Church as Counterculture, The

The Church as Counterculture. Edited by Michael L. Budde and Robert W Brimlow. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2000. 233 pp. $60.50 (cloth); $20.95 (paper).

In this anthology, Michael Budde and Robert Brimlow have assembled a thought-provoking montage of the church as a countercultural community. Inspired by the editors' dissatisfaction with what they call "minimalist ecclesiology" (p. 7), where Christian commitment has no discernible impact on the witness of the church, this volume offers proposals for how the church can not only retain its distinctive identity in modern culture, but also serve as cultural critic. The common image that loosely ties together these essays, then, is the church as "an alternative community, in the midst of cultures and powers that operate on assumptions and priorities not centered on the Kingdom" (p. 8). Beyond this theme, the editors claim to have provided few parameters for their contributors, and the result of this light editorial yoke is a remarkable diversity in approaches.

The book begins with Rodney Clapp's "Practicing the Politics of Jesus," where he argues (in the spirit of John Howard Yoder) for a radical Christian politics that serves as an alternative to the Constantinian fusion of church and worldly interests. Clapp's essay provides a helpful introduction to the book, because it raises a number of themes associated with radical Christianity that other authors exploit to greater depth. Among the other contributors are two we should expect in a serious book on countercultural Christianity, and the offerings of Stanley Hauerwas and Walter Bruggemann do not disappoint. In particular, Hauerwas's essay, "The Nonviolent Terrorist: In Defense of Christian Fanaticism," is provocative in light of the current national crisis. Hauerwas confidently accepts the terrorist label, for he believes that when the church lives with integrity, it cannot help but terrorize those outside the church. But unlike violent terrorism, which Hauerwas equates with war because (he claims) it derives from the same rationale employed by states to justify war, Christians are called to threaten the world's assumed need for war by witnessing to the alternative life lived in Christian love. To provide this witness creates an "epistemological crisis" (Alasdair MacIntyre's term) for those who do not follow Jesus Christ and forces the world to consider Christians to be the most deviant fanatics. Countercultural Christianity rightly lived, according to Hauerwas, is a terrorist endeavor.

Hauerwas's appearance in a volume on countercultural Christianity should not surprise, but what is fresh about this collection is that descendants of the Anabaptists share pages with Curt Cadorette's essay on Latin American base communities and Roberto Goizueta's description of Hispanic popular religion as loci for countercultural gospel witness. Both of these essays demonstrate that the claim to countercultural Christianity is not the possession of radical Protestantism alone, but also the mission of many Catholic liberation theologies. The inclusion of Protestant and Catholic viewpoints, along with contributions from fields like archaeology, history, social theory, and philosophy, make this a well-rounded collection.

Budde and Brimlow also offer essays of their own to the anthology, though their contributions are not as tightly argued as some of the rest. In addition, although they insist that the collection is meant to "challenge the sterile frameworks of `church versus sect,' and the stagnant polemics about whether Christians should be for or against the 'world' or `culture"' (p. 5), their introduction seems more content to peddle in this overworked dualism than inspire the reader to venture into the essays contained therein. Fortunately, though, the easy rein that Budde and Brimlow exercised in organizing these essays permits most of the other contributors to rise above that tired and often contrived antagonism to suggest real vision for a church simultaneously in but not of the world. As a result, this book provides a helpful multifaceted introduction to radical Christian ecclesiology, suitable for clergy, students, and anyone interested in how the church might serve as a countercultural community with integrity and faithfulness.

JAMES CALVIN DAVIS

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Spring 2002
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