This book communicates the author's vision of the Church and its role in the world with power and progressive clarity. Lohfink demonstrates that an understanding of the Church cannot be separated from an understanding of Israel as the people of God, the vehicle through which God brings salvation to the entire world. Using historical critical methods and his experience as a biblical exegete, he reconstructs the story of Israel, particularly its Exodus traditions, showing how the experience of Israel with God resulted in a social project, rooted in the Torah. It was a radically new form of community and worldview that stood in contrast to other nations and peoples. He proceeds to weave the story of Jesus in the context of Israel's history, connecting his gathering of the Twelve with the eschatological gathering of Israel, and portraying his death as the renewal and sealing of the covenant for the people of God. Finally, he details how the Church is a continuation of a history that began with Abraham, but now centered in Jesus.Of particular interests is how Lohfink handles Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. He shows how the historic Church has tended to make the same mistakes as Jesus' disciples did in their response to the hungry multitudes. Lohfink uses Jesus' response to their questions to deduce how the Church must be formed in order to be more than another charitable organization or religious services provider. The mission of the Church is rather to be the new society, a locus of salvation capable of transforming the world.Finally, Father Lohfink shares his own story, describing his experiences in the German Church from the time of Hitler to the present, including his decision to relinquish his chair as a Professor of New Testament at the University of Tubingen to join the Catholic Integrated Community and its Association of Priests in Munich Germany.Does God Need the Church? Yes indeed!