Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church, Leonardo Boff (1986) Orbis Books (Paper), ISBN:978-0-88344-214-2. 115 pages, including notes and index.
In a nutshell, Leonardo Boff dares to envision a church reinvented by basic communities composed of the margins of society. He sees these base communities (as he calls them) as communities liberated and quickened by the Resurrected Christ.
Instead of merely dwelling on Liberation Theology, Boff in Ecclesiogenesis shares not only what a liberated base community is, but also how such communities could revitalize the church.
Leonardo Boff was among the first wave of theologians who challenged the Roman Catholic Church by bringing to the forefront the misery of the marginalized through discourse, what we know today as Liberation Theology. Ecclesiogenesis is the outworking of Liberation Theology.
Ecclesiogenesis explores the “new” church structures arising among the marginalized in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. Thes new, or basic (base) communities provide us with a different perspective with which to critically examine existing church structures, be they Roman Catholic or Protestant.
According to Boff, base communities allow marginalized people to spiritually, emotionally and physically relate to each other as human—as the Church. It is through the spirit of the Resurrected Christ, not the ecclesiastical structure of the church, that they are enabled to do so.
We Western Christians are apt to think of our cell groups, bible studies, home churches and the like as being the same as base communities. They are not! These church communities are directed by the church, or at the very least a pastor.
Base communities are structured by the people themselves. “Liberation” implies “to empower.” Base communities are empowered by the people themselves, not the structural church. Base communities are cohesive communities organically drawn together by their specific spiritual, emotional and physical needs. The difference is rather than the church seeing and addressing a perceived need, the church allows freedom for the people to come together on their own accord, as needed. And become the Church.
A close approximation to a base community might be an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. Where people come together of their own accord, yet out of need.
The Western Church with her structure has marginalized thousands of people, sometime inadvertently, and sometimes purposely. Within the West we are seeing a growing number “Nones” and “deconstructing Christians.” A common strain is that with being pushed to the margins comes a feeling of being controlled, perhaps even oppressed. “Deconstructing” is liberation. It is often liberation sans community.
The question is could base communities be the answer to revitalizing – reinventing – the Western Church? The term “Church” usually limits us to thinking ecclesiastically. Could base communities be the wave of the future that reimagines Christianity?
Ecclesiogenesis offers some insight on how base communities could very well do this for Western Christianity, just as it is doing for the Latin Christianity.
The works of Leonardo Boff, and especially Ecclesiogenesis, need to be rediscovered by the Western Church. His thinking could very well be the “salvation” of the church.
The book is comprised of two sections. The first four chapters provide us with an in-depth look at base communities. The last three chapters are “Questio Disputata” (“Questions of Dispute) within the Roman Church and look at how base communities might shed light on the dispute (Is the Roman Church the only church institutionalized by Jesus? Lay involvement with the administration of the Eucharist. And Women Priests). These I am sure will be of interest to Roman Catholics reading Boff.
I do have one wish; I wish that when Orbis published the English translation they would not have used bold type for the entire text. On the plus side, the book is well-annotated and contains a useful index.
Leonardo Boff is among the first of the Latin American Roman Catholic theologians to theologically address the plight of the marginalized folk in Latin America. Today we know this theology as Liberation Theology.
Liberation Theology challenged the organized structure of the Roman Church. Boff was accused of doing so with his book 1983 work, Church: Charism and Power. He was ordered to appear before the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and was condemned to “obsequious silence” and suspended from all religious duties (1985). Due to pressure the Vatican reversed it decision in 1986, allowing Boff to resume some of his work. Ecclesiogenesis was first published before his condemnation in 1977. The English translation was published in 1986, the year the condemnation was removed. In 2001, Boff received the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, an international prize that recognizes and supports individuals and organizations offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing today’s world.
